BabyCakes, Bananas, and Coconut Oil

Thursday night I made the banana bread recipe out of BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery.

I've had fairly good success with this cookbook so far. While its ingredients aren't always the easiest to track down, I do enjoy baking with them - no giant hunks of butter, no worries about contaminating anything with raw eggs, and no heaping scoops of sugar. Many of the recipes have the same base ingredients, which is semi-comforting - unless we're talking about coconut oil.

Every time I've made something out of this book that calls for coconut oil, the coconut taste overpowers the more subtle ingredients (cinnamon, vanilla extract, nutmeg, etc.). First I thought maybe that was because I'm not really a fan of coconut - so perhaps I was more sensitive to it. But I had others taste test and they mentioned the coconut as well. The good news is you don't have to use coconut oil. Avocado, grapeseed, pumpkin seed, or canola oil are all viable alternatives.

On Thursday, the banana bread called for coconut oil. I debated replacing it with canola but I still have coconut oil left in my jar... and it does have those good-for-you Omega 3s...

You fill your loaf pan halfway with the batter but then there's extra. (Why the recipe isn't cut down to the right amount for the specific-size loaf pan, I don't know.) The book suggests spreading the extra on a parchment-covered cookie sheet. Of course, being thinner this one was done first and voila... coconut taste! I was bummed. I wanted to taste the banana. I even had chocolate chips in there. But I just tasted soft, cakey coconut bread.

Then the loaf was done. I wrapped it up, too bummed over the thin cake. But on Friday night, I gave the loaf a chance... and it was definitely better! I think the density of the loaf gave more room for the flavors. Coconut oil is like a thick paste at room temperature. You have to heat it up to measure it and blend it into your batter. The coconut still lingered but I could really taste the other ingredients.

The veredict? I'll probably finish off this jar of coconut oil, but after that I'll try to find a healthy oil that's not as overwhelming.