Coconut Banana Bread

Bananas – This is a wonderful recipe to use your over-ripe bananas or ripe bananas. As long as bananas are not still green, they’re good to go.

Flour – All purpose flour works perfectly for most quick bread recipes. When measuring the flour, be sure to spoon it into the measuring cup and then level off the cup with the back of the knife. When you dip the measuring cup straight into the bag of flour, it gets packed in there. You never want packed flour, because that’s too much flour.

Eggs – They’ll need some time to warm up to room temperature before you use them. Give them about 30-45 minutes on the counter to adjust.

Butter – Melt the butter, but let it cool off a little bit before adding it to the batter.

Vanilla Extract – If possible, try to use pure vanilla extract and not imitation.

Coconut Flakes – You can grab these from the store or make your own! For more info on the homemade process, just keep on scrolling. (Remember that homemade coconut flakes are not sweetened.)

Baking Soda – Make sure the baking soda is not expired! In order for your baking soda to be potent, you need to use it within 6 months of opening the container.

See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and instructions.

Soak the coconut flakes. Place coconut flakes in a measuring cup and add enough milk to cover the flakes (1). Let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

PRO TIP: Note that you will need to squeeze out the milk but don’t discard it. You can drink the coconut milk or use it in pancakes, coffee, or cereal!

Mash. Mash bananas with a fork in a large mixing bowl (2). 

Whisk the wet ingredients. Whisk the eggs, sugar, melted butter (3), and vanilla extract until all mixed (4).

Strain/squeeze. Strain the coconut flakes through and fine mesh strainer and gently Squeeze the milk out of coconut flakes (5).

Make the batter. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and gently whisk until the batter is smooth and everything is evenly combined (6). Fold in the coconut flakes (7).

Bake the bread. Transfer batter into the prepared baking dish (8). Bake at 350°F for 55-60 minutes (9). (Or, until the internal temperature at the center will reach 200°F.)

PRO TIP: If the top of bread is browning too fast, loosely cover with aluminum foil to keep direct heat away.

How to Make Your Own Coconut Flakes

If you’ve never experimented with making your own coconut flakes, it’s actually quite fun! It takes about 30 minutes to make the coconut flakes and you can store it in the refrigerator or freeze for later.

Note that homemade coconut flakes are not sweet, so result will taste slightly different from store-bought coconut flakes.

1. Open the coconut and drain off milk.
2. Place coconut halves in a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 400°F.
3. The flesh will be easy to peel away from the shell with a butter knife after baking.
4. Take coconut flesh out and peel brown skin off of the white flesh with a vegetable peeler.
5. Use large cheese grater to shave white coconut flesh.
6. Place coconut flakes in a zip-lock bag, get all the air out, and seal. Store it in the refrigerator for about a week or freeze.

Tips for the Best Coconut Banana Bread

• When choosing bananas, make sure the outside of bananas is bright yellow with just a few brown areas. There should not be any green areas or the bananas will not ripe enough.
• Bananas should be soft enough to easily mash with a fork.
• Over-ripe bananas are also fine to use in banana bread, of course.
• Mash bananas in a mixing bowl using a fork but leave a few lumps. It will help give the banana bread a moist texture.
• While baking, if you notice that the top is getting dark fast but middle still has quite a bit of baking time, loosely cover the top with aluminum foil. This will keep direct heat off the top of the bread.
• For an easy grab-and-go breakfast, slice coconut banana bread and cover each slice in saran wrap. Store wrapped slices in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

How to Freeze Coconut Banana Bread

Cool your coconut banana bread to room temperature before freezing.

You can slice the bread into individual portions or freeze it whole. For quick breads, I like to place a piece of parchment paper in between each slice to keep them from sticking together.

Place the bread in a large zip-lock freezer bags and let the air out. Place the bag in a freezer. You can also wrap bread in saran wrap first, before placing it into a freezer bag, to really ensure no air gets to the bread.

Defrost the bread on the counter top. Individual slices of bread will just take a few minutes to defrost.

How to Store Coconut Banana Bread

Coconut banana bread can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator. You can sliced it and store it in individual portions or store it whole and slice as needed.

If you know you’ll eat it within a few days, you can easily store the bread at room temperature for 2-3 days. Just make sure to cover it airtight so it doesn’t dry out.

In the refrigerator, it’ll keep for 5-7 days when kept in an airtight container.

More of the Best Quick Bread Recipes

• Zucchini Bread
• Toasted Coconut Blueberry Bread
• Apple Bread
• Caprese Bread
• Coconut Coffee Cake

All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.