Coconut Toast

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Last year, about this time, I made Coconut Bread (from Smitten Kitchen... via The Wednesday Chef via the NY Times via Bills breakfast menu) and basically said nothing about it. Except that I made it. It deserves more than that, especially since you can make it into coconut toast with maple syrup a la Lavish Habit in Balham, London.

Lavish Habit is small-ish, rustic cafe with lovely cakes set casually on the counter, Monmouth Coffee, and a vintage store in the basement. Very fun and super cozy. When I was in London a couple summers ago, I made sure to stop at the cafe whenever I could, since it was on the way to my closest underground stop.

So, they have coconut toast. A lightly sweetened loaf that is thickly sliced, toasted, dusted with a little powdered sugar (which I decided against below), then served with a dish of salted butter and, this is key, a small jug of maple syrup. I'm not sure I've ever had coconut and maple so beautifully paired together.

The recipe calls for sweetened shredded coconut, but I only had unsweetened, toasted coconut ribbon on hand. The sweetness was perfect here (because you'll want to put that maple syrup on there...), however, the texture of the loaf would certainly benefit from the more delicate shredded coconut. I also upped the cinnamon to 1.5 tsp... 'Cause it's cold out there.

As per my baking mo, this loaf comes together fast (and even in one bowl if you skip the browned butter part and aren't super particular about the wet-dry ingredient thing). It's in the oven for an hour or so, and will make your apartment/house smell amazing. And every time you make a slice of 'toast', it'll impart that nutty-cinnamony aroma all over again.