Once Upon a Hot Kitchen: Strawberry Bread
ByI decided to do a little baking today. Why? Because it’s always fun to bake on a 101° day, right?
I know I’m weird, but we have to eat…and cooking and baking in a hot kitchen reminds me of my grandma. And thinking of my grandma makes me happy (even in my hot kitchen). I used to help her a lot in the summers…feeding the men during the long hot days of wheat harvest…making sauerkraut…feeding family members who would come by. Seems like Grandma was always feeding people.
Her kitchen was about as big as my small bathroom. And…it was hot. But because I was with my grandma…doing all the things I loved to do…I didn’t even care. And neither did she.
Anyway…even though it was hot (and humid) today…I decided to do some baking. Inspired by my friend Megan…I came up with a Strawberry Bread recipe to share with you!
Strawberry Bread
2 cups fresh (or frozen) strawberries
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rapadura or sucanat
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup melted butter
3 eggs
First…you can do one of two things with your strawberries: If they’re fresh, you can slice them and stir them into your dry ingredients. Or, if you don’t think your family will like chunks of strawberries in their bread…blend them all up in the blender, then mix in. If you’re using frozen strawberries, thaw, then blend in blender.
Mix dry ingredients together. Stir in butter, eggs and strawberries. Pour into two buttered loaf pans. Bake in a 350° oven for 45-50 minutes.
The bread looks a little bit dark…probably from the whole wheat flour and rapadura. Oh, but it TASTES so good! I’m thinking that throwing a few chocolate chips in might be good too!
Since I had to have the oven on anyway…I doubled the recipe and made four loaves! And…I mixed up some Corn Dog Muffins and threw those in too. Gotta make the heat worth it right? Now, I’ve got a big batch of Corn Dog Muffins and two loaves of Strawberry Bread in the freezer for another day when I don’t want to turn on the oven!
Now that I’m finished baking, I’m sitting in the living room under the ceiling fan with a cold glass of Limeade. It’s fun having these “hot kitchen memories” of Grandma…but maybe now I’ll just sit in the coolness and think of a snowy Christmas with Grandma…
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This post is linked to Money Saving Mom and Works for me Wednesday.
Oh this looks and sounds soooo good!! I can hardly wait to try this recipe!! Chocolate and strawberries, the perfect combo!!
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Sounds yummmmy!
I think I have some in the freezer…!
Gotta go see! ;-)
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Oh yummy! I am going to try this!
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Ooo- I just made strawberry bread too. It was SO good!
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Never tried Strawberry bread, or rapadura or sucanat but now my interest is seriously peaked. I’ve printed the recipe– thanks for sharing! =)
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The title sounded so yummy I had to hop over! Thank you for this recipe, I think my family will love it.
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This sounds great! I also copied your hot dog muffin recipe.
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Ooooo…I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
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I was canning a little yesterday too…what is it about hot weather and big cooking that goes together? Of course, it makes me feel bad since we had the air on and it was working to negate the heat I was generating. I did wait until the sun went down to turn on the stove, but it still got awfully hot! It reminds me of canning with my mom in August heat with no air. I’m so spoiled!
The bread looks great. I’ve only had strawberry bread once and it was so yummy!
Heather
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Just a question… and it may sound like a strange one: Do you have to refrigerate the strawberry bread or is it sweet fresh out of the oven? I’ve baked with strawberries before (cookies), and the cookies tasted somewhat bitter, but when I refrigerated them the sweetness returned(?). Some recipes I’d found for strawberry baked goods called for post-baking refrigeration, so I thought maybe that was standard with strawberries…
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I was baking,too! It was my husbands birthday and he asked for Gobbs or Whoopie Pies! Oh, my, I have never made them before, and it was not 101 here in PA, but it was 85 and the oven was on for hours so it got pretty warm in here! But, I didn’t mind doing something special for my special man! He was suprised that I took the time on a very busy day and really enjoyed them!
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Made some yesterday! Very good! Shared some too! :-) Another great recipe!!!
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I love your recipes because you use whole grains, “good” flour, honey, aguave nectar, and on and on. Thank you for sharing so many great ideas. I have been buying berries and grinding my own flour for close to 6 years now, using the good oils and honey, etc. and I love to find other women who share the same desire to provide healthy, wonderful foods the way God intended for their families. I just want to say what a wonderful encouragement you are. Keep up those wonderful recipes and encouraging other women. You make me think of the Proverbs 31 woman!
God Bless!
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Joy Reply:
October 11th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
ditto that!!
Joy here
(Florida)
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Rookie question to a moma trying to learn to bake and cook. What is rapadura or sucanat and where do I buy it. Love, love your blog. You sound like one special mommy and wife.
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Melody Joy – We’ve eaten this straight out of the oven and it’s been delicious! I hadn’t heard that information about chilling it first to bring out the flavor. I have some in the freezer, so when I pull it out…we’ll see if it’s even BETTER!
Meghan – Rapadura/sucanat is dehydrated cane sugar juice. You can find it at health food stores, online or…I buy mine through my health food co-op.
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We’re baking it in the morning.
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Laura, I wanted to tell you I made this with fresh cranberries into muffins and they were excellent!! I did soak the flour overnight in kefir (just enough to make it damp) and then used less oil in the AM. So, it was a different recipe entirely, but I still think of it as yours…:)
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Oh- I wish I had seen this last week!! I searched all recipes for a strawberry bread recipe. Mine turned out very crumbly, had way too much sugar and fell apart too easily.
This one looks so much better!!
I guess we’ll have to pick more strawberries at the farm. We’ve already gone 3 times this year.
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Thinking that I really need to try this recipe!
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L.O.V.E this bread! When I was making it, it was way too dry, even crumbly. I googled other strawberry bread recipes and saw where they added oil. So I added 1 cup of coconut oil and it worked great. Delicious! The whole family loves it! Yay! :)
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Oh, thank you for this recipe! My father makes this bread and my kids love it. His recipe is not healthy. This version is so much better.
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Just made this and it is soooo yummy! My boys are loving it :)
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Just made this today, so yummy and my kids gobbled it right up! Thanks for sharing!
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I have a wheat grinder & currently have 2 types of berries: Hard white & Soft white. Which do you use in recipes like this one?
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Laura Reply:
August 19th, 2010 at 10:50 am
I almost always use hard white berries for EVERY recipe, but soft white would also work okay for this quick bread.
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Laura,
I made this for a couple´s meeting at my house yesterday and it was an absolute success!! I had to add a little oil, but I didn´t blend the strawberries, so that might be why. Anyway, it was soooooo good everyone wanted the recipe. I linked to your website but since most people here didn´t speak english I translated it on my blog. I hope you don´t mind.
Aline
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I just wanted to say THANK YOU for this recipe! I use if as a base for all my quick bread treats! My son (2 years) and husband love it! I substitute applesauce for the butter and have made the classic strawberry, banana, apple, banana-chocolate chip and strawberry banana! This is our special treat after nap that I can feel good about giving my family!
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Just made this-yum!
I only have white sugar at the moment, and my berries were very tart, so I did increase the sugar to 2 cups. Probably didn’t need to, but the kids like the sweet flavor.
I also added 2/3 cup of applesauce because, like a commenter above, I too found it to be very dry and crumbly. The applesauce made it very moist, which we like.
Very good!
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Mmmmmm! I just made these into muffins, and they are absolutely fabulous! Thank you for a wonderful recipe :)
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I made this today and it is sensational! i did worry it was going to be too dry (since i was using strawberry chunks), so i transferred it to my kitchen mixer and let it combine it into a more moist, usable cake mix. The taste is great. I could probably get away with using less sugar in future, but overall this is a great base recipe to use with any fruit that you have on hand.
And the best part is, you have one loaf available for devouring straight away and another loaf to put away in the freezer for hubby’s and the kid’s preschool lunches!
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Laura,
As I stated earlier… I use this recipe for my base for almost every muffin I make! :) Thank you again for sharing! I was wondering if you thought I could mix this up and also cook it in a bundt pan? What are your thoughts?
Thanks!
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Heather E. Reply:
September 12th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Well, I gave it a try and it worked GREAT! This is going to be my go to method!
So easy!
Thanks again for such a great recipe!
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Laura Reply:
September 20th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Such a great idea!!!
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I’ve made this recipe many times and really enjoy it. However, tonight I subbed blackberries for strawberries and it worked perfectly! I’m sad that strawberries are done for the season but delighted that this recipe works with blackberries. Thanks Laura!
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