Fresh Strawberry Bread

The smell of freshly baked strawberry bread is always so comforting! This fresh strawberry quick bread is cozy, delicious, and just perfect for any occasion. 

I was so excited to test out this fresh strawberry bread recipe the other day. After all, I am a huge fan of strawberries, especially in cakes and all kinds of desserts. There’s just something about it that makes me feel at home. When my strawberry bread came out of the oven, I could not wait for slice it and try it. I mean, it made my house smell so good!

This fresh strawberry quick bread is everything I ever imagined! Warm, moist, and tender with the right amount of sweetness, and with delightful bites of strawberry. Serve each slice of my fresh strawberry bread with some whipped cream or creme fraîche. You’ll love it!

How to Bake Strawberry Bread

Baking quick bread is really easy! The best part is that it will make your house smell like heaven. Here I share lots of tips and wisdom on how to bake a great strawberry loaf bread.

So here’s how to bake this fresh strawberry bread:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch aluminum loaf pan with butter.
2. In a large bowl, whisk dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, mix the wet ingredients: mix the egg and sugar, then mix vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until there are no lumps, without over-mixing.
5. Toss diced strawberries with some flour. Why? This will prevent the strawberries from sinking all the way to the bottom when baking.
6. Gently fold in strawberries into batter. Pour batter onto prepared pan, and top with a few more pieces of strawberry (without flour) and push slightly down but making sure they are still visible. Why? To make it pretty 🙂
7. Bake 55-60 minutes. 40 minutes into baking, cover with aluminum foil to prevent too much browning.

Then all you have to do is remove the strawberry bread from the oven and let it cool slightly. I like mine a bit warm.

Tips for Baking Strawberry Bread

I’ve had may fails with quick breads in my life! But, isn’t that how you learn? From dry quick breads to sunken breads, I’ve seen it all, especially when I was first learning how to bake many years ago. And guess what, I am still learning. Here are my top recommendations and tips for baking the best strawberry bread:

• Use the right baking pan size
  • The rule of thumb is to fill up to 2/3 of the pan to give the batter room to rise. For quick breads, most recipes are written to fit a 9×5 inch pan.
• For best results, use light-colored aluminum pans
• Check your baking soda and/or baking powder
  • Check the expiration date. Old inactive baking soda or baking powder will cause bread to stay flat.
• Use the right amount of leavener
  • If you add too much baking soda or baking powder, the dough will rise too quickly and collapse immediately, resulting in a sunken quick bread
• Resist the urge to open the oven
  • Checking too often can lead to sunken or collapsed quick breads/cakes
• Bake at the right temperature
  • If the temperature is too high, the quick bread will rise too quickly and then collapse
  • I’d recommend purchasing an oven thermometer to calibrate the temperature
• If browning too fast, cover bread with aluminum foil
• Avoid excessive moisture
  • Too much moisture (milk, buttermilk, bananas, etc) can make the cake too heavy and prevent it from rising
• Don’t over-mix the batter

How to Avoid Sunken Quick Bread

I briefly touched on sunken quick bread issues in the section above. To make the best strawberry bread and to prevent the middle from sinking, make sure the follow these guidelines:

• Your oven temperature needs to be correct: some ovens tend to overheat, which can cause the bread to rise too quickly and then collapse. You can purchase an oven thermometer to be sure.
• Add the right amount of leavener: this recipe calls for 1 teaspoon baking soda only; too much baking soda or baking powder can cause the batter to rise too quickly and collapse
• Don’t open the oven too much: during the baking process, only open it once when you need to cover with foil.
• Avoid too much moisture: too much moisture can make the batter heavy and so the bread will not be able to rise properly. For example, if you add mashed bananas to this recipe, it will likely become too heavy and not rise well.

And that’s all my quick bread wisdom for ya! If you have any tips, please comment below.

Should I Bake Quick Breads with Oil or Butter?

I always struggle with this question, and it’s probably because I like how butter makes baked goods taste. It’s irresistible!

However, whenever it comes to quick breads, I always choose to bake with vegetable oil instead of butter. Oil is 100% fat and lighter than butter, so you’ll get a lighter quick bread with more “separated” crumbs in terms of texture. Baking quick breads with butter tends to yield a denser texture and tighter crumbs, as butter is only 80% fat (the rest is milk solids and water). I personally like my quick breads on the lighter side.

Whew! That was a lot to take in. I hope these tips can help you make the most amazing fresh strawberry bread ever! What I like I about this strawberry bread is that the strawberry flavors are quite subtle, so even if there are actual strawberry chunks inside, it tastes like strawberry infused bread. I love it!

For more tips, see Kitchen Tips below, and please don’t forget to pin this recipe!

If you like baking with fresh fruit, check out these recipes:

• Blueberry Coffee Cake with Lemon Glaze
• Apple Bundt Cake

Kitchen Tips

• To prevent the strawberries from sinking to the bottom, toss them with some flour before folding into the batter.
• Mix the batter just until there are no lumps, without over-mixing.
• Do not substitute the buttermilk! This recipe only calls for baking soda, which needs an acid component to react. Buttermilk, which contains acid, reacts with the baking soda to make the bread rise.
• Don’t add too much baking soda. Use the amount this recipe calls for. Baking soda is quite powerful.

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