Among my produce for the past couple weeks has been a plethora of citrus. Oranges, lemons, and grapefruits. Now, I’m not a person who loves oranges, fresh and unadulterated. I like orange-flavored foods, but I have a weird “thing” about the texture of oranges so I don’t eat them by themselves. Obviously, I had to find a way to use some oranges in recipes so I wouldn’t have to eat them plain.
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I found a Cooking Light recipe for a basic orange coconut bread using orange zest and orange-flavored yogurt (Seriously? Yuck! If you’re going to buy an orange for the zest, at least use the juice!), so I messed with it a little and came up with the bread I’m featuring in this post. I could tell as soon as I finished mixing the batter that this bread was going to be insane. The smell was out of this world, and I could see that the texture was going to be fluffy and amazing. I was right—I’m in love with this stuff!
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The combination of the orange flavor and coconut (with lovely toasted bits on top) is, of course, delicious. The added lemon gives it an extra punch (though it doesn’t add a pronounced lemon flavor, it simply enhances the orange flavor), and the texture is soft and fluffy with just the right amount of chew for a quick bread. It’s just the right amount of sweet, but if you wanted to dress it up a little, you could make a quick glaze out of powdered sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, and maybe a little splash of milk. You could even add some orange liqueur to the cake itself or a glaze to really take it over the top for a special occasion, but it’s perfect as-is for everyday deliciousness.

Your cast of characters includes: oil, milk, an orange, a lemon, baking soda, sweetened flaked coconut, plain nonfat Greek yogurt, an egg, all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt (not shown).

First, preheat your oven to 350. Then whisk your egg and oil with your sugar until smooth.

Now, add your milk and yogurt to the mixture and whisk again until smooth.

Now, zest your orange and lemon. I used about a tablespoon of zest, which was a little more than half of the total rind on my orange. I used just about a teaspoon of lemon zest, which was half of my lemon.

Combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) with 1/4 cup of your coconut in a large mixing bowl and add in your zests. Whisk until combined.

(Yes, this is an orange and not a grapefruit. Very pretty and unexpected color!) Juice your orange and lemon into your wet mixture. I used the juice of a whole orange and the juice of half a lemon.

Whisk that all together.

Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in your wet mixture. Stir until just combined.

The batter should be pretty light and fluffy. Don’t overmix or your bread will be tough!

Transfer batter into a loaf pan (9×5″ is best; this one’s a little smaller than that) prepared with nonstick spray. Top with the remaining coconut and bake for 55 minutes to an hour until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from pan.

Gorgeous, no?

Look at the gorgeous little flecks or orange and yellow and the coconut! So delicious.

Enjoy for breakfast…or dessert…or anytime at all.

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Citrus Coconut Quick Bread
Adapted from Cooking Light
12 servings (1 big slice/serving)
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• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat milk
• 8 ounces plain, nonfat Greek yogurt
• Juice of one orange (about 2 to 3 ounces)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 ounce)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
• 5 tablespoons flaked sweetened coconut, divided
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (about half an orange’s worth)
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest (about half a lemon’s worth)
• 1  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• Cooking spray

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Preheat oven to 350°.
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Combine 1 cup sugar, oil, and egg in a medium bowl, and stir with a whisk until smooth. Stir in milk and yogurt. Whisk in orange and lemon juice. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, 1/4 cup coconut, orange zest, lemon zest, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in the center of flour mixture, and add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
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Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining coconut. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes to an hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan before turning out.
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Nutrition Facts

Calories: 178 (13% from fat)
Fat: 2.6g (sat 1g,mono 1g,poly 0.5g)
Protein: 5.1g
Carbohydrate: 32g
Fiber: 0.8g
Cholesterol: 18mg
Iron: 1.1mg
Sodium: 228mg
Calcium: 53mg