I highly suggest reading the comments before making this recipe. There have been varied results and I think we finally figured out what caused the variation. Be sure to use dried coconut flakes and not coconut flour to get the right results.
Sometimes I feel like I have hit the jackpot when I find awesome recipes on Pinterest. This Paleo Coconut Bread is one of those finds! I adjusted the original recipe slightly for my own taste, but it is pretty much the same recipe. Not only is this a simple to make, but can’t you just imagine all the things you will do with it? The first thing I made was coconut french toast. Oh my! It’s much better than the original french toast that I used to make in my pre-real food days because it is packed with flavor and filling.
What you’ll need:
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 Tablespoon honey (the original recipe called for 3 T)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, not in the original recipe
3 cups unsweetened DESSICATED coconut flakes, ground into flour with a food processor or coffee grinder
1 teaspoon coconut oil, for oiling the bread pan
Procedure
Preheat oven to 285 degrees. Grind the coconut flakes into smaller pieces, but be careful not to over grind and make into coconut butter add baking powder to the ground coconut. In a separate bowl beat eggs then mix in vanilla, honey, cinnamon. Mix well. Slowly blend in the ground coconut/baking powder mix. Allow the coconut to start absorbing the liquid mixture (about 2 minutes or so).
Line a bread pan with coconut oil. Fill the bread pan with batter. Bake at 285 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle. Mine took about 45 minutes with a convection oven, so it might take a bit longer if you have a regular oven.
Check out some other grain free recipes:
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could i use coconutflour instead?
I’m sure you could. I would reduce the coconut flour by 2 cups (or less) and add in more to get the consistency that you need. It should be thick like a pancake batter (or maybe even slightly more thick than that)
Did you use sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes?
Unsweetened. I will make that clear in the directions.
We love coconut bread too! It freezes up SO good and you can pull them out and pop into the toaster and load on the butter or coconut butter
I like your coconut flake into powder idea – I’m going to try this. It is probably cheaper this way too??
I don’t know if it’s cheaper, because I’m pretty sure it requires a lot more flakes than flour. I will have to measure the ground coconut flakes to see what the actual measurement is the next time I make it. It’s definitely tasty and sweet without being overly sweet.
I don’t understand what you are using. I have a bag of coconut flour. But are you starting with what we would call desiccated coconut, ie the sort of thing you would put in cakes before going wheat free? What’s the difference between the two? I don’t actually know what coconut flour is made of (well coconut obviously! But which bit?)
Coconut flour is essentially the same thing as flakes just finer. If you start with 3 cups dessicated coconut and grind it up it becomes less than 3 cups (more compact). I like the grittier texture that ground dessicated coconut gives rather than the flour. Flour would work fine too. You would just have to figure out the ratio. I am guessing it is less than half of the 3 cups that are called for in the recipe.
Jen, I’m not sure that coconut flour and coconut flakes are the same thing. From what I understand about reading about coconut flour, most of the oil is removed before the flour is produced. Coconut flakes, however, are just dried, ground-up coconut, so they retain a lot of the coconut oil.
You could probably still substitute coconut flour in this recipe, but I’d think you’d need to add extra coconut oil to make up for what’s missing in the coconut flour vs. coconut flakes.
Oh good call! That makes sense because I take coconut shreds or flakes and steep and squeeze out to make coconut milk, then dry out the flakes dry and grind up into coconut flour. The coconut milk has all the oils and the dried out flakes are great for blending into flour…
Thanks Meghan. I was unaware of that. Is that the case for all coconut flour? So it’s a by product of the coconut oil extraction process?
I do know that the original recipe said it was interchangeable in her comments although I hadn’t tried it myself. But I am quite certain it’s not the same measurements from what I know about working with coconut flour.
Well, I’m not entirely sure about all coconut flour, but I remembered reading something about this before so I looked up on the Tropical Traditions website here: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/organic_coconut_flour.htm
I’ve used a few other brands of coconut flour other than the Tropical Traditions one and they all seemed to perform the same, so I would guess that they’re all made in the same way.
That makes sense because the flour absorbs so much moisture. It obviously has a lack of moisture content in it from the extraction process.
Hi Jen, I’m Anne from Life on the Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), and I’m visiting from the Barn Hop.
This looks really good. I have a dtr that is coo-coo for coconut, and I know she would love this!
Anyway, thanks for posting this. If you’ve never visited yet, I hope you can pop by my blog sometime to say hi…
I was excited to make this – it looked and sounded so good.
Results? Unfortunately not so exciting. Fed it to the chickens. :/
Oh no! What didn’t you like? Taste? Or consistency?
Hey Jen,
Thank you for trying my recipe, I am very glad it turned out this good. Very nice indeed!
By the way, if you would like to browse in my recipes, my Pinterest board is here: http://pinterest.com/paleoliscious/paleoliscious-recipes/
Keep up the good work, I really like your site!
Any chance I could get the weight of the coconut used from either Jen or anyone who had recipe success? I have flakes of a couple of different sizes and moisture levels and my first try at the cake came out tasty but not moist like the photo. I’d love to know how much coconut you use to dial it in. Thanks!
Tina, I used the smaller finer flakes, but I did grind them down as in the instructions so I am not sure the size matters. It could be that your flakes have more of the oil removed from the flake. You might try adding in a tablespoon or two of coconut oil to the recipe and see if that helps the moisture of the bread. Let me know if you try it and if it works for you.
Jen,
Thanks for the reply. I was actually worried that I used coconut that was too moist and fine since the result was dense and crumbly. I have a bag of small texture shreds that is the same weight as a bag of flakes but the flakes take up twice the volume so it seems like the amount could really vary depending on what kind of coconut you use.
To be honest, as a bit of an OCD baker I feel lost when I don’t have weights for dry measuring since volumes can vary so much. I am going to keep experimenting but if someone else is OCD like me and did a weighted measure on a successful bake I would be super grateful if you would provide it.
Thanks!
Tina
Tina, I think this is the very problem we are having with the recipe. You are not the only one. I think the oil content in the bread is varied based on the amount in the coconut itself. I would actually suggest adding in more coconut oil and maybe not grinding quite so fine. I have a few other people testing the recipe for me to see what results they get as well. I will keep updating as I get more information. I will also check in with the original recipe author and see if she had any problems.
Jen:
Awesome, I love baking experiments so I’ll be following this with interest. One thing I also plan to try is using less egg whites since too many whites can make regular baked goods more crumbly and dry. So next time I’m going to use 6 yellows and maybe 4 or 5 whites, depending on the size of the eggs. I’m also going to try whipping up the whites separately to soft peaks first and then folding in the dry ingredients mixed with the yolks to give it a bit more structure. I hope this will help with the lightness. I will post back with my results.
A couple of additional things that I have already tried that I thought helped: I added a pinch of salt and I wrapped up the cake tightly as soon as possible when it came out of the oven to retain the baking moisture.
I’m very excited at the potential in this recipe. It seems like it could be a good base recipe that could become banana bread, zucchini bread, lemon poppyseed bread, spice bread, 7-seed bread, savory rosemary raisin bread, the possibilities are endless! With just a bit of refining I think it will become a regular in my house.
Thanks,
Tina
Tina, that is a good point about the egg whites. I have often done that when I work with sourdough for the same reasons. I love your ideas for adding flavor profiles. Very creative. Hopefully we can work this out because this really is a great tasting bread when it comes out right.
Ok, after another couple of experiments here is what I have to report: I would not recommend cutting back on the egg whites or whipping them. This idea of mine worked the opposite of my experience in regular baking and caused the bread to be more crumbly in both cases. I also tried adding a few tbsp of coconut cream to make up for the loss of the liquid in the egg whites and I would not recommend this either! The result was heavier because the coconut seemed to soak it up and become really heavy.
My best result was using about 1.75 cups of Edward & son’s Organic Shredded Coconut as is (since it is a smaller flake) and adding a scant 1/3 cup coconut flour. I also did not let this batch sit at all and I added the coconut flour at the very last moment in the hope that it would not suck up too much of the liquid. The consistency was very paste-like so I might reduce the amount of coconut flakes or flour just a little to see if I can get a more batter-like consistency and lighter result. On that more successful batch I also added 1/2 tsp almond extract and 1 tsp lemon extract and the zest of two lemons, as well as 3 tbsp poppy seeds for a lemon poppy seed cake variation.
I’ve also found that this cake needs to sit overnight in the fridge tightly wrapped to become its best self both taste and texture-wise.
Tina, I love the flavor combos that you tried. I will have to try that as well! But my suggestion for the batter is not to over think it before it goes into the oven. The batter does not look like a typical batter and the coconut flour is really drying according to the original recipe creator. If you think it needs more, I would add more ground coconut flakes because it has more oil content than to add flour. I think the E and S coconut flakes are a good brand to work with. I love your adventurous spirit!
Hi Jen! That does look really delicious and I am going to make this for my three teenage girls who just love coconut- I would love it if you were to share this with us at Natural Mothers Network’s Seasonal Celebration http://naturalmothersnetwork.com/seasonal-celebration-sunday/seasonal-celebration-sunday-40/ Rebecca x
All of this sounds wonderful! And the “moisture” levels being different in the actual “flour” vs. flakes makes sense… I’ve got flour and oil so I’m gonna try this today and I will keep track of ratios and let y’all know how it turns out!
Thanks for being the guinea pig Terri.
. I’d LOVE to know how it works with the flour instead.
Lost this link, that’s why it took so long to reply back. Made it with flour.. yuck. A disaster. And I only used 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, not 3. It turned into cookie dough! Came out like a brick… and had no taste really at all. Crumbled it up for the birds outside.
Went back today, used dehydrated flakes, ground them up, let them sit before I put into pan to put into oven… batter was still pretty loose, but thick so I’m hoping this one will turn out. I have a regular gas oven, set at 285 degrees for 45 min. Will let you know how it comes out! The batter, by the way, tastes wonderful!! 
Yeah, that batter is deceptive. It looks weird but it turns out better than you might think. There were a few peeps who suggested turning up the heat on the oven too. Mine was convection so that might have made a difference in cooking time? But I would watch that too. Thanks for letting us know. That coconut flour has been a dud for most people working with this recipe. I think the flakes are the best bet here.
Oh, wow! I can’t wait to try this! Thank you.
Let me know how they turn out for you, Yolanda!
Been looking at this recipe for nearly one week. Decided to make it this morning. Well, I’ve never heard of mixing baking powder (or soda) with the liquid. In my 50 years of baking its always added to the dry ingredients but I thought “hmm….maybe I don’t know everything”. I wish now I’d checked Paleoliscious and the origingal recipe because she does add the baking powder to the coconut. I’m sure this is yummy – however – I now have an eggy brick. Not happy, and I’m an experienced baker. Maybe its kitchen gremlins but we’ll see since I’ll try it again tomorrow. I’m wondering if anyone else has had this happen.
I did add the baking powder to the liquid and it turned out fine. I am sorry that, that happened to you because I hate when I waste food and time. I also bake a lot and usually don’t add baking soda/powder to liquid, but I did this time out of laziness and it worked out. Not sure why it came out different for you. I will go change the recipe for future peeps. I’m glad you came back and posted your experience.
The only other thing that I was wondering was about the absorption. The egg really needs to absorb a bit into the ground coconut flakes. Did you allow it to do that?
Hi all! I got an answer back from the original recipe creator. She said it likely has nothing to do with the order that you put the baking powder in. It most likely has everything to do with the quality of the coconut you use. You need to make sure that you have a quality dessicated coconut flake that you begin with. Dessicated coconut will have the proper balance of oil.
She also stated that if you choose to use coconut flour, do not use PALEO coconut flour (I didn’t know there was a difference). As this has the oil content removed as was mentioned by Meghan above. Apparently there is a difference between coconut flours. The key here is to keep the oil content in tact in whatever you use.
I’m happy I posted my earlier comment and thank you for the wonderful and speedy reply. I think my coconut was de-fatted, or light. That would make sense now that I’m reading about Paleo coconut. I have to say, I’m keeping the brick I made this morning LOL because it is, actually, quite delicious. I can see using it as a crumb topping on a pie. Thanks so much. The flavor really is fantastic and I’ll make it again and let you know how it is.
Jacqualine, that is an excellent idea for using the ‘brick’
Glad we got this worked out though. I was getting a little stressed that I threw you all a bum recipe. Yikes.
i can imagine this would go wonderfully with some soup or chili…. it looks beautiful.
thank you for sharing with us at the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up! I hope to see you again this week with more seasonal & fresh/real food posts. xo, kristy
This looks delicious! This would be a perfect post to share at our Meal Plan Monday link-up at http://www.modernalternativekitchen.com! Hope to see you there tomorrow!
I tried this today and we REALLY enjoyed it! I was a little bit nervous about how the little bit of flour I ended up with (after throwing my coconut flakes into the processor) would be enough to make a bread. But, it all worked out wonderfully and it was DEEELICIOUS!
Thanks so much!
Destini, So glad it worked out for you and better yet that you love it! The coconut amount is deceptive but it also absorbs so much of the egg that it works out in the end.
You should really try the coconut french toast with it too. mmmmmmmmm So good.
this looks great but we are sugar free so would need to remove the honey.
Could you use a banana? Not sure how the texture would turn out, but it may be worth a try.
i made this and i loved it, it needs a little more work but an excellent starting point. i read many of the comments here ahead of time. in the end, mine was very moist – almost like a bread pudding. next time i will sprinkle sugar on top and bake it. here are some of the things i did:
1. i used jumbo eggs – i think this is why it was so moist, and i had to cook it an additional 30 min or so; in fact, i upped it to 295, and then 300 for the final 5 minutes. that’s when it finally started browning.
2. very moist – i think its due to the jumbo eggs bc it was like soup pouring it in my bread pan. i used about 2 T of raw agave, next time i will use 3 T. it wasn’t very sweet, and i usually like my things less sweet than sweet.
3. i couldn’t find any coconut flour, i used dehydrated organic coconut shavings and ground them down the best that i could, but i would’ve liked it to be finer in texture bc the bread had a gritty-coconut bite to it – it wasn’t crunchy but i had the coconut meat gritty against my teeth. i wish it was a bit less; but the more i ground my “flour” was getting oily-er and i didn’t want it to clump.
4. i let my mixture sit a few minutes before putting it in the oven, but i wish i let it sit even longer to let it absorb more moisture. maybe i’ll let it set in the fridge for a 1/2 hour or so next time.
this is a really great base – can do a zillion things w/it. love it. thanks for sharing.
Regina,
Those are all great suggestions. The oven temp adjustment makes sense especially if you don’t have a convection oven. Mine is, so I think that may make a difference. I also questioned the low setting of the original recipe at first but mine turned out fine. I might question refrigerating the batter only because coconut flakes will seize up and stop absorbing the liquid.
[...] Grain Free Coconut Bread from Jen @ Real Food Freaks [...]
Jen, this looks so good I’m trying it this weekend! Thank you so much for sharing this with us at Seasonal Celebration Sunday! Rebecca x
Can I substitute some of the eggs with ground flaxseeds and water (ratio: 1 tbsp gound flaxseeds to 3 tbsp water, for one egg, let it sit for a few minutes to let it “gel”)?
Apparently this is a temperamental recipe as any subs people have made have not worked out well. All I can say is to try it and see. If it works, come back and let us know.
Thanks for sharing at Modern Alternative Kitchen’s Meal Plan Monday link-up! We hope to see you again this Monday!
I made it today and love it. I spread some Nutella on a slice and it tasted like german chocolate cake. The coconut that I used was Great Value brand out of the baking section. I dried it in the oven at 250 degrees for about 45 minutes. I stirred the flakes every 15 minutes. Once they were dried and cooled I smashed them with a spoon because I could not find my mini food processor. My guess is the kids hid it from me. Anyway, the bread/cake turned out moist with amazing flavor.
Cindy, I’m so glad it came out so well for you! Thanks for your tips with how you used your coconut.
Well, it’s out of the oven! I made it, only had to cook it for 5 extra minutes (not bad) and it was golden brown!
The texture was a little gritty from the coconut, but the cake itself held together very very well! Perfect moisture level! This cake is perfect for any and all variations you can think of! Yay! Hubby said he wished it was sweeter so I may add a TBSP of Stevia next time…. but banana bread is positively my next attempt! Then blueberry!! Thanks Jen! This recipe is wonderful!! <3
Oh, I’m doing the happy dance for you here. . . . success! Sweetener is definitely something that can be tweaked easily. I am going to have to try the banana version soon too.
Your bread looks moist and delicious — my sister has been looking for new GF recipes, I’ll let her know about yours. Thanks for sharing on Hearth & Soul Hop.
It is very moist.
I bet your sis will love it.
Ok, so I was almost not going to make this due to the mixed comments, but I am glad I did! I love coconut. I followed the above recipe almost, but I did make a few changes: I added a bit more vanilla because in my opinion more is better on vanilla, I did use 3T of agave, and then because I only had 2 3/4 cups of my coconut I added 1/4 of arrowroot powder. I wanted to add this anyway to lighten it up and maybe absorb some of the moisture that some mentioned above. I also didn’t grind up my coconut flakes because they were already finely ground, but still very much a flake. I did cook it for 55 minutes though to get it done. I used an unsweet high quality coconut so this is paleo approved and delicious!
Glad you liked it Kristi. I agree . . . more vanilla would make it better for sure! There are actually many combinations that I plan on making with this base recipe. This is a keeper recipe for me too.
[...] baked today. A mini loaf of Paleo coconut bread. I made half the recipe to make a mini loaf, with more vanilla and no honey. It was dense and much [...]
[...] many spoons of natural unsalted peanut butter, unsweetened chocolate, raw walnuts and a piece of coconut bread with [...]
Complete novice, here. Trying to figure out ways to go grain-free after new doctor, who finally helped me lick 10 years of unexplained weight-gain & super-fatigue & nearly-incapacitating-brain-fog (after numerous GPs & endocrinologist all told me I was fine, just eat less & exercise more & I’ll be fine), told me I’m insulin-resistant & I need to avoid grains (all grains, not just wheat). Also trying to find alternatives for insulin-resistant-diabetic husband: whereas I simply stopped eating my beloved steel-cut oats for breakfast and I never really cared for bread, itself, though I sometimes crave things like toast & peanut butter [which is how this recipe got sent to me, actually] . . . DH wants to know first what he will replace his steel-cut oats with (he likes eggs, but has found that simply eggs for breakfast doesn’t satisfy him, he finds himself craving a piece of toast or the like; I’ve made one of my fritattas for him, but he says he didn’t like it [probably the veggies], what he will replace his fall-back snack with when working from home & booked so solid with meetings/conference calls he only has time to throw an English Muffin in the toaster, spread some jam & butter on it, and run back to office; he won’t simply remove the pasta and eat the sauce & browned ground beef & chopped-up sauteed veggies in a bowl like I do, he still has pasta & sauce on our formerly traditional pasta night (I’ve discovered Cappello’s GF Pasta, but it’s expensive and we have a tiny freezer so I can’t keep enough on hand to always substitute that pasta for his usual), what he will replace his typical brown-bag lunch with when he has to work downtown: I send a sandwich because he doesn’t always have time to get to a microwave and heat up leftover dinner . . . You see my problem! (Also, I had one doctor say, “It’s not hard, you don’t need bread or rice or potatoes for dinner, just put more vegetables on the table.” Well, trying to get my husband to eat veggies is like trying to get a 6-year-old to eat their brussell’s sprouts.) . . .
So, this recipe was sent to me when I posted on Facebook that I keep craving toast & PB but I’m supposed to not have grains. I frequently have snacks of sliced apples & PB, but sometimes want that combo of hot toast with the PB slightly melted and the whole texture/consistency/aroma thing. (I have also tried at other people’s suggestion a variation of a dessert I’ve made for us: in ramekins, chop up apple, add cinnamon & brown sugar (just a pinch), microwave if this was a sudden “we have the nibblies, what can we have to satisfy them after dinner?”, or bake in oven if think of it in advance & am heating the oven anyway for dinner, stir it up, yum. Well, I’ve microwaved for a few seconds less than usual, added the PB & microwaved for the balance of usual seconds. Yum.)
As a complete novice, I find the recipe & ensuing comments discussion a little intimidating. Wondering if I am up to this.
To start with: um, grind? How? Mortar & pestle? Do I need to get some kind of grinder? BTW, I’m so primitive I’ve never yet acquired a food processor, so I can’t even go that route. ::ducks head sheepishly::
Hi Kathryn,
To start, let me answer your question about the grinding of coconut flakes. I used a food processor and I highly suggest that you buy one or some type of blender that will do the same thing (something like a vitamix or blendtec but they are expensive so i just use a food processor). This is important for you because if you are trying to make things healthy this will save you time and make the transition easier for you. But mortar and pestle will work too. If you get flakes that are small enough the original recipe stated that you can even leave them whole and it will still work. The texture will be a little different though.
As for your hubby . . . you can’t make him eat right. You can only make suggestions and lovingly encourage. Trust me, I know. It’s been an uphill battle here at my house too. But, my hubs does get it and is starting to make some changes. I still have to tolerate him bringing crap home once in a while, but it’s getting less and less now. You can try to do things like hiding veggies in food and sending them with him to work (we often have leftovers from dinners that I make). I do that ALL the time. Also, I suggest learning how to make veggie chips . . . . slice them up really thin, throw on some olive oil and salt and let them crisp up in a hot oven (400 degrees or more — just keep an eye on them and flip as needed). Most veggies taste like chips when made like this. This bread is not a great substitute for sandwich bread as it is a little sweeter. But I have made French toast with it and it ROCKS! THe Urban Poser has a great recipe for a grain free sandwich bread http://urbanposer.blogspot.com/2012/12/grain-free-sourdough-bread.html?m=1
plus I found a PALEO English Muffin recipe (grain free) http://www.beautyandthefoodie.com/quick-paleo-english-muffins/
As far as where to find coconut stuff . . . I usually get mine from Tropical Traditions (http://secure.ttpurchase.com/A7E50CEE-1E0B-90B3-0EFB36A74BBB667F) online or I buy them from my local co-op which stocks Wilderness Family Naturals Coconut products which also sell online (but is better if you can buy through a club because they are kind of pricey). There are a few store brands that are good too. Amazon sells some coconut products as well. Don’t use coconut flour for this recipe . . . as you can see from the comments, it does not work. But coconut flour is a great staple to have in your house for grain free muffuns. We have TONS of those coconut flour recipes on the blog. Leslie does those and has thrown in veggies in many of the!
Hope that helps. Leslie does most of the blogging these days as I have had my hands full with stuff locally. But I thought i would chime in and answer your questions. I hope I was able to help out some. Good luck! I know that you can do this and will want to do it more and more as you start to feel better. I’ve been where you are not too long ago.
P.S. Realizing that didn’t come out quite right on several counts. The insulin resistance is not the only condition that the new doctor found and treated that helped me lick what’s been going on the last 10 years. (I actually had about 4 different things going on, any one of which could’ve been solely responsible for the last 10 years but I had all 4 working against me.) That’s just the one that led to me trying to learn options for going grain-free. And to be fair regarding DH: he’s not the “typical” Type-II Diabetic in that he’s not overweight and is pretty healthy except for the diabetes. We’ve tended to eat healthy to help control it that way, until just the last couple years he was on oral medications only; has only just added insulin, and presently at very small amounts. In fact, this whole “Real Food/Whole Food” movement makes me smile in a way because I used to be pretty much that way without even thinking about it, before those were buzzwords. Didn’t worry too much about Organic because it was so incredibly expensive and we just couldn’t afford it while the kids were still at home; education since then and greater availability of options and access to local produce, etc., are impacting that for the better, of course. My problem was that as the Fatigue & Brain Fog overwhelmed my life, it was harder and harder to cook from scratch anymore; I began relying more and more on packaged and pre-prepared meals simply because that was all I was up to doing. So of course I was making us subject to more and more “evils” of processed commercial foods, which in turn only compounded the problems I was having that led me to start using such products with greater frequency in the first place. Now that I’m trying to get back into cooking for real and on top of that trying to find alternatives to grains and related products, well, as I said, I’m feeling a little intimidated, wondering where I’m going to find things like coconut flour or flakes, etc., etc.