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I tend to experiment with recipes. Sometimes because I don’t have a particular ingredient on hand and have to improvise or because I don’t care for a particular ingredient and think something else will taste better. So, it helps if I can make two loaves…one for the taste test (just in case it I need to feed it to the birds) and one to share (in case it’s really good!)
Last week I tried Lemon Banana Bread. Very good, with just a touch of lemon. Today it was Strawberry Walnut Bread. This may be my all time personal favorite. Very simple, very yummy, very moist and actually pretty healthy if you forget about the sugar and concentrate on the walnuts and strawberries instead.
The original recipe called for 20 ounces of frozen strawberries, thawed. It was probably referring to those frozen, sliced strawberries that come in the little cardboard packages and are packed with syrup. I don’t know, but I didn’t have any 20 ounce packages of anything or anything that I could add together to make 20 ounces, so I improvised. I had a large bag of frozen, whole strawberries, so that’s what I used. I chopped up enough frozen strawberries to fill up a 1 quart mixing bowl. I sprinkled them with about a half cup of sugar and let them defrost overnight in the refrigerator. You could also put them into a plastic storage bag and sit them in cold water for a couple of hours to speed up the process.
The next day or whenever the strawberries are thawed:
Prepare 2 large loaf pans (8.5″ x 4.5″) by spraying with cooking spray. Then cut a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to fit into the bottom of each pan and spray top of paper to coat.
Place 1 cup vegetable oil and 2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar) in a mixing bowl and mix until fluffy. Add 4 large eggs and mix well. Add the strawberries and mix again.
In a separate, medium sized bowl sift together 3 cups all purpose flour, 3 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt.
Gradually, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix just enough to blend.
Stir in 1 cup of chopped walnuts.
Divide batter between the two loaf pans and bake for about 1 hour or until a cake tester or a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for about 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges. Invert onto another rack and let cool completely before cutting. Wrap in plastic wrap to store.
VElish Art Studio 
This sounds delish and I am on my way to get some berries now!
thank you for sharing and I have a friend who will LOVE to receive loaf #2!
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This looks just delicious!
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Have you ever heard of friendship bread? There is a starter and you add ingredients over so many days to the batter and then finally bake it. You save enough batter to give a friend, so it's a sort of chain-letter thing with bread. Very fun & yummy.
Also, I recommend pillsbury pumpkin quick bread. It's usually around during the fall, but you can find it out of season in some places. Very delish with any kind of nuts or whatever creative and fun ingredient you want to mix in!
-Jaime
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