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Recently, my sister-in-law went on a trip to Hawaii and I lived vicariously through their pictures of the island, longing for the beach, sunshine, and relaxation. Sigh. I’ve never been to Hawaii but it’s on my bucket list!
Thankfully, there are ways to bring the tropical love home. I have a pineapple candle, coconut body lotion, a pineapple t-shirt…
And I made this Aloha Pineapple Bread. It’s like a Hawaiian vacation for your mouth!
Yum.
The pineapple adds some delicous moisture. It also has the goodness of bananas, coconut, and macadamia nuts. It’s pretty much heaven in a sweet bread!
The other great thing about this particular recipe is that it has fewer calories in it than regular sweet breads. Why?
Because instead of regular white sugar, I used an alternative called Lite&Sweet. It’s a special blend of two natural sweeteners, xylitol and erythritol, that is similar in taste and texture to sugar but with 75% fewer calories and a glycemic index of 3. It’s good for diabetics and you can easily swap it out, like I did, for regular sugar. This recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar so using Lite&Sweet really saved on the calories and it’s 85% as sweet. My family didn’t know the difference.
It makes this bread even better because you can eat it while still working on maintaining that swimsuit body we all worry about this time of year. Score!
Seriously, I ate this bread and didn’t feel any guilt reaching for another piece. It’s still not the healthiest, because it uses real butter, but I don’t think about that. I focus on the fact that it has no real sugar but tastes just as sweet and it has loads of pineapple and banana in it, which is fruit and we need fruit, right?
In the past, I’ve admittedly had problems with banana bread on its own but this bread came out perfectly moist and brown. When you use the pineapple, be sure to not drain it because the juice needs to go in too!
The batter does look a little watery before you add the dry ingredients so don’t let that freak you out.
This recipe makes two regular sized loafs or a bunch of little small loaves, depending on their size (my mini pans made about 16 mini loaves and baked for about 35 minutes, half the time). So there is plenty to share and you can spread the summer love with friends and neighbors!
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar or Lite&Sweet
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup mashed bananas
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
- ¾ cup chopped macadamia nuts
- 1 cup coconut
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease loaf pans (recipe makes 2 large loafs).
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar (or Lite&Sweet).
- Add eggs.
- Stir in bananas.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add in flour mixture to wet ingredients and blend well. Do not overmix.
- Add pineapple, macadamia nuts, and coconut and mix together on a low speed until blended.
- Pour into prepared pans, filling ⅔ full.
- Bake for 60-80 minutes (if using large loaf pans).
- Allow to cool before removing from pans.
