Tea Bread Tuesday: Mango Bread

As far as I'm concerned, this week's finding was a complete success: I've learned the correct way to cut up a mango! Laugh if you like, but I always thought that you ate mangoes leaning over a sink, with lots of paper towels to catch the juice drippings. I'm not kidding! I could never get those beautiful slices that I saw in cooking magazines, even when I was starting out with a superb specimen!

Then, I found this wonderful cookbook, "¡Cuba Cocina!" by Joyce Lafray and she has, hands down, the best instructions on how to cut a mango correctly that I have ever seen. It figures that she isn't Cuban. Most of my Cuban relatives just assume that everyone is born knowing how to cut a mango, like, its part of the Cuban genetic code or something. I mean, duh, it's so simple! (NOT!). So, for about a day I walked around like I held the secrets of the universe . . . and then, I don't know why, I googled “How to Cut Up a Mango” and . . . guess what I found? Yup, a bunch of links showing the very technique I just discovered. I can't begin to describe how upset this made me. First, I no longer had a secret, second, why did I never come across this information before???? Arrgh!!!

This is kind of a big deal to me. I wouldn't be at all interested in say, how to cut up a prickly pear. I didn't grow up with prickly pears, but mangoes are another story! I have been literally indulging in a secret love affair with this fruit. I mean, who wants to get caught with yellow juice dripping down the chin? I'd wait until the kitchen (or the Break Room at work) was empty to make a pig of myself. Well, at least now I can come out of this fruit closet.

Anyway, going back to the Mango Bread, it was O.K. The bread was beautifully golden, and was very moist, in part thanks to the sour cream in the batter, but it didn't have a distinct mango flavor. I can think of better, and simpler ways to enjoy the taste of mango . . .

Here's the recipe if you want to try it:

1½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
5½ tablespoons butter or margarine
2/3 cups granulated sugar
½ cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe mango pulp
¾ cup chopped pecans
½ cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8½ x 4½ x 2½-inch loaf pan.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Place the butter, sugar and sour cream in a mixing bowl. Beat the mixture at medium speed until fluffy and light. Blend in the flour mixture alternately with the mango just until smooth. Add the nuts and raisins and pour into the greased loaf pan. Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a dry crumb. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully run a sharp thin knife around the inside edge of the pan, then carefully shake the loaf onto the rack. Finish cooling.

Makes 1 loaf.