Sunday, June 21, 2009

Jamie's Strawberry Bread

A friend from college posted this on facebook, and I finally got around to making it.

Dear LORD it is good! I also made it into muffins (just decrease the baking time to around 25 minutes--I suggest using cupcake paper liner things).

2 pints strawberries (4 cups)
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar (plus a little to sprinkle on strawberries)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (pumpkin pie spice will work in a pinch)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I think this could be reduced to 1 cup)
4 eggs, beaten (I may leave out 2 yolks next time, just to make it a little healthier)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour (or spray) two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

Slice strawberries* and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in large bowl, mix well.

Blend oil and eggs into strawberries.

Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened.

Divide batter into pans.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans or on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out and cool completely.

*Because Jamie suggested it, I pureed about 1/4 of the strawberries. My muffins were EXTREMELY moist--almost too moist, which is why I think I can cut down on the oil in future batches. I'll probably reduce it by 1/4 cup until I get the right balance.

This does not rise a ton, so you can fill the muffin cups or bread pan up at least 3/4 of the way. My recipe made 24 muffins (some a bit flat), with enough for a "short" loaf (fairly flat--maybe 2 inches?) left over.

These are incredibly delicious. As soon as I tasted one, I thought, "WHY have I never baked with strawberries before????"

I'm working on making them healthier. I may play around with whole wheat flour, too. I'll update as I experiment. :)

Update: I made this recipe again last night (but as loaves, not muffins) with a few tweaks. It's not quite there, but I was happy with the results. Here's what I changed:

1. Cut the regular flour to 2 1/8 cup and add 1 cup of whole wheat flour. I don't think I'll try for more whole wheat flour--this was just the right amount.

2. Cut the oil to 1/2 cup and added 3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce. The apple sauce was unintentional--I'd planned to just cut down to 1 cup of oil. However, as it turned out, I only had 1/2 cup oil left, and the batter needed more moisture, so 3/4 cup applesauce was my improvisation. I am pleased with the results.

3. Used 2 eggs and 2 egg whites instead of 4 whole eggs. I think this worked well. You could also use eggbeaters, I bet.

4. Reduced sugar to 1 3/4 cups. I would leave the entire 2 cups of sugar, depending upon the sweetness of your berries.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the idea! Our kids love muffins for breakfast. I used this recipe combined with two others to make strawberry banana and strawberry blueberry muffins this morning! So yummy!

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