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I have made my first attempt at making Strawberry Bread. It’s in the oven right now and, of course, I’ll be sure to come back and post the results when it’s done. In the meantime, here is the recipe I used…

Strawberry Bread

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup non-sweetened applesauce (or use 1 cup oil and omit applesauce)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups crushed strawberries
1 cup crushed nuts

Beat eggs and sugar together; add applesauce, oil and vanilla. Mix well.
 
Mix dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) well; add oats and blend together well.

Mix flour mixture together with wet mixture; blend well.

Fold in strawberries and nuts.

Pour mixture into two greased regular-sizeed loaf pans. (DO NOT OVERFILL PANS) Bake at 350 for one hour.

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I played around with this recipe, so hopefully it will come out nice and tasty. I added the applesauce and nuts. I didn’t have enough oil and applesauce makes a nice healthy substitute. I would love to have put pecans in this bread, but I had walnuts today, so that’s what I used. I hope it’s yummy. Will edit as soon as I know… 😀

UPDATE 1:

ACK!!! I just learned my first strawberry bread lesson. Do NOT overfill the loaf pans. I filled the loaf pans mostly full because that’s what I do with banana nut bread and it turns out fine. Not the case with strawberry bread. I smelled something burning and, yep, some of the batter was cooking over and burning in the bottom of my oven. I just hope the bread can be salvaged. (I almost didn’t post this because it’s embarassing, but I guess most of us have kitchen missteps from time to time and it’s good to learn as we go. I hope.)

UPDATE 2:

I am happy to report that the bread survived my bungled baking. Yay!! It is really quite good. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it is really quite tasty. Not a strong strawberry taste like I was expecting, but still VERY good. I’m just happy it wasn’t a total flop. Remember: DO NOT OVERFILL LOAF PANS!! I would say fill maybe half to 3/4, but leave rising room!!

I really should be cleaning house right now. It needs to be done. However, I just put some banana nut bread in the oven to bake and I was inspired to post this recipe to share it. This is one of the best recipes I’ve ever tried for banana nut bread. The recipe is from a small church cookbook that was given to me by Mickey’s grandmother a few years ago. I have used this recipe and given it out SO many times. It’s fantastic!!

Banana Nut Bread

1 (8oz) block cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup (half stick) butter, softened
1 cup (about 3 medium) mashed bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup nuts, chopped

Combine the cream cheese, sugar and margarine; cream well together. Blend in bananas, eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together and then mix together well with wet ingredients. Fold in nuts. Pour into greased and floured 9x5x3″ loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. (Makes one loaf)

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NOTES:

• I added the vanilla and the salt to my recipe. The original didn’t call for those, but I like the additions.
• I typically make three small loaf pans of this bread.
• Adjust the baking time to your oven. I have had to cook one loaf for slightly more than an hour most of the time. The bread is done with a knife comes out clean.
• The nuts I like to use most often are pecans. Today I used walnuts because that’s what we had. Either are tasty in this bread.
• When baking bread, a small dish of water in the oven will help keep the crust from becoming too hard or brown. (This is a tip in the cookbook)
• Bananas that have darkened can be peeled and stored in a plastic container in the freezer until ready to use. (Another cookbook tip)