Almond Joy Bread

I was looking to make a quick bread, but I wanted something special. I looked online and so many of the recipes are for banana bread, or some variation of that. How could l make something really decadent? I know, you probably don’t think of quick bread as decadent, but why couldn’t it be? After searching online in my normal places (Pinterest and FoodGawker) and I settled on this recipe: Almond Joy Bread.

This recipe comes from Peabody over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, who is a blogger who lives fairly close to me. I’ve met her a few times and I’ve followed her blog forever. She has so many great recipes but this one was from six years ago so I had not remembered it. It combines all of the flavors of an Almond Joy candy bar: chocolate, coconut, almonds. All those things together are fabulous.

The base of this bread is coconut, with added chocolate chips and almonds. What really makes it fantastic is the soaking syrup you add after the bread is baked. How could bread soaked in sugar/coconut syrup be bad? Well, it can’t. I took this to work and it was almost instantly gone. I sometimes get requests about the recipes I use, and this one has had lots of requests. So here’s the recipe! Thanks Peabody, for such a great treat.

Almond Joy Bread

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons butter, melted

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon coconut extract

1-1/2 cups flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup buttermilk

½ cup shredded coconut

½ cup almonds, chopped

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup sugar

¼ cup water
½ tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon coconut extract

Chocolate syrup or melted chocolate, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, butter, vanilla, and coconut extract. Beat for two minutes, until well combined. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer running on low, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and the remaining buttermilk. Stir in the last 1/3 of the flour. With a spatula, by hand stir in the coconut, almonds and chocolate chips.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the loaf comes out clean.  Allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

While the loaf is cooling in the pan, make the sugar syrup: in a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, butter and coconut extract. Bring to a boil and boil for one minute. Remove from the heat.

Remove the loaf from the pan and place on a wire rack. Place a piece of aluminum foil underneath the rack. Using a toothpick, poke several holes in the loaf, drizzle/brush the loaf with the sugar syrup, allowing the syrup to soak in to the loaf. Allow to set; drizzle with chocolate syrup or melted chocolate, if desired.

Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody