Coconut Almond Raisin Bread

When I saw a coconut bread recipe in wholefood.com. I felt like trying it. It is similar to Honduran bread "Pan de coco".  This bread is served along with soups and as breakfast and afternoon snack. If you are a follower of this blog, you might have already noticed that I have weakness/fondness towards coconut. I want to bake bread with coconut. It is white bread traditionally, however I wanted to make a healthier version.

In Kerala, we like to add coconut to everything, sweet or savory dishes you name it we have it. I think for us, coconut makes everything complete. We always use coconut and cumin seeds in our savory dishes especially stir fry. So I thought okay I will add cumin in bread also. I don’t want to use eggs in my bread so used flax seed meal. I have some chopped almonds in my pantry, so they also found a place in my bread. In order to make it slightly sweet I added 1 teaspoon of honey, coconut milk and raisins. 

After going through lots of recipes, I came into the conclusion that I need more yeast than I use for my usual bread, but I am not comfortable using one package yeast in my bread. I used 2 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast. While baking, my entire house had a nice smell. Even my hubby who was upstairs came and told me he can smell the aroma. This bread is wonderful tasty, it has slight sweetness of honey and raisins with crunchiness of coconut and almond. We ate this bread without butter or jam. You can have it just like that. I enjoyed making them. Sure I am going make them again with fresh coconut. If you want to make it sweeter add some more honey or sugar. Here goes the recipe. 

What you need

Whole wheat flour: 2 cups
Bread flour: 1 cup
Yeast: 2 ½ teaspoon ( I used active dry yeast)
Sugar : ¼ teaspoon
Honey: 1 teaspoon
Water:1 cup
Flax seed meal: ¼ cup
Almond: 1/3 cup ( I used chopped almond)
Coconut: ½ cup ( I used unsweetened coconut, Use fresh coconut for authentic taste)
Coconut milk: 1 cup + 2 tablespoon
Cumin seeds: 1 tablespoon
Oil: ¼ cup ( I used canola oil)
Salt: ¾ teaspoon
Raisins: 1/3 cup

For egg wash
Egg: 1no
Water: 2 tablespoons

How I made

In a small sauce pot add ½ cup of cold water and raisins bring to a boil and drain raisins in kitchen towel to remove extra water. Set aside.

In a small bowl add active dry yeast in 1/2 cup lukewarm water along with 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Keep aside for 10 minutes or until yeast gets foamy. I kept it for about 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, bread flour, flax seed meal, coconut, salt, and the yeast. Add the honey, oil, raisins and coconut milk into the flour mixture. Mix everything until the dough forms a loose ball, adding an additional tablespoon of coconut milk or two if necessary to bring the dough together. Knead for 7-10 minutes. The dough should feel supple and pliable but not sticky. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling to coat it all over. Cover and set aside.

Keep aside knead dough in slightly oiled vessel for doubling. It took about 2hours to double.

Transfer the dough into a lightly floured surface and spread into loaf and keep it in a lightly greased loaf pan. Cover with a proof cover or greased plastic wrap, and let the loaf rise for 45 minutes, or until they're quite puffy. Brush the top with egg wash. ( If you don’t want you use egg wash, you can brush with oil or butter, when they come out of oven) By the end of second rising time preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit. 

Bake them in a preheated 375°F oven for 30minutes, or until they’re well browned or registered an internal temperature of 180-190 °F on an instant-read thermometer. 20 minutes into the baking time cover the loaf pan with aluminum foil to prevent the crust become harder. Remove it from the oven, and remove from the pans. Allow them to cool completely before serving.

Preparation time: Preparation time: 30 minutes for preparing dough,

Doubling time: 2hours + 45 minutes for second rise

Baking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 1 loaf

Verdict: Yummy

Will you make it again: Yes

This delicious bread is going to

Bread baking day #31 hosted by Zorra.
Yeast spotting event  hosted by Susan

Swathi