I remember a delicious quick bread popular when I was kid, sweet and cinnamony with nice pockets of gooey strawberry. I think I even remember making it myself at some point. So I went looking for recipes, and they all contained frozen berries in syrup – some even used cake mix or pudding mix. But I thought surely I could do better than that. Fresh, in-season, local strawberries are one of life’s great pleasures, so why muck them up with chemicals and additives and fake gunk.
So here is my new result – sweet, fresh, spiced bread perfect for breakfast, or tea, or even dessert.
Fresh Strawberry Bread
10 ounces stemmed and sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Sliced the strawberries and place in a bowl. Sprinkle over the 3 Tablespoons of sugar and toss to thoroughly coat the berries. Leave to macerate for several hours, until there is plenty of juice at the bottom of the bowl. Drain the berries, reserving the juice.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 inch loaf pan.
Mix the flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla and mix until just combined. Fold in the drained strawberry slices, distributing evenly. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a tester inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove the loaf from the oven and poke holes all over the top with a skewer or thin knife. Drizzle about ¼ cup of reserved strawberry juice over the top of the bread, allowing it to soak in. Loosen the cake from the sides of the pan with a thin knife and leave to cool in the pan.
Makes 1 loaf
Hi PC, I spend my summers in Quebec where there is a bounty of fresh strawberries so sweet they taste like candy. But how much jam can you make? This recipe looks like a delicious way to make use of some of them. Thanks, Valerie Marchese
this has become one of our kids favoite breakfast meals! We are on our third batch, and planning to make several loaves so that we can make it last. Really good and easy. Thanks.
I make strawberry bread for gifts every Christmas. I pick and slice and puree them (2 cups) per bag and freeze. I put the 2 cups in each recipe juice and all – I use 6 small loaf pans – cook for about 45 min. They come out perfect. Great to freeze too.