Strawberry Strawberry Jam Bread!

It’s strawberry season and strawberries are everywhere!  I’ve made strawberry jam, strawberry sauce for cake and ice cream and today I made Strawberry Bread filled with diced fresh strawberries and swirls of strawberry jam.  Think of a jelly donut crossed with a muffin and you are there.

Before I get to the recipe here are some notes about strawberries.

1. Smaller strawberries are better.  Small ripe strawberries are more strawberry and less water.  Large strawberries are big because they have more water in them.  Some farms and markets will have small “jam” strawberries.  If you see them, those are the ones you want.  Not just for jam.  For everything!
2. If you can smell strawberries those are good strawberries!
3. Don’t panic if you give in to temptation and buy too many strawberries to eat or process right away.  If you are using them for jam, you can wash, hull, chop and freeze the strawberries in batch size lots.  They will keep for quite a while like this.  I used to do this when I owned my inn.  When I ran out of homemade jam, I would go to the freezer, take out a bag and have jam in less than an hour.  You can also cook the strawberries with a little sugar to make a strawberry sauce for ice cream or cake and freeze that. Just be aware that frozen strawberries will be soft when they are defrosted.

A note about making my Strawberry Strawberry Jam Bread:

I used two different techniques to fold the jam into the bread.  One gives you a layer of jam evenly distributed throughout the breat so every slice has its share of jam.  The other creates pools of jam which glisten on top of the loaf and gives a promise of what is inside,

First, put half the batter in the pan then spread jam evenly over it, stopping about 1/4″ from the sides.  Then spread the rest of the batter gently over the jam.

Now drop small spoonfuls of jam randomly over the top of the loaf and use a knife to make decorative swirls.

Like the best of cooking it’s easy and sort of fun!

Print

STRAWBERRY STRAWBERRY JAM BREAD

Author Susan Murray, www.awomancooksinasheville.com

Ingredients

• 1/2 c sugar
• ½ c milk
• ½ c canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla
• 2 c flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ c diced strawberries
• 2 tbsp flour
• ½ c plus 2 tbsp fresh strawberry jam

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Spray a 9 x 5 loaf pan lightly with cooking spray and line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a bit hanging over the sides to help remove the loaf from the pan.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, milk, oil, egg, and vanilla.
4. In a smaller bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Toss the diced strawberries in 2 tablespoons of flour.
6. Add the flour mixture to the liquids and stir until just mixed.
7. Fold in the strawberries.
8. Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan and top with ½ cup of jam. Use a spatula or knife to spread the jam evenly across the batter, leaving a ¼” edge all around.
9. Spread the remaining batter over the top of the jam.
10. Use a spoon to drop dollops of jam randomly on the top of the batter. Then put the tip of a knife into each blob of jam and draw the jam in swirls over the top.
11. Bake 60-65 minutes until done. Make sure you are testing the batter for doneness, not the jam!
12. Let cool for 15 minutes then carefully remove from the pan and cool completely before cutting into the loaf.