Strawberry Bread with Almond Glaze

I wasn't planning on making strawberry bread.

My plan was to bake banana bread.

I needed three over-ripe bananas.  I always buy more bananas than I think we could possibly eat, hoping that there will be three left by the time they get soft and turn so brown that no one would possibly want to eat them. Three is the magic number for banana bread.

At 7:30 a.m. there were three brown bananas.  A half-hour later:

Ahem.  I should have known better than to count my brown bananas before my husband packed his lunch. 

I'm sure that he thought he was doing me a favor by taking a banana that he thought nobody else would want to eat, leaving better ones behind.

Yes, he left behind eight primo bananas.  And so the cycle begins again--once more, I think I bought more bananas than we can eat, I hope there will be three left by the time they turn brown and mushy.

Not enough bananas. I was forced to change my plans.  Fortunately, I had all the ingredients for strawberry bread on hand!

Today's Playlist

• "Welcome To Paradise"...Green Day
• "Lucky"...Jason Mraz
• "Someday"...The Strokes
• "Sick Boys"...Social Distortion
• "Steady, As She Goes"...The Raconteurs
• "Joker & The Thief"...Wolfmother

Strawberry Bread with Almond Glaze

Printable Recipe

Bread Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 12 strawberries, chopped (average-size strawberries, you should have about 1 cup chopped)

Glaze Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 3 tablespoons light cream
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Gather your ingredients.  Chop the strawberries.  Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan (or use nonstick cooking spray). 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy.

With the mixer on a medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl in between additions.  Mix in the vanilla.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a medium bowl.

Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.  Mix on a low speed just until incorporated.

Add buttermilk and mix on a low speed just until combined--do not over mix!

 Gently fold in the strawberries with a rubber spatula.

 Spread into your prepared loaf pan.  Bake in your preheated 350-degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes, testing with a toothpick to ensure it is fully baked.  (Insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf; if it is dry when you remove it, the bread is done.  If there is still gooey batter, it needs to be baked a bit longer.)

Allow the bread to cool slightly before drizzling with the glaze.  It's okay if the bread is warm (in fact, I highly recommend it!), but if it's really piping hot the glaze will not set up.

While the bread is baking, prepare your almond glaze.

 Put the confectioners sugar into a small bowl.  Whisk in the almond extract and light cream.

 The glaze should be thick enough to drizzle, but not so thin that it is watery.  (If necessary, add more cream--a teaspoon at a time--or more confectioners sugar to get the right consistency.)

Pour the glaze onto your bread.

If you're a klutz like me, and you crack the bread as you remove it from the pan, the glaze will do a wonderful job hiding the cracks and imperfections!

 See?

I frosted the bread while it was still slightly warm, so that the glaze would melt a bit and drizzle down the sides.

And if you happen to glaze your bread while it's still warm, it would be a shame if you didn't allow yourself to eat it while it's warm.

 Enjoy.