Chocolate plus coconut is a hard combination to beat! This bread is great for breakfast.  I toast it and put peanut butter on top.  Yum! 

Last Updated on September 4, 2023 – Originally Posted February 26, 2010

The bread is chocolate flavored with the occasional chocolate burst caused by an chocolate chip.  The coconut is very subtle.  The next time I make this recipe I’m going to double the coconut.

How to Toast Coconut

Speaking of coconut, this was the first time I toasted coconut.  I preheated the oven to 300 degrees and spread the coconut out in a baking dish.

I cooked it for 20 minutes and stirred it every five minutes.  Coconut can burn very quickly, so keep an eye on it.  Here’s how it looked after 20 minutes.

This was a little darker than I was going for, but it didn’t burn.

Chocolate Chips

This recipe includes chocolate chips.

People will have different results with this recipe in terms of how much the chocolate chips melt.  Why?  It depends on how hot your bread machine gets and the size of the chocolate chips.  If you use mini chocolate chips then they’ll melt more than the regular kind.

I love history and the history of chocolate chips is tied to one of my favorite foods, chocolate chip cookies!

In 1937 Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the Whitman, Massachusetts added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe. The cookies were understandably a hit!   

Nestlé heard about the cookies and developed chocolate chips to more easily work with the cookie recipe.  

Should You Heat the Liquid Ingredients or Melt the Butter?

This is a great question and the answer depends on your bread machine.   

I have three bread machines including a Zojirushi BB-PDC20 Virtuoso Plus. Two of my machines are Zojirushi and I love them!  I have a page devoted to why I love  and recommend Zojirushi bread machines.

One of the many reasons that I love Zojirushi bread makers is because of the preheat cycle.  That cycle brings liquid ingredients up to the proper temperature.  

So if your bread machine has a preheat cycle, don’t worry about melting the butter or warming the liquids.  If your machine does not have a preheat cycle then follow the directions that came with your machine as to how to properly bring everything to the right temperature. 

The Add Beep

And here’s a tip for working with chocolate chips in this chocolate coconut bread recipe. 

Technically speaking, the chips should be added at the add beep.  I don’t recommend that though.  Check out this image of raisin bread. 

The above photo is a close up of the manual that came with my machine.  I’m sure that they put the raisins in at the add beep. 

To avoid this, I add the “goodies” to the recipe at the very beginning.

 I’m just not satisfied with the mixing that occurs when things are added during the add beep.

How to Make Chocolate Coconut Bread in the Bread Machine

I make this recipe in my two-pound machine. Note that you’ll be using the basic/white cycle with the medium or light crust setting.

Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the bread machine first. (My Zojirushi says to add the liquid ingredients first.)

Make sure you check on the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading.  Just pop the top of the bread machine and see how the dough is doing.  It should be a smooth, round ball.  If it’s too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks OK.  If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks OK.  Most of the time though, the above amounts should be just right.

Chocolate Coconut Bread Recipe for the Bread Machine

Again, this makes a two-pound loaf. I recommend using the basic/white cycle with the medium or light crust setting.

1 Cup milk
3 Tablespoons water
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
4 Cups bread flour
4 teaspoons butter
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
½ Cup chocolate chips
½ Cup toasted coconut (see above)