Coconut Oil Banana Pineapple Bread

First week of April and I want to take stock the way I do sometimes when a new month arrives after a month that was significant.

March was the month I met my birth mother and she cried and I did not and neither of those responses was wrong. March was also spring returning, the azaleas and the first strawberries and the shrimp and grits and Tyler at my kitchen table on Saturday evenings, easy and warm, the way he always is. March was Gloria telling me I do not have to have it figured out. March was a lot.

Gloria's 71st birthday is in three weeks and I have been planning the coconut layer cake, third year now, which has become its own tradition with the certainty that comes from things being done the right way several times in a row. I am also making her a new dessert this year alongside it: a coconut pudding, just for variety, because it is her birthday and she deserves the full coconut experience.

I have been thinking about what Crystal Dawkins makes of the person I turned out to be. I do not mean this in the way of wanting her approval. I have built my life without her and I will continue doing so. I mean it in the way of: does she see something of herself in me and is that a good thing or a strange thing or both. I have her eyes. I do not know what else I have of hers. I am forty-five minutes from Mobile and I am not quite ready and then sometimes I think I am and then I am not again. I am learning to tolerate not-ready.

Gloria is the reason I learned to trust a tradition — that doing something the right way several times in a row is its own kind of love language — and so when I started thinking about what to bake in the weeks leading up to her birthday, I found myself reaching for coconut in everything. This Coconut Oil Banana Pineapple Bread is where that impulse landed first: warm, a little tropical, deeply comforting, the kind of loaf that tastes like you meant it. It is good on its own on a quiet Saturday morning, and it is even better when you are baking it for someone who has never once made you feel like you had to have it figured out.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 60 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 10 slices

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained well
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
2 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, plus 2 tablespoons for topping

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides for easy removal.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, drained crushed pineapple, melted coconut oil, eggs, both sugars, and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Fold together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in the 1/2 cup of shredded coconut.
Fill the pan and top. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of shredded coconut evenly over the surface.
Bake. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 40 minutes.
Cool before slicing. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift out using the parchment overhang and transfer to a wire rack. Cool for at least 20 minutes more before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Coconut Oil Banana Pineapple Bread — Baking for Gloria, and for Myself