bills for Brunch and Coconut Bread

I first became aware of bills when flipping through the cookbook,  Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen.  

He gave the recipe for coconut bread, a signature feature on the menu of this extremely popular restaurant in Sydney, AU.  Here is bills recipe.

bills has a cool vibe, with a communal table adorned with a heaping platter of brown eggs and a glass cylinder containing "bottle brush" branches.  Simple white walls, light furniture and lots of natural light makes this a very congenial spot for breakfast, brunch or lunch. (no dinner served)

bills takes scrambled eggs to a new level.   A NY Times article claims that bills scrambled eggs are perhaps the best in the world!  Quite the claim, but I must say that after tasting this velvety goodness, I agree.  At equal parts egg to cream, do you wonder how they couldn't be amazing.  Click here to see how they do it. 

I had a savory sweetcorn fritter loaded with meaty bacon and spinach.   Another signature dish is the Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb butter.

I've got another 10 days in Australia.  I may just find my way back to bills.  Oh, and I bought the cookbook, one signed by bill himself.

Coconut Bread

Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen  cookbook

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon  (bills uses 2 teaspoons...I would too)

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut, toasted *

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Grease 9x5 inch loaf pan with butter.  In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.  In another bowl, whisk together, sugar, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest.  Pour in coconut milk and whisk.  Add wet ingredient mixture to dry ingredients and fold together with a spatula.  Gently fold in coconut.  Pour into prepared loaf pan, set on cookie sheet and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.  Cool in pan 20 minutes then remove to cutting board and allow to cool completely.  Slice and serve.

* To toast coconut, preheat oven to 315 degrees F.  Spread coconut on cookie sheet and bake about 10 minutes.  Watch to be sure coconut does not turn brown.  Cool.