Heavenly Coconut Banana Bread Recipe

Have you ever tried to make a coconut banana bread recipe at home? I have this thing for bananas…and coconut…but back to bananas.

I love bananas – as long as they are IN SOMETHING. Like a smoothie, or peanut butter and banana sandwich, or my very favorite, banana bread.

Over the years, I’ve experimented with different recipes for banana bread and finally came to create a banana bread recipe that I love! What I really love about this recipe is that it makes a fantastic banana bread on its own, but it really knocks your socks off if you add in the optional elements…my personal favorite is the coconut version, with chocolate chip following up in a close second!

This coconut banana bread recipe is so good. OMG so good.

I like to heat it up in the microwave and then add a pat of unsalted butter on top.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of. For reals. 

Coconut Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut oil
4 large, very ripe bananas
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 granulated sugar
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Optional: 1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut OR 1 cup mini chocolate chips

You can use muffin tins or bread loaf pans for this recipe, but I’ll be using loaf pans.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 and grease and lightly flour two loaf pans or muffin tins or use a non-stick cooking spray with flour like Baker’s Joy.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugars, vanilla, eggs, bananas and coconut oil and beat until creamy and smooth.

Add flour and baking powder and beat at low speed for about a minute, until you have a creamy batter. Stir in your coconut.

TIP: after adding the coconut, you might want to divide the batter into two bowls. Use one as-is for coconut banana muffins. Then you have half a batch to experiment with: add chocolate chips, walnuts, etc!

Pour into greased muffin pan/loaf pan. Do not fill all the way to the top because the bread will raise slightly.

If baking in loaf pans, bake at 375 for 50 minutes to one hour. Insert a tooth pick into the center of the bread (I use bamboo skewers too) and if it comes out clean, your bread is done.

If baking in muffin tins, check your muffins at 35 minutes, adjusting cook time accordingly. It usually takes me 40 minutes when using my muffin tins.