At first thought you might be surprised to see coconut and lime paired with banana bread, but think about that tropical combination of lime, coconut, and banana and you’ll realize it’s a match made in heaven! This super soft banana bread is studded with coconut and I like to add just a touch of coconut extract, too. When baked up, it gets a layer of toasted coconut on top and then it’s drizzled with a sweet and tangy lime glaze. The flavor combination is unexpected and absolutely delicious!
Ingredients and Equipment Notes
- Bananas – choose bananas with peels that are deep yellow with brown spots. You might be tempted to cheat the ripeness scale here, but don’t. If you use bananas that are just regular-ripe (ready for eating) your bread will lack sweetness and flavor. For best results look for those spotty brown peels! Many times grocery stores will even sell bananas in this state in a discounted section.
- Butter – I recommend real, salted butter for this recipe. If you need to make it dairy free, use your favorite alternative.
- Sour Cream – I use full-fat sour cream in this recipe, but I’ve also tried it with a variety of yogurts (preferably vanilla, but lime or coconut might be great, too) with great results. If you need to make this dairy free, I’d try apple sauce in place of the sour cream here.
- Coconut – I suggest regular, sweetened and shredded coconut, which you’ll find in the baking aisle.
Baking Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I like to line my loaf pan with a single piece of parchment, extending over both sides of the pan. Spray the pan with non-stick spray before placing the parchment on to help it stick.
- In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar, add in eggs, mashed banana, sour cream, milk, and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in coconut.
- Pour Batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with coconut on top.
- Bake for about 1 hour and then drizzle with the sweet and tangy lime glaze!
More Banana Bread Recipes
If you’re feeling like banana bread now, here’s a few other recipes you might like!
Caramelized Banana Bread with Browned Butter Glaze
Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can this be made ahead of time? Yes, it stays moist for several days, especially if left un-cut! Keep in an airtight container to store.
- Can you freeze this coconut-lime banana bread? You bet. It’s easier to freeze without the glaze, consider preparing the glaze and placing in a zip top bag. Place the baked and cooled loaf on a plate in the freezer until frozen, then wrap well with food wrap. Place both bread and glaze baggie in another large freezer bag and freeze together for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, leave bread at room temp to thaw. Make sure glaze packet is sealed well and place in a bowl of warm water to thaw. Snip off a small corner of the baggie and drizzle glaze on top of bread.
Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze
Description
Soft tender banana bread studded with shredded coconut and topped with a sweet and tangy lime glaze.
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons real butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4–5 large bananas)
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons milk or apple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon coconut extract, optional
Topping:
2 tablespoons additional coconut
Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
a little zest from 1 lime (about 1/2 teaspoon, okay to eyeball and zest to taste!)
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×5″ loaf pan with non-stick spray, and if desired, line with parchment.
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until blended. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined. Add banana, sour cream, milk, vanilla and coconut extracts. Beat until combined.
Add flour mixture and beat at a low speed until just combined. Stir in 1/2 C coconut.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle additional 2 tablespoons coconut on top.
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until a knife or skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Note: Check bread after about 45 minutes. If the top has browned and the coconut pieces are looking toasty, you can cover top of bread lightly with a piece of foil. Continue baking until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with loose crumbs, but no wet batter.
When done, remove pan from oven. Let cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes and then carefully remove from pan. Whisk powdered sugar and lime juice together for the glaze and then drizzle over top. Cool for another 15 minutes before slicing.
Questions & Reviews
I’ve made this about 3 or 4 times and I always have a hard time getting the top of the bread to bake all the way through. The sides start to get overdone and the top of the bread is still mushy with a toothpick not coming out clean. Would you suggest moving the oven rack up one from the middle? Or increasing oven temperature? I have it in the oven now at 360 but I’m still having the same problem. I love this bread but I don’t know how to get the middle top part of it to bake all the way?
Strange- I’ve never had that happen. I would cover it with foil toward the end of baking, like you would with a pie- with the middle cut out of the foil. I do that with other breads if the middle isn’t cooking and it usually helps.
This is my very favorite banana bread recipe! I have been making for a couple years now, love it! I love all things lime, so this really hits the spot 🙂 thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Sara, I love so many baking recipies of ” our best bites” . My only problem is I can’t use eggs! Can you give me some ideas on how I can substitute eggs in cheesecake , cake and quick breads?
I have no idea, sorry mini! I would google 🙂
Nope, you’d just have to eyeball baking time.
I’m so glad I pinned this! Made it today and it looked just like your picture and tasted so delicious! Thanks for the recipe! It will be the only way i make banana bread from now on.
Have you ever made these into muffins instead? I wanted to try but have no clue what the cook time would be since banana bread can be so hard to judge on cook time anyway I think.
Wow, oh wow! I just made this bread in mini loaves for a church function. Of course, I had to keep a small loaf to taste-test. It is delicious! I followed the recipe exactly, and I am sold on this bread. It is the best banana bread I have ever eaten. Who knew? Coconut, lime, and banana truly make a delectable bread. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
We LOVE this banana bread! My husband devours it & my 2 year gobbles it up too. I wanted a way to make this bread more portable, so the birth of coconut banana muffins with lime glaze! I made 18 normal-sized muffins (weird number I know) & baked them for about 20 – 25 minutes. Then I laid out a piece of parchment paper, set up my cooling racks & used the whisk to drizzle the glaze over the muffins. This way I don’t have to scrap hardened glaze off the counter! Hope someone else can enjoy them this way!
I have never commented on anything before but this bread is so delicious!!! I’ve already eaten two pieces:) the only thing I’m not sure on is how to store this or transport without the glaze getting ruined… Please help and thank you for a great recipe!
I made this last night and it is wonderful. I replaced the apple juice with fresh lime juice and added 2 tbsp. lime zest to the bread. Delicious!
This sounds stunningly delicious! But where did you get the darling blue and white bread pans shown on the coconut-lime sugar scrub page? SO cute! I’m going to World Market in Orlando on Tuesday, so I’m hoping that’s where I can find them!
Yep, World Market!
Made this tonight and it killed. Thanks so much for an awesome recipe… and the detailed instructions that make us non-bakers look like pros. You guys are awesome.
How do these freeze? I’ve got a bake sale coming up and if I can make these ahead of time that would be lovely….
Quick breads in general freeze beautifully!
Yum! I recently found a nutty coconut banana bread that I just love…but adding a lime glaze?! Hello! I have a girlfriends weekend coming up and I’m in charge of breakfast-guess what’s on the menu now?!
I hate to say this, but mine looks better than yours. 🙂 It turned out awesome.
I made this recipe the day I saw it on FB. Yummmmmmmmmm. This IS my banana bread recipe forever. Thanks for sharing!
I have 4 kids, a husband and bro & sis-in-law in our home – We all LOVED this recipe – but typical of me, I made a few changes. First I used 3/4 Whole Wheat flour to 1/4 white, and also added 1 Tbs ground flax for each recipe. I cut the total sugar by 1/4, and used 1/2 brown and 1/2 succanat (dehydrated sugar cane – has nutrients of plant). We love the flavor of coconut, but not the texture, so I took out the coconut and replaced the apple juice and sour cream with coconut cream. And the glaze wasn’t limey enough for us, so I added the zest of the lime I squezed. I made 4 batches so had 2 loaves and 24 muffins – they were gone in 4 days, and only lasted that long because I limited the kids…Thanks for the great flavor combo!!
I made this twice now and it is really good. I have used the apple juice and last time I didnt have any so I used orange juice , both work well. I also greased as well as dusted the loaf pan with flour. I find it helps the bread rise up the sides better. Just be sure to tap out all the extra flour. Also wait longer then it says to drizzle the glaze . If not it will melt it too much . I found the bread to still be too warm , wait at least an hour I say.
This morning I intended to freeze my abundance of really ripe bananas because I could not face another batch of banana bread. Then I happened upon this recipe. Oh My, YUMMY!
I frequently bake large amounts of muffins to keep in the freezer for easy snacks and this recipe has made the rotation. I used white wheat flour. I didn’t have any limes or lime juice so I used lemon juice and a drop of Doterra’s lime essential oil. So delicious! Moist and wholesome tasting with an edge of limey sweetness.
I love the new inspirationed version of an old favorite. Thank You!
It taste so nice, but I have only one remark: mine it was not so brown like yours. Do you know why?
Wow — this is to-die-for great! Never paired coconut and lime with banana bread but it was a wowzer! Husband LOVED it! Only thing I changed was 1 cup sugar to 3/4 cup sugar and it was just as sweet! I made 2 smaller loves and they were both perfect! Thanks!
I made it yesterday and it was amazing! Thank you Sara.
I am so glad to have found this via Pinterest. I lost my Cooking Light recipe and love this bread!! Thanks for posting.
Made this last night and it turned out wonderful! The lime glaze on top was just the right amount. I made two smaller loaves and cooked them for 50 minutes using foil for the last 10 minutes!
I am trying out this recipe right NOW! only 15 more minutes….. it smells soooo divine. Thanks for the recipe! I am a coconut fiend. yum!!!!!
WOW!! Major WOW!! I love banana bread, coconut, and lime, this is beyond FANTASTIC!!!! There are no words for this recipe other than…AWESOME! Thanks very much for sharing!! I will be making this many times again 🙂
I used your recipe as a base today, and boy is it AMAZING! Thank you SO SO much for sharing. I love your cookbook, and heard that you might be coming out with another?? If you are ever in Utah, I’d LOVE to meet both of you! You are an inspiration to me. I love your food, and your blog! Thanks for keeping it going!
Can you substitute coconut extract? I love the taste, but have a hard time with the texture…
Sure- that would be yummy!
I made this the other night. I don’t have a 9 x5″ pan as suggested I put my batter in 2 small 8 x 4″ pans. I don’t think it came out right lol. My bread was kinda doughy and cakey for the first hour as suggested for cooking time. I figured my oven needed a little more time I cut into one loaf pan the first check, then sliced into both loaves thinking they were done the second check lol. OH! I was probably nervous making this for the first time. Finally, it cooked all the way with an additional 20 – 30 min (lost count)…it came out tasteless, a little dry and moist at the same time. I went wrong in several places I know, but any direct advice in areas that you suppose would make the best difference the next time I make this would be great! Thanks. Going to give it another try tonight. Practice makes perfect! 🙂