Coffee Spiked Banana Cashew Bread

I was lucky enough to be home one year when some of my favourite fruits were in season. My brother got me a bounty of fruit including mangoes from our trees and some from friends. Among the fruit, were cashews. It had been several years since I had had cashew banana and I devoured them with glee, setting aside the nuts to be roasted at a later date. I related this to a friend and he was confused. What in the world is a "cashew banana"? Now it was my turn to be confused. What did he mean? Then it hit me that it could just be that some parts of the island may have a different name for the fruit. "Cashew apple," I offered. That rang no bells.To him, a cashew is just a nut. He had no idea that this was actually a seed attached to delicious fruit. I declared him a horrible Jamaican and sent him the picture above. He accused me of making things up.

Cashew Fruit aka Cashew Apple or Cashew Banana

I remembered this story when cashews and coffee won the vote for this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge. I briefly thought of getting my hands on some cashew bananas. But even if the stars aligned, and cashews were in season and I miraculously got my hand on some, I had no clue how I would pair it with coffee. I guess it would have had to be a drink. I tossed that idea aside and retreated to my comfort zone - the almighty flour.

It's always exciting every month to see how we used the two ingredients. Look for what others made in the links below! We'd love to see you join us for CIC so be sure to check out information on how to join also.

Coffee Spiked Banana Cashew Bread

Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted from: Alton Brown

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients 1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon hot water.  340 grams banana  210 grams sugar 100 grams oil 2 large eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla 220 grams all purpose flour 35 grams oats, ground to oat flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt  1 cup cashews, chopped

Directions Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan. In a small bowl, mix the coffee, sugar and hot water until the coffee and sugar have dissolved. Set aside. Mash the bananas and the sugar until smooth. Mix in the oil, beaten eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt.  Gently fold the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Add small amounts of flour at at time and be careful not to overmix. Gently fold in the chopped cashews.  Next, transfer half of the batter to another container. Gently mix the coffee mixture into this half.  Pour the batters into the prepared loaf pan. You can alternate adding scoops the batters then swirling for a marbled effect or you add the batter in multiple layers.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

Notes I used about 2 1/2 large bananas.  Be gentle! Don't overmix.

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