Chai-Spiced Coconut Pear Bread

Note: For the chai-infused milk, I steeped chai tea in warm milk for a few minutes, then let the milk cool to room temperature. If you can’t find chai tea or don’t want to add it, just use regular milk.

Preheat oven to 300ºF. Spread coconut in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring every few minutes, until lightly toasted, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Increase oven temperature to 350ºF. Lightly grease and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together toasted coconut, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. In a separate large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until just combined. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, stirring until just combined and scraping down sides of bowl after each addition. Fold in cubed pears.

Pour batter evenly into prepared baking pan. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove from pan and cool 30 minutes on a cooling rack.

For the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla and milk until a thick glaze forms (add more milk if needed). Spoon and spread glaze evenly over bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Cool completely before slicing.

Recipe adapted from Zoe Bakes.