Gail: Mango Bread Questin!!

[Deanna]

I just returned from the grocery store (lunch break=errands, you know!) and purchased a bag of frozen mango chunks to make your Mango Bread recipe.

How finely would you suggest I chop the chunks? Probably don't want them too big...but would appreciate your input.

Thanks

Deanna

[Deanna]

bumping up; it's getting buried.

[Gail]

Sorry, Deanna--

I was out enjoying a nice root canal...

Read your question and completely zoned out. For the life of me, I can't remember how large/small I generally chop the mangoes and unlike many of the recipes I post, I make this one fairly often... I'm guessing-- now, mind you, I use fresh mango, but I wouldn't imagine that would be that much different-- that I probably chop in around 3/4 inch cubes, trying to cut down on air spaces between bigger hunks of fruit in the measuring cup.

I love this stuff! Hope it works for you.

[KelLeg]

Could I get this recipe? Is it light? I did a search and didn't find it.

[Deanna]

Gail: Ouch! Hope you recover soon...

Kel -- here it is, courtesy of our friend Gail who posted it in response to my request for "Hawaiian" recipes.

MANGO BREAD

2 cups flour, sifted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
2 1/2 cups chopped mangoes (ripe)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup raisins

Combine the flour, cinnamon, soda, salt, and sugar. Beat the eggs with the oil and add to the flour mixture. Blend in the mangoes, lemon juice and raisins. Turn into 2 greased 8 x 4-inch loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until wood pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 2 loaves.

(From: Best Recipes from the Los Angeles Times, submitted by the Kaanapali Beach Hotel, Maui)

This stuff is REALLY good! I make it often.

[Gail]

Originally posted by KelLeg
...Is it light?

Alas, KelLeg...

The goddess is not known for light recipes. She can, however, be taught. And is learning.


Deanna,

Thanks. No pain so far.

[Deanna]

Those little loaves are basking in the warmth of a 350-degree oven as we speak.

Couple of concerns:

Once I added the oil/egg mixture to the flour mixture, I had a really stiff dough going...perhaps I overbeat the egg and oil? It had completely emulsified. I wonder if the directions should say "lightly beat eggs and oil." ???

Since the dough was so stiff, I put about 3 cups of cubed mango in the food processor and gave it a whirl. Still some chunks, but a little more liquid was released to get the "dough/batter" to the proper consistency.

Oops! With all this freaking out over the dough consistency...I forgot to add the lemon juice! Are my mango breads ruined???

Appreciate your comments, Gail.

P.S. Have you ever seen that character "Mango" on SNL??? Tee-hee!

[Gail]

Comments? (biting nails) Ummm....
I just don't remember, Deanna. Was it this batter or was it my carrot cake batter that came out looking distinctly disgusting... predigested, if you get my bent...

Could it be that my fresh ripe mangoes mooshed up more than your frozen ones with the beater? I suspect your emulsification (is that really a word?) will be okay though I am a bit curious whether the extra half cup is going to change things. Ironically, I've under-mangoed (ran short) but never over-mangoed. Isn't this a great post, chock full of new terms?

Leave out a lousy teaspoon of lemon? So what. I can't imagine that will make much of a difference. As for overbeating the eggs and oil, probably it should've said "lightly" or "slightly." I never really thought about it, but I've never had what you describe happen. Guess I'm not particularly energetic in my egg/oil mixing.

I feel terrible here that things aren't going smoothly. Even though I've made this numerous times, for the life of me I don't remember the consistency of the batter, so I'm really no help at all. Maybe I should just pray?

[BlueMoose]

You could easily lighten it by reducing the oil to 1/4 cup and adding 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt. Using lemon yogurt would be good! I'll have to give this one a try soon.

[Deanna]

The loaves are out and look/smell wonderful! They are perfectly FLAT on top, however, not rounded like a loaf of yeast bread or banana bread would do.

I'm taking them to the office in the morning for the taste test. Since I live alone and love to cook, I'm forever feeding my Department all my home-cooked goodies. It's a great hobby!

I'm hoping someone else will try this recipe and let me know if I've done something wrong, or if my results were typical.

Can't wait to taste it!!!

[Gail]

Y'know, I actually looked for mango last night at the market, I was so bummed about not being able to help with this. There was a sign showing mango on special. And no mangoes. If I find some at Whole Foods today, perhaps I'll give it a go for you-- though normally speaking the mangoes need to ripen a few days and you're running out of time.

I remember this recipe as being extremely hassle-free, thus I'm disturbed that things haven't run that way. I hope they turned out... I will tell you, though, that my loaves don't come out flat as a rule. Normally, they're nicely rounded.

Let me also ask Vanessa about this. At one time she was going to make them; dunno if she ever did...

[Deanna]

Gail: The bread tasted wonderful! It was moist and dense. Since I ran the mangoes through the Food Processor, there weren't many "chunks" of mango, however.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a "hassle" to make the bread! It was very easy!! I was only concerned about the consistency pre-addition of eggs, oil, and mango.

I'll give it another try; it was quite tasty!

Thanks for sharing,

Deanna

[Vanessa]

Hi Gail:

No I have not made the mango bread...I started searching but cannot locate the recipe in question. Theres a recipe from a B & B in Hawaii which is as follows.
Also I believe mom does make with mangos in abundance in PR mango bread. I do think she uses very ripe mango and proceses it much like a banana bread but using mango.
In any event heres the Hawaii mango bread recipe. I see Deann posted the bread came nicely...
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 chopped ripe mangos
1 tsp. vanilla extract Mix all ingredients well.
Pour into greased pan.
Bake at 325 degrees F. for one hour.
Cool for 20 minutes.

[Gail]

Why, Vanessa-- you're right there, over my shoulder! I didn't look, 'cause I just naturally assumed you were Sandy. Thanks for the quick response and recipe.


And Deanna, I am SOOO relieved to hear it turned out well. (Sigh of relief) Now I don't need to go mango hunting.

[slknight]

Gail, just wanted to thank you for your mango bread recipe. I made it yesterday for our supper club last night. It was my first experience with mangoes, so I was a little nervous, but it tasted great! We did a "tropical" theme and had a ton of mango dishes. I am now officially hooked. Thanks.

-Susan

[SandyM]

Originally posted by Gail
Why, Vanessa-- you're right there, over my shoulder! I didn't look, 'cause I just naturally assumed you were Sandy.

Whew. I'm glad it was a given.

[Gail]

(ignoring Sandy, breathing down my neck...)

Glad to hear you liked it, Susan. Did you do the recipe as written or try the suggestion for lightening it?

[slknight]

Originally posted by Gail
(ignoring Sandy, breathing down my neck...)

Glad to hear you liked it, Susan. Did you do the recipe as written or try the suggestion for lightening it?

Nah. I didn't try to lighten it since it was my first time making it. I don't like to tinker too much with something the first time around, especially when it's for other people (supper club). But I definitely think it could be lightened pretty easily by subbing drained applesauce or yogurt for some of the oil.

Thanks again.

[Wendy w]

I made this bread today. Mmmmm! Like Susan, this is the 1st time that I have worked with mangoes. It was fabulously tasty, but I have to ask Gail a question about appearance and texture.

I baked it for the specified hour and then it was dark on the outside but still seemed to be a little too moist on the inside so I baked it for an extra 5 minutes. It then got even darker on the outside and a bit drier on the inside.

I took it out of the oven and then went for a walk. When I came back, I treated myself to a slice and it was very tasty and moist but I was wondering if it was too moist? I realize that the mangoes and oil make a moist bread but is it supposed to be on the sticky side? I'm almost thinking that the mangoes add moisture, that maybe the oil could be cut back a bit. Since you make this often, what is the usual texture?

Thanks!

[Gail]

Sorry Wendy,

Wasn't on line yesterday.

No, the bread shouldn't be sticky. I had that happen once, when it was underbaked in the center. It should have a usual fruit bread (like date nut or pumpkin) kind of consistency. Perhaps it needed to be placed lower in your oven?

[greysangel]

I'm bumping this up because I made this last night to take a loaf to work with me. I made a couple changes..I used lime instead of lemon because I love the lime/mango combo. I omitted the raisins and added shredded coconut YUM YUM! DH loved it and was very sad to hear that one loaf was disappearing immediately. I only had a bite of Dh's piece and I liked the flavor or it, but for my tastes it is too oily. I like moist bread, but this was so moist it leaves oil on your fingers. I think it's just I've gotten used to drier/lighter breads and muffins, that these seem to dense to me. But again DH devouring half a loaf is proof enough that it's good stuff!
edited:
People were practically licking the plate at the meeting so that goes to show you what I know

JeAnne

[Wendy w]

Thanks Gail. I am just now seeing this. Next time, I will put it lower in the oven. JeAnne, the lime substitution sounds really good!

[Gail]

Hmm. Looks like I'm going to have to make this stuff again to satisfy my curiosity. I am in the habit of cooking/baking things, then forgetting specifics. I know after Deanna's first post here, I I paid attention to the batter the next time around and noted that it didn't come out particularly thick. Now this oil/stickiness issue has got me curious...

I hate when things don't turn out for others-- especially when I can't say why. Other than that one underbaked batch, I've always had excellent results with this recipe.

Sorry.

[greysangel]

Dearest board goddess;

I hope you didn't read my post wrong...I was definitely the minority with my opinion! And I thought the taste was very good, just too "wet" DH practically cried when I wrapped up the one to take to work and I got two emails today from staff members asking for the recipe...in my book, that means the recipe worked here!

JeAnne

[Gail]

No need to explain, JeAnne.

It seems to me that if I'm going to post something which has presented a few questions (and you're not the first to make the observation about the oil, since this is Cooking Light, after all) I simply think it might be prudent for me to bake this again fairly soon so I'm better prepared to field any further questions that may arise.

[slknight]

Thought I'd chime in since I'm the one who resurrected this old thread recently. I think that mine was fairly moist and sticky as well. I thought that perhaps I had undercooked the middle a bit.

Now I'm going to have to try it again too. Actually, I meant to make it again recently and bought the mangoes. But I never got around to it (because I think it's a pain to chop mangoes and made DH do it last time ) and my mangoes went bad. I'm putting mangoes on my shopping list so I can try it again this weekend.

But I would like to say that just because it was moist/sticky/oily/whatever doesn't mean that it was bad. Quite the contrary. There wasn't a crumb left!

[Wendy w]

Susan, I agree with you. The most difficult part of this recipe is the mango preparation. This is an older recipe and I have the from where the Goddess found the recipe. I want to try it again and take her hint of putting it on a lower shelf and possibly adding less oil. The bread tasted great, was not run of the mill, and I think that it is worth a (or a few)retest(s).

[emily]

So I decided to whip up this bread last night while I was waiting for my rice to cook. There are 2 other people in the kitchen, we're chatting, also stir frying veggies and broiling the beef bulgogi (CL 3/03 yum!). I finish the batter, divide it between two pans, thinking there's not nearly enough batter for 2 pans, but continue on, because the recipe is from the goddess Quite possibly, for the first time in my life, I don't taste the batter before it goes into the oven. An hour later, I am horrified to see that the breads have not grown at all but I remembered people saying theirs didn't crown. So I'm thinking maybe I just used far too large of loaf pans then I taste it and it's just awful I go back to read the recipe, wondering what I could have done...

and then I realize that I've forgotten the sugar

I think I'll try again later, when I've recovered from my embarrassment.

[Gail]

I am starting to think there is a curse on this recipe. (insert ghost noises)

[Wendy w]

Gail, I don't think that there's a curse on this recipe, it tastes great and I think that its worth working on. I'm going to try it again too. For starters, I'm going to cut waaay back on the oil.