Strawberry bread is a good summer bread option. The frosting is an optional add-on. Photo: istock.
Every cultural area in Indian country, if not every tribal nation, has breads that are unique to them. Then, there are other breads that are made by all, like corn bread or fry bread, but that may have variations. Many breads are used as a vehicle to put foods on or in, a tortilla for example. Many breads take the name of their major flavor ingredient, pumpkin, apple, molasses, wild rice, walnut, cranberry, lemon, blueberry, and on and on. Here are a couple to get us ready for summer, which is just around the corner.
Strawberry Bread
½ cup real butter, softened
¾ cup maple sugar
2 cups flour
1 egg
½ cup cornmeal, white or yellow
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Milk – enough to form a stiff batter
1 heaping cup of strawberries, wild or commercial
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread ingredients in a greased 8- or 9-inch baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool then serve warm.
To vary, mix together 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar with ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle on top before baking.
Cranberry-Apricot Bread
1 cup dried cranberries (crasins)
1 cup dried apricots
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup boiling water
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cover the apricots with boiling water and let stand for 10 minutes. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, add eggs and apricots and blend. Now add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well and fold in nuts. Pour into a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan or two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until done.
To vary this bread, use chopped dates or fresh peach pieces and some pine nuts.
I’ve been itching to start cooking again. The strawberry bread sounds delicious.
I’m going to have to make the strawberry bread myself.
These so good!
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*sigh*
sound
These sound so good.
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:D These so good! works, though. I don’t care for cranberries much, but I think I’ll modify the apricot bread, because I *love* apricots. Strawberry first though. Delicious strawberries.
I just hope I can keep it moist. I have a horrible paranoia about undercooking and always overdo foods by leaving them in for “just 1 minute more”…. then … “okay, 30 more seconds and I’ll take it out”… and so on.
I’m a fan of apricots and cranberries, so it looks good to me as-is. :)
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Saad@6, Thermometer(at least for meats).
Just eyeballing the ingredients, unless you use rotten eggs or similar, or leave the mixture standing for several months until it’s green and crawling, that should be quite safe unbaked. Not very tasty(unless, of course, it is green and crawling — a real taste explosion then), but safe.
My problem, as I know I’ve said before(sorry!), is I don’t follow recipes. They are inspirations, and sources of tips / suggestions, but I then tend to “interpret” them (often quite freely). That actually works fine for many things, but not for baking. With exceptions, if you don’t follow the recipe closely, it “doesn’t work”, not even as dwarf bread.
Saad:
With breads like these, a trick is to pull them out when the toothpick in the center is almost clean. A bit moist is okay, because these breads keep cooking for a bit once you remove them.
I use my mother’s banana bread recipe. I’ve been using this recipe for over 50 years.
I still take out the recipe-card every time.
It’s like a talisman.
I rather liked the original “These so good”, which sounded like you were trying to speak with your cheek pouches full…
Bookmarking. These look delicious. And all the ingredients seem to be easily available.