Double Strawberry Walnut Quickbread

Hello beautiful fluffy pieces of bread. Have some leftover strawberries? Like a soft and fresh homemade piece of quickbread for breakfast with subtle sweetness and a surprise inside? This bread is for you, ready in one hour.

The story of this bread is that I made a similar one over a year ago, pre-blog days, and have been thinking about recreating it for a while. You know I love breakfast breads, like muffins or loaf breads that I can freeze. I also love berries, and have a recent thing for walnuts. I also like the process of baking. It’s just as fun as the reward, if you ask me.

Quickbreads are things like muffins or loaf breads, anything without yeast. These are ready fast,  no rise time. That’s what makes it quick.

Strawberry Walnut Quickbread

(makes 8 large slices or 16 squares)

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 3/4 C sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 C whole wheat pastry flour (you could sub regular all-purpose)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 C plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 C walnuts, chopped
• 1 1/2 C strawberries, chopped
• 1/4 C strawberry jam

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350*.
• Beat butter and sugar until fluffy and combined. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each egg goes in.
• Beat in vanilla.
• In a measuring cup or separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
• Add flour mixture and yogurt alternatively, starting and ending with flour. Mix until combined.
• Fold in strawberries and walnuts by hand.
• Spray cooking spray in a loaf pan and pour half in. Spread jam over the half evenly.
• Pour other half on top and add a few strawberry pieces.
• Bake for one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool on wire rack before taking out of loaf pan. Let cool completely before slicing.
• Freeze as a whole or in slices.

This isn’t the healthiest bread to come out of my kitchen, it does use a stick of butter. But it is seasonal with fresh strawberries and has healthy fats from the walnuts. It has an extra kick of protein from the yogurt (that makes it healthy, right?). There’s also a sneaky factor of hidden jam inside for extra mmmm.

It slices in thick, flowy pieces that just ask to be smothered with more butter or jam and eaten hot.

It is husband approved, although he just nibbled as a snack and didn’t eat for breakfast. He doesn’t have a sweet tooth like me. We really are sweet and salty.

The below picture is half of the batter with jam on top before baking. If you want a thicker layer of jam, use more than 1/4 cup.

Make sure you top it with fresh strawberries to make it look pretty on top when it comes out of the oven.

Slice it once cooled, place it outside and fan the slices over each other in the sunshine for best presentation.

Or enjoy your hard work pre-slicing as a loaf of bread. Wrap it in cellofane with a ribbon and present to your favorite school teacher or friend.

Who wouldn’t like this?