Zesty Strawberry Bread

Each Sunday during the summer, my husband and I help cook breakfast at our church. It's more my husband than me. Anyway, this past Sunday morning, I decided to go to the store first thing before my husband was up and about. I am not sure which motivated me more, getting a cup of Starbucks or picking up the fruit for my husband. Anyway, I got both: my cup of joe and a few pounds of strawberries and some bananas. When I got home, I just left the fruit in my husband's truck. He leaves before me. He left in a hurry. I figured he'd see the fruit. I left it in the seat right behind his seat. He didn't see them. In fact, he stopped by the store on the way to church and picked up fruit. Apparently, it's more convenient to put items on the other side of the truck. We had a lot of fruit for Sunday's breakfast. We had a lot left over.

I love Strawberries and I could not let them go to waste. I searched online until I found a strawberry bread recipe that grabbed my attention. The reason this recipe caught my eye was the lemon zest. Oh boy, this is good bread!



Zesty Strawberry Bread

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups sugar (I use 1 brown and 1 white) any combo will work
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil
grated rind of 1 lemon
3 cups chopped strawberries




Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Stir. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla, oil and lemon rind.

Spoon the strawberries into the liquid ingredients and stir gently to coat the fruit. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients.

Fold (with spatula by hand) until all ingredients are blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. (The dough won't really pour into the pans. It's too thick. Just spread it evenly into 2 pans.)

Bake 50-60 minutes (took about 55 minutes in my oven) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow loaves to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool.

The bread was delicious warm. Inspired by the lemon zest and the sweet flavor of the bread, I decided to try a lemon glaze on the bread. I found a simple lemon glaze recipe, which even allowed me to use up the lemon I used with the bread. The lemon glaze turned the strawberry bread into a delightful dessert.


Lemon Glaze

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter
juice from large lemon

GLAZE: Melt butter, and mix in powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Put glaze into Ziploc bag, and snip a tiny hole in one corner. Drizzle over bread. Let set.

You could just put light icing on the bread. However, if you husband is standing there taste testing the bread and the icing, you will be encouraged to coat one of the loaves with the icing. (As you can tell from the pictures, I tried the glaze out on the loaf we had already cut into. I wasn't sure how the combo would turn out. It was delightful.)






Without the glaze, the bread is wonderful. (I just had a piece for breakfast.) With the glaze, the bread is a sweet treat.

I still have more strawberries to use up. I'm off to try out a strawberry scone recipe. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Check out other wonderful recipes at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.