bill's Coconut Bread

I've been meaning to make this, since the first time I saw it on someone's food blog, and now, more recently, in the book 'The Accidental Foodie', in which a number of influential, to the author, chefs are interviewed and provide recipes, and now, more importantly, as I have found that my beautiful Thai friend likes coconut, and wished me to make her a Western-style coconut cake. Bill Granger is an interesting chef from Sydney in Australia, and I doubt that I will ever be able to get to his famous restaurant, so I'll have to live vicariously through his various recipe books. So far, I've had success with this recipe, it was easy to make, and came out perfectly. Tasty, too. This is more like a coconut pound cake than bread, but it's still great toasted and buttered, as suggested. The recipe originally calls for 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, feel free to add it, if you like it more than I do.

bill's Coconut Bread
2 eggs
300 mL milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup superfine sugar
150 g shredded unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease and flour a 8-1/4 by 4 inch loaf pan.

Lightly whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the coconut and sugar and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth. Be careful not to overmix.

Pour into the loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes clean.

Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then allow to cool on a wire rack.

To serve, toast thick slices and spread with butter.