Tropical Banana Bread

When I walk to work from the metro, I pass a street vendor who sells candy, prepackaged danishes, and drinks.  Sometimes when I buy a diet Dr. Pepper from this man, he will give me a banana on the cusp of becoming brown mush.

This banana bread was made with three of his gift brown bananas.  Thanks vendor man!  

Bananas are in the Musa species, which are native to South East Asia, South Asia, and Australia.  Wikipedia states that bananas were probably first domesticated in Papa New Guinea.  

Bananas do not grown on trees.  They grow on herbaceous flowering plants whose stems and leaves die after they have flowered.  The plant's trunk is not a trunk at all but is a stem.

Bananas are rich in potassium.  They contain potassium-40, which makes them naturally radioactive.  Internationally, there isn't a clear distinction between what is a plantain and what is a banana.  These are all useful facts I am sure.

The banana bread recipe came from food.com.  I made it tropical by adding coconut flakes, dried pineapple, and mango.  I used frozen mango, but fresh mango would work.

The ingredients are 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup coconut flakes, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 3 overripe bananas, 1/2 cup dried pineapple, and 1 cup frozen mango.

I combined the flour, soda, salt, and sweetened coconut flakes.

In another bowl, I creamed the brown sugar and butter.

I added the eggs and browned bananas to the creamed butter and stirred well.

I poured the banana mixture into the dry ingredients.

I partially stirred the batter together before adding diced dried pineapple and mango chunks.  I stirred the batter to incorporate the fruit evenly.

I poured the batter into a greased 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.

I baked the bread at 350 degrees.  The instructions indicate the bread will bake in 60 to 65 minutes.  I always bake bread longer in my glass loaf pan.

I let the bread cool for a few minutes in the pan before letting it cool completely on a wire rack.

The texture of the bread was tender and moist.  The dried coconut added a little extra chew and interest.

The flavors were tropical and delightful.  The dried pineapple chunks were sweet and chewy.  They were like little bits of candy.  The mango chunks soften and become more sweet in the oven.

The bread was delicious.  The flavors were fantastic.  After eating it, I wanted to go to a Caribbean island.