This corn bread, which comes from the Dominican Republic, is probably very different from anything you’ve had before. It’s a tropical-flavored sweet bread, studded with candied fruit and flavored with coconut, rum, and spices. The cornmeal adds a crunch. As strange as it might sound, it’s actually quite good!
Coconut Corn Bread
½ cup diced mixed candied fruit
2 tablespoons dark rum
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup coconut milk (you can buy it canned at the store)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 and ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup shredded coconut
Heat oven to 375 degrees
Mix candied fruit and rum in a small bowl, set aside
Beat sugar and butter in large bowl, add eggs one at a time, beat until well blended
Stir in the milk, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves to the above mixture (all except the rum/fruit mixture and the grated coconut), beat together until well blended
Fold in the rum/fruit mixture and coconut gently
Pour bread batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake until top is golden brown, 40 – 45 minutes
Cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan, then let bread cool before slicing
I love any type of bread with corn meal because the texture is awesome. The fact that there is coconut in it makes this recipe sound fantastic!
It’s actually been a couple of years since I last made this. I do recall it was quite tasty.
Hmmm… I actually have a can of coconut milk in my cabinet that a friend gave to me when she was moving and clearing out her kitchen pantry. I never knew what to do with it, but your comment has reminded me of this recipe. I just might pick me up some candied fruit and dark rum and give this bread a try again!
If you do make it, feel free to let me know how it turned out.