Strawberry Bread

If we're being honest here, I have no idea why I'm baking strawberry bread when there's a half-full bottle of Prosecco still in the fridge. I obviously have better uses for strawberries in the cocina, but it's been awhile since I've made a quick bread and the recipe seemed simple enough; I also have a surplus of strawberries here because I find it very hard to walk by them at the market when they're in season. The idea of a moist bread filled with pockets of mashed strawberry to bite into didn't sound too shabby either. So, really, strawberry bread wasn't too hard of a sell for me.  

And this did turn out well. It's an extremely moist bread; the loaf was a little misshapen at one end when I removed it from the pan, but I employed the popular kitchen magic trick known as turning-the-loaf-around-so-you-can't-see-that-side and voila!, a perfect loaf.

My heart still lies with banana bread, but I will definitely make this bread again. 

Strawberry Bread

Adapted from Everyday Food

The recipe calls for fresh strawberries, but you can also substitute thawed frozen berries.

6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

1 pint strawberries, rinsed, hulled, quartered and mashed with a fork

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter (or spray with cooking spray) an 8 x 4" loaf pan. 

2. In a small saucepan, bring strawberries to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring, 1 minute. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with 1/3 cup water, beginning and ending with flour. Fold in reserved strawberries. 

4. Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour (tent with foil after 45 minutes if top is getting too dark). 

5. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges; invert onto a rack. Reinvert; cool completely.