Strawberry Bread

I live in New Jersey, in the true “Garden State” area of the state and as such, there are farms and farmers markets all over the place. Last weekend, I visited my favorite NJ farm, Donaldson Farms, where strawberry self-picking season was in full force.

I left the farm with a trunkful of gorgeous, ripe, juicy strawberries, way too much for a family of two to eat fresh, so I opted to make strawberry bread with lemon-flavored icing with some of the berries. This bread is ultra-moist, berry-packed and delicious on its own or used in a strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, as we did.

Bread ingredients:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 large egg
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 3-ounce container of strawberry Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 cup sliced strawberries

Icing ingredients:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Bread directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Coat a 9”x5” loaf pan with cooking spray (or grease).
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, egg, oil, yogurt and milk on low speed until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, incorporate the strawberries – don’t overmix, you want big strawberry chunks in the bread.
4. Transfer the bread mixture to the loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until no longer wiggly in the center of the bread (test 5 minutes before the proposed baking time of 55 minutes). Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack in the pan, then unmold onto a serving platter.

Lemon Icing

Icing directions:

In a small bowl, add all the icing ingredients and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the bread.

8 servings.

Enjoy – Veronique