It’s mango season in Hawaiʻi – a favorite time of year for a lot of people. Do you have an abundance of the fruit that you can’t eat fast enough or might be a bit too ripe? Make mango bread!
If you’re overwhelmed with mangos, you can dice up the fruit in bulk. Then bag it up into 2-cup portions and freeze it. Most recipes for mango bread call for 2 cups of fruit, which is why I suggested that measurement. So when you’re craving some mango bread later in the year when mango season is pau, just take a bag out of the freezer and thaw it before using.
A lot of mango bread recipes are very similar, especially the ones that are local. The recipe I wanted to share comes from an old fundraising recipe book from Ewalani Hula Maids, the hālau I danced with when I was a kid.
The recipe says the egg is optional so I test baked it both ways.
The texture of the loaf without egg is a bit more fragile — it falls apart easily when removing it from the pan and cutting into it. Without the egg, it’s still moist, but not as moist as the one with.
Now, the most important thing is taste. Both taste pretty much the same. So if you want to make a vegan friendly version, or just save the egg for something else, you can skip it.
The recipe also calls for a specific variety of mango grown in the islands. You don’t have to use a Hayden mango – any local variety that you can get will work the same in the recipe. Just make sure they’re very ripe and soft.
Foodie Friday is a segment in the Akamai Recap newsletter that's a place to talk story and connect over food. If you have a favorite recipe or food-centric memory you’d like to share, feel free to send them via email to pclay@hawaiipublicradio.org
