“This is awesome!” said my son Oliver, when he taste-tested this bread. I’m very pleased with it too. It’s everything I’m looking for in a mango bread – moist, a deep mango flavor, light texture and rich taste. (Here’s what I wasn’t looking for: crumbly and dry, heavy and oily, and generically sweet without really tasting of mango.)
This mango bread uses pureed mango instead of the mango chunks that are more commonly used. I like the puree better because every bite tastes of mango instead of getting a bit of mango flavor when you happen to hit a mango piece. Also mango puree has the advantage of using up the mushy parts of the mango.
For many years here in Hawaii, in place of a pine Christmas tree, we’d go to Frankie’s Nursery in Waimanalo and pick out a fruit tree. We liked adding a fruit tree to our garden and avoiding the rush to snag a pine tree in Hawaii before the container shipments all ran ou. The little spindly fruit tree held about 10 ornaments and could only stay inside for about a week before it started to suffer sun-withdrawal. But then we’d get to plant it in our garden afterwards. As a result, we now have a mango tree as well as lemon, lime, guava, grapefruit, orange, starfruit, and lychee trees. We’ve had some tree failures over the years. The sapodilla tree made sad little tasting sapodillas and died, and the lychee tree has gotten huge but has never flowered.
Our mango tree is a thing of glory and the mangoes in this bread are home grown. This is the 2nd year that it’s produced mangoes. They’re incredibly good – stringless with an undertone of coconut flavor. The mangoes were growing down low and in the way of a parking spot. For months now, as we wait for them to ripen, we’ve had to avoid hitting them with our car. “A bumper crop” as my husband Mike calls them. Here’s a photo of our tree and our dog Juno.
- 2-3 ripe mangoes, enough for 1 1/2 cups mango puree
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled a little; or coconut oil for dairy free
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup plain full-fat yogurt, or coconut milk for dairy free
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups finely ground almond flour (also called almond meal), preferably
- Honeyville because it's more finely ground and works best
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup sweetener: xylitol or a combination of 1/4 cup xylitol and 1/4 cup erythritol**, or honey (mango sweetness varies so taste a bit of the dough and add more sweetener to taste)
- Variations: Add these things, if using, as a last step before turning the batter out into the loaf pan.
- 1 1/4 cup toasted, coarsely chopped macadamia nuts or pecans
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (contain sugar so this will no longer be sugar-free)
- Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and preheat oven to 350°.
- Cut a piece of parchment paper and fit in bottom of a regular 9"x 5" x 3" deep loaf pan. Grease top of paper and sides of pan really well with butter or coconut oil.
- Put mango flesh into a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour into measuring cup for 1 1/2 cups of mango puree. Pour puree into a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer.
- Add butter (or coconut oil), eggs, yogurt (or coconut milk), and vanilla to mango puree in bowl and mix to combine.
- Add almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, and xylitol/erythritol to bowl. Mix to combine well. No need to worry about over mixing since there is no gluten in the almond meal. Add macadamia nuts and/or chocolate chips if using. Stir to combine.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake for approximately 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Let bread cool in pan.
- Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and gently invert bread to remove.
- ** The jury is still out on which sweetener is better for you. So I'm using some of each to hedge my bets.
Would a sub with coconut flour work as well as Ener G Egg replacer for the eggs? My son is allergic to gluten, dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and shell fish
I’m sorry but I don’t know if those substitutions would work. I do know that if you use all coconut flour you’ll need to up the coconut milk because coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid. But by how much I’m not sure, never having tried it. You could try adding liquid, waiting a bit to see how much gets absorbed and then adding more until the batter seems like thick batter consistency. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.
I made mine with a mix of cassava flour and cornmeal with a small amount of ground flax for good measure. Came out perfect! I used a combination of coconut oil and olive oil. Coconut milk. Not sure what you can use to replace eggs. More baking powder? I used agave nectar to sweeten. I also add ground nutmeg, cinnamon and clove.
Thank you Andrea for the suggestions! I don’t know anything about cassava flour and am going to look it up.