Strawberry Bread.. And Then Some!

By now you know I cannot leave a recipe untouched. This morning Doug said to me, "We need to eat up these strawberries before they go bad!" It seems all you need do is look at a strawberry and it will grow those while little tendrils of fuzz. Shame. So I said, "Let me get out my cookbooks and see what I can do with them.. and with the blackberries, too."

A very nice gal I know sent me Mom's Favorite Recipes for Christmas a few years back. Today's recipe comes from Terry Kokko in Parris Island, South Carolina. I hope she does not mind that I have reproduced her recipe here on our blog and noted our substitutions and additions. Hey, I did give y'all the link so you can buy the book too and I heartily recommend that you do!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar (I used honey.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 + 1/4 cup oil (Soybean oil for us.)
• 2 10 ounce packages frozen strawberries, thawed and chopped  ( I opted for a combination of fresh fruit-- chopped strawberries, whole blackberries and one medium banana, sliced.)

Combine the first five ingredients; make a well in the center. [Note: this works fine if you stick to the original receipe and use sugar. If you opt to use the honey, be aware that you will not be able to make a well in the center and that your batter will be hard to stir once you've added the eggs and oil.] Set aside. Mix remaining ingredients together; pour into flour well. Stir until combined; divide batter into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 deg for one hour. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, place on wire racks to cool.

Serving size: One slice.
Yield: Two loaves of eight slices each.