I love any chance that I can get to proclaim my love for mangoes, especially since it connects to my childhood. Nothing is better on a hot and humid Hawaii summer day than getting out of the neighbor’s pool and rushing home then into the kitchen to slurp down juicy, ice cold cubes of mango. That was pretty much every day of my summer growing up and there was no shortage of the fruit thanks to the massive tree we had in the backyard.

What variety of mango did we have? I’m not sure, but the flesh was smooth and creamy, not stringy like most other mangoes. And thanks to our over-abundance of the fruit, and my mom not wanting to waste anything, all the ones that were too soft for eating as is got chopped up and frozen to make loaves of mango bread for breakfast or gifts to neighbors.

I can’t remember where my mom got this recipe originally, but I think it might’ve been an insert with the electric bill since the company used to include local Hawaii recipes to share with it. Due to the cinnamon in it, a lot of people that I’ve shared my mango bread with since moving to San Francisco say it makes them think of fall and winter with a Christmas-like flavor. To me, it’ll always be a taste of summer.

When you pick your mangoes for this recipe, make sure they’re soft and very ripe because they taste the best. These are champagne mangoes that have a semi-smooth texture. If you’re unable to get fresh mango, you can use frozen mango cubes, just ensure that they’re fully thawed before baking.

Here’s the recipe as my mom gave it to me! My modification and notes are at the bottom.

Mommy Mei’s Mango Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1½ cups white sugar
• ¾ of a cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 cups diced mango
• ½ of a cup chopped walnuts
• ½ of a cup raisins

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Grease two loaf pans (I used pans that measured 8.5 inches x 4.5 inches x 2.5 inches).
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
4. In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, and oil until well blended.
5. Fold in the mango, nuts, and raisins.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients until well blended.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the pans should come out clean.
8. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before turning them out.
9. Eat warm with a smear of butter or chill it in the fridge and eat it that way for something cooling on a hot day.

Pixie’s Pro Tips –

• Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the egg /sugar/oil mixture before adding the other ingredients..
• You can substitute the walnuts with macadamia nuts if you wanna have more of a Hawaii feel to it.
• You can use less raisins or no raisins if you don’t like them, it doesn’t affect the recipe.
• I put the loaf pans onto a large baking sheet for stability and rotate the sheet pan in the oven halfway through the bake time to ensure that it’s all baking evenly.
• If you feel like being greedy and keeping both loaves for yourself, you can wrap one of them up and put it in the freezer.