Leftover Coconut Milk?

After making a glorious coconut curry dish (which I'll be sharing soon) I found myself left with just a 1/2 cup or so of coconut milk. I usually freeze leftover coconut milk, only to find it in the back of my freezer 5 months later. Typically it's covered in ice chips and hubby pitches it before I can even think of how I'd like to use that last little bit of goodness.

Last night, I decided to use the coconut milk before it had a chance to rendezvous with Mr. Freezer Burn. Having 3 smelly and mottled bananas on the counter, I decided to combine the two to make banana bread.

Not knowing how the bread would turn out, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the coconut milk adds a distinctive taste and texture to the bread, reminiscent of an Asian cake I've had from a bakery in Chinatown. The bread is less "crumby" than a typical banana bread and much more rich. Finally, the banana taste isn't as prominent as usual though still "banana-y" enough to warrant using up my bananabreadperfect-bananas. Oh, don't you love my adjectives today? It's been a long one.

Thanks to the wonders of Blogger future posts, I should be on vacation when you read this post! We're going on a week long camping road trip, exploring the sights of the Southwest. I'll be back in a week or so with updates on our trip and a backlog of goodies I've made the past few days. Have a great week!

Coconut Milk Banana Bread

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

3 mashed bananas (large)

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled

2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom & salt

3. In a separate large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until combined. Whisk in bananas, coconut milk, butter, applesauce and vanilla.

4. Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined.

5. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of the loaf comes out clean.