Strawberry bread

The with flat of strawberries that ended up coming home with me, I promised myself we would not waste any! We had bowls of strawberries for dessert, I froze some whole to make smoothies, and tried a new recipe. I found a recipe for strawberry bread on the Joy of Baking website. When I read that this bread was more like a cake, I knew I had to change something to make it more nutritious. It really outdid myself of this one. I was worried using only whole wheat flour and adding ground flax would make it to dry and dense. I was wrong! It turned out flavorful, light, and sweet. Exactly how I imagined it. Just another reason to eliminate white flour from your diet!

Ingredients:

1/2 c unsalted butter

3/4 c granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 t Mexican vanilla

2 c whole wheat flour

1/4 c ground flax

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1 t Mexican cinnamon

1/2 c plain lowfat yogurt

1 1/2 c chopped fresh strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and place the oven rack in the middle position. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3 loaf pan. 

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until softened (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, flax, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and sour cream (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the chopped strawberries.  

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake about 1 hour, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.