No-dairy raspberry and coconut loaf

‘Loaf’ is one of those humble almost-forgotten-but-nevertheless-awesome foodie words. Mind you, my favourite is definitely ‘groke’ which is a lost old Scots word meaning “to gaze meaningfully at somebody eating in the hope that they’ll give you some of their food.” Let’s just say that when you make this raspberry and coconut loaf, there will be a lot of groking going on.

A word on afternoon tea baking, because it seems to scare some mums senseless. Just know this: baking is not hard and this recipe takes all of 10 minutes.

The only issue with a loaf like this is you need time to let the ingredients stand and then you need to be around the house for a good hour while it bakes in the oven (leaving you plenty of time for loafing, if that’s your thing). If you’re out during the day, best make this one the night before while you’re watching your stories.

The actual putting together of it requires no skill whatsoever. Read on.

Bet you’ll like this one too: Best-ever blueberry and yoghurt loaf

Dairy-free raspberry and coconut loaf

Makes about 12 serves
Takes 10 minutes, plus 20 minutes standing time
Bakes 1 hour

1 ¾ cups shredded coconut
1 ½ cups coconut milk (about 1 can)
¾ cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or seeds of 1 vanilla pod
1 ⅔ cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup frozen raspberries

Put the coconut into a medium-sized bowl and cover with the coconut milk. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 170°C. Line a standard loaf tin with baking paper, allowing some overhang at the sides so it’s easy to lift out later.

Add the sugar, egg and vanilla to the coconut mix and stir well. Sift the flour into the bowl and gently stir to combine, don’t over mix. Fold through the raspberries.

Put the batter into your prepared loaf tin and bake for around 1 hour and 10-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (I just shove a sharp knife blade in there, don’t tell). Once cooked, cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then lift out to cool completely on a wire rack.

You can dust with icing sugar or drizzle with a light icing to serve, but we never bother. It’s sweet enough as it is. This is also delicious toasted and buttered for breakfast.

If you manage to have any leftovers of this one, they will keep for a week in an airtight container on the bench or wrap and freeze individual lunch box portions for about a month.

Are you a fellow loaf-lover?