coconut bread

You’ve got to know where your towel is.

Towels are important, in life.

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

The most ridiculous thing happened to me last week, which is why I now need a towel around my neck at all times. My alarm went off at 6.30 am (yes, it’s a ridiculous hour of the morning. I’m experimenting with running. It was going well, until) I went to turn it off and somehow injured my neck.

Yes. I did my neck while getting out of bed. I figured I’d skip the run, rest it up and go to class. I got to uni and my friends promptly let me know I was crazy due to the amount of pain I was in, so they helped me organise a chiropractor’s appointment and I went and got told I couldn’t drive or use my pillow or pick up my bag or, blessedly, go to work. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, it’s just nice to have an excuse to sit at home and watch Gilmore Girls and drink tea. And eat.

I didn’t have this coconut bread, which is a shame because it’s delicious. I couldn’t help but depart from my maxim to cook from books for the main this year because Deb praised this loaf through the roof. Browned butter, coconut, more coconut and more butter, when you toast it and eat it for breakfast. More than once. I love it so much, I made it twice and I’m planning on making it again just as soon as I remember where I found the unsweetened coconut flakes.

Make it and take it to a friend’s house and you will never lose that friend. So make sure you really like them ;).

much love, friends

–e, xx

Coconut Bread

This is amazing straight out of the oven, though it can be a bit crumbly. It’s fantastic toasted and slathered with salted butter.

Adapted from bill granger via The New York Times

2 eggs

295 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla

315 g flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

200 g golden caster sugar

140 g unsweetened flaked coconut

70 g unsalted butter, browned

15 g coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line a 9″ loaf tin with baking paper.

Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla and set aside.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the sugar and coconut. Make a well in the centre and add the milk mixture, butter and coconut oil.

Pour batter into the tin and bake until a sharp knife inserted in the centre exits cleanly, about 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Let cool in the pan 5 minutes, then remove and cool on a rack.