Photo from SmittenKitchen.com. Since my tea towels aren’t as pretty I thought I would just borrow Deb Pearlmans’s pic instead.
Having a slow week? Looking to refuel? Find yourself wishing that March would hurry up and go to hell, where all of its pseudo-snow and icy rain would melt and leave you and the month of April free to make out and get your first tan of the year on a bed of fresh peas, bike rides and sundresses? Maybe you weren’t, but I bet you are trying to visualize it now.
In any case, do yourself a favor and make this coconut bread from Smitten Kitchen. It is amazing. It keeps, slices and toasts easily, and tastes like 75 degrees and sunny with some honey and butter for breakfast.
FYI, for anyone looking to ease into cooking from scratch, Smitten Kitchen has some great weekday night recipes, lots of low-budget meals, and recipes that push grocery lists out of comfort zones with fun produce combinations.
Small tangent before I mention some tweaks I made to the recipe: the last thing I want is to come across as a health nut on this blog. I love butter and chocolate and short ribs and olive oil and booze and cream as much as any one, and while I enjoy trying to figure it out, for the time being at least, balanced eating remains neither effortless nor obvious.
So when I say that, in general, you can get away with reducing the butter and/or sugar in Smitten Kitchen desserts by at least a fourth without altering the taste (in this case, unsweetened coconut flakes and only 4 tablespoons of butter worked great), and that in this recipe, swapping in a half a cup of whole wheat flour turned this bread into a much heartier breakfast, I hope you won’t think that I chase my chia seeds with wheatgrass shots before my 5am cycling class every morning.
If you are not convinced, my last recipe suggestion should do it. Inspired by one of my Mother’s Theories On Life (affectionately known as MTOLs growing up) that used to drive my dad crazy, because she always used the good stuff, I recommend that you add a tablespoon of rum along with the vanilla extract. MTOL #1: desserts are always better with a healthy dash of liquor.
Happy baking!
Sustaining Starter 