honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, July 19, 2006

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Reader's fave is 'Hunky' mango bread

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Columnist

 •  Principles of washoku

Former Tiser-ite Paula Bender e-mailed to say that her favorite mango bread was one she recalled from some years ago with the intriguing name of "Hunky Bunch Mango Bread."

I delved back into The Advertiser files and never found the recipe — that showed up in an online search — but I did find out who the Hunky Bunch was.

It was the family of the late Dr. Hing Hua "Hunky" Chun and his wife, former legislator Connie Beltran Chun. Theirs was a second marriage and each brought three children to the union — Hunky's three boys and Connie's three girls. In the 1970s, when Papa Chun decided that it would be a great family-building exercise for the eight of them to run together in the Honolulu Marathon, they got tagged with the name "Hunky Bunch," a play on TV's "The Brady Bunch."

Reached at her Foster Village home, Connie Chun explained she would bake as many as 80 loaves of the bread and serve it with homemade liliko'i juice as a post-run snack for runners in various races. It was a standard recipe that she changed around to suit her tastes. She's got three mango trees in the yard and a freezer full of mango right now, but, she said, "I haven't baked mango bread since my husband died (in 2002) because I know I'd cry."

Hunky Bunch bread freezes well and makes good toast.

FAMOUS HAWAIIAN HUNKY BUNCH MANGO BREAD

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

  • 2 teaspoons baking soda

  • 1 cup grated coconut

  • 1/2 cup raisins

  • 2 cups fresh mango, diced

  • 3 eggs, slightly beaten

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil

    Prepare four loaf pans (2 1/2-by-5-inch or larger) by buttering them or using nonstick spray.

    Mix flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir in coconut and raisins. Next, add mango. Mix well, then add eggs, vanilla extract and vegetable oil until blended. Don't over-mix.

    Fill prepared pans two-thirds full and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes for the smaller pans or 1 hour for the larger pans; tops should spring back when touched and a toothpick should emerge from the loaf's center clean.

    Makes 4 loaves, about 10 slices each.

  • Per serving (1 slice): 310 calories, 6 g protein, 14 g fat, 43 g carbohydrate, 35 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber, 115 mg sodium

    Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.

    For more information about our 150th anniversary cookbook, call 535-8189 (message phone; your call will be returned). You can pre-order the cookbook online.