Strawberry Bread

[sweetfreak]

Before I got married, I lived in a house with three other girls, one of whom was from Atlanta.

Her mother used to send us loaves of homemade strawberry bread. Never before, never since, have I had such a bread.

Very dense, close to a pound cake, but not quite.

It was also evident that her mom poured some sort of a syrup over the bread, which soaked in and made it incredibly moist.

I would LOVE to make this bread, but have never been able to find a recipe that looks to come close.

Please help. Does anyone have a recipe that might come close?

[Wendy DeBord]

I made a strawberry bread recipe from Martha Stewarts little cookbook (sold in the grocery store) that was excellent. It might be posted on her site.

[Patrick S]

Here's a recipe that is said to be from Martha Stewart. Keep us posted on what you find, sweetfreak.

[sweetfreak]

Thank you! Kew actually PM'd me a recipe for strawberry bread that looks pretty close to what I am looking for. I am going to bake this weekend and will be sure to report back. It makes 2 loaves and does have a glaze. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of oil, but she writes that you can use 1/2 cup of oil and 1 cup of milk instead. I may try the latter unless anyone objects

[hazardnc]

There are loads of strawberry bread recipes out in cyberspace, and all are basically the same. I imagine your friend's mom made a basic glaze for the top of the bread. I saw one mention of an almond glazed strawberry bread whcih called for toasted almonds mixed in with a sibac glaze flavored with almond extract, though some use fresh berries and some use frozch- it sounds very yummy.

[Wendy DeBord]

I did look for the sb bread I mentioned over at Marthas site but it's not posted. It is referenced to her July/August 2004 issue. It is different then what you found Patrick........it doesn't use preserves it uses strawberry sauce to flavor.

[sweetfreak]

I ended up making Kew's recipe for strawberry bread this weekend and it came out very well. The recipe uses fresh strawberries, sliced then mashed. I did use the variation with more milk, less oil. I also made the powdered sugar glaze.

The breads are not overly sweet and I like the hint of cinnamon. Next time I make this recipe, I would probably include even more strawberries, but then I love strawberries. I also wondered if adding some chopped nuts might be good texture-wise.

Would be happy to post the recipe with Kew's permission, or Kew can post it if that would be easier.

Thanks again.

[torakris]

I would love to see the recipe! I have never eaten strawberry bread but it sounds so good and we are currently in the middle of strawberry season here and they a quite cheap.

[heleen1]

I'd love the recipe as well! I made a sb bread before, but it definately lacked taste, so an alternative would be great!

[sweetfreak]

Well, since we have not heard back from Kew yet, I will go ahead and post her recipe. Like I said, I used more milk, less oil, and did glaze the loaves:

STRAWBERRY BREAD

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 cups sliced strawberries, mashed

1 1/2 cups cooking oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 t. ground cinnamon

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

Powdered Sugar Glaze (recipe below, optional)

Grease and flour two 8x4x2-inch.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer on medium until thick and lemon-color then add sugar and beat just until combined. Add mashed berries and oil, and mixtill combined.

Stir dry ingredients together. Add to the above and stir until just moistened.

Bake in a 350F oven about 50 minutes for the 8x4-inch pans or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Loosen edges and remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing. Drizzle loaves with Powdered Sugar before slicing, if desired.

Powdered Sugar Glaze: Combine 1 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1 T. milk, and 1/2 t. vanilla and stir in additional milk until drizzling consistency. Tint pink using red food coloring, if desired.

If you don't want it to have too much oil, instead of 1 1/2C oil use 1/2C oil and 1C milk instead.

[heleen1]

Thanks, I appreciate that! Maybe subbing applesauce for part of the oil would work too. Did you have good results with the milk?

[sweetfreak]

Yes, it did come out fine with the milk, though I have nothing to compare it to, moisture-wise. I don't know if using all oil would make for a moister result.

I should also add that the bread really does taste better a day or two after baking...the flavors seemed to develop more.

[Patrick S]

Yes, it did come out fine with the milk, though I have nothing to compare it to, moisture-wise.  I don't know if using all oil would make for a moister result.

←

It definitely would. Measure for measure, oil is going to make your cake seem much more moist.

[JustKay]

I should also add that the bread really does taste better a day or two after baking...the flavors seemed to develop more.

[

Yay! Yes, the bread is better the next day, isn't it? I'm also thinking a cream cheese glaze would be good with it?

I'm glad it turned out for you too. I'm sorry though for not checking back earlier.

Oh, and try making bread pudding with it. Yummy!

[sweetfreak]

Now, there's an idea...bread pudding! I do still have some left over. Any ideas for bread pudding recipes using the strawberry bread??

[Patrick S]

I had a little puree left in the fridge, so I tried out Kew's recipe. I only had 1C puree left, so I added in a pack of strawberry Jello. Its pretty tasty. I gave a lot away at work today, and everyone seemed to like it. I'm not sure what I think about the addition of cinnamon, but I don't strongly dislike it. In the strawberry cake thread, I tried 3 cake recipes. Had I tried this one in that thread, I would have rated it 2nd. Thanks for the recipe, Kew!

[techno foodie]

I tried Kew's recipe last night with a few minor changes. Used just 1 tsp. of cinnamon (instead of 2) and used 3/4 cup of oil and 3/4 of applesauce instead of 1.5 cups of oil. Oh, and I folded the strawberries in at the end instead of mixing them in early on.

Regardless, the bread is wonderful! I'm glad it made 2 loaves - one for work, and one for me :)

Thanks for the recipe, Kew!

Bryan

[DiH]

Made this yesterday and it is oh so delicious...

The recipe I used is out of an old Czech fundraising cookbook:

3 C. flour

2 C. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 t. salt

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups well drained and sliced frozen strawberries; reserve sweetened juice

1 C. vegetable oil

1/4 C. milk

1/2 C. chopped walnuts or pecans

Sift together (3 times) nuts and all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients over top and fold in. Bake at 350 degrees, 65 minutes or until you can pierce with knife blade that comes out clean.

Immediately brush hot loaves with the reserved juice. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack(s). Recipe makes two loaves.

When cooled, I glazed loaves with same Powdered Sugar Glaze recipe as previously contributed by Kew, using 2 Tbsp. milk, microwaved for 1 minute, then added about 1/4 C. butter to eliminate the flavor of the raw powdered sugar.

Definitely a Keeper Recipe!

Di

Edited to say... uh well, it just needed editing!

Edited April 10, 2005 by DiH (log)

[torakris]

gorgeous Di!

Are the frozen berries thawed? I am assuming that is where the juice is coming from....

I have a pack of frozen strawberries in the freezer and would love to turn it into this!

[cakewalk]

Oh, and I folded the strawberries in at the end instead of mixing them in early on.

←

Did you still mash the strawberries, or did you just slice them and fold them in like that, so you had pieces of strawberry in the cake?

[sweetfreak]

I forgot to add last week that I DID make a bread pudding from the leftover strawberry breads and it was delicious. Just a standard recipe with milk, eggs, etc. I added even more cinnamon because my husband and I love cinnamon, and sliced some fresh strawberries into the pudding as well. It was a great Spring-y treat!

[DiH]

gorgeous Di!

Are the frozen berries thawed? I am assuming that is where the juice is coming from....

I have a pack of frozen strawberries in the freezer and would love to turn it into this!

←

Thanks! Yes, thaw the berries. Actually, mine were unsweetened so I dumped about a cup of sugar on 'em for the juice, then drained 'em later. If yours' are already sweetened, that puts you one step ahead.

Di

[techno foodie]

Did you still mash the strawberries, or did you just slice them and fold them in like that, so you had pieces of strawberry in the cake?

Cakewalk:

I mashed them a bit (just a bit, really) and then folded them in so there would be chunks of berry throughout the bread.

I loved it - as did my husband and parents - and I'll definitely be making the bread again.

Next time I want to try making it into bread pudding, like someone else here recommended. Sounds so good!

Bryan

[jsolomon]

I must be a philistine... I've never come across a cooked strawberry recipe that I thought did justice to the fruit...

I'll have to look through these recipes and throw a bag or two of frozen fraises at them to see if I'm just weird.