Nici Wickes: Gluten free coconut loaf

This week is Coeliac Awareness Week - a chance to turn the spotlight on the condition whereby the body’s physiology is unable to tolerate gluten – a protein found in wheat, rye and barley – and as a reaction the immune system attacks your own tissues when you eat gluten. 
This from the NHS: 
Over time, the immune reaction to eating gluten creates inflammation that damages the small intestine's lining, leading to medical complications. It prevents absorption of some nutrients (malabsorption) and the classic, and immediate, symptom is diarrhoea. Other symptoms include bloating, wind, fatigue, low blood count (anaemia) and osteoporosis. 
The mainstay of treatment is a strict gluten-free diet that can help manage symptoms and promote intestinal healing. 
It’s a horrible condition made worse by it being undiagnosed and the fact that so many foods contain hidden gluten in some form these days – thickeners in sauces, fillers in sausages etc etc. 
So, here’s a delicious loaf that is perfectly fine for those following a GF diet. 

1 ¼ cups GF flour 
2 tsps baking powder 
1 cup sugar – a mix of brown and white is fine 
1 cup dessicated coconut 
1 cup milk – regular or plant-based 
2 tsps vanilla extract 

Turn the oven to 160 C fan bake. Grease and line a loaf tin. 
Mix all the dry ingredients together and then pour in the milk and vanilla and stir to combine. 
Scrape into the loaf tin. 
Bake for 60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
Cool then slice to eat. It toasts well too.

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