The Bread Project - Carolina Strawberry Bread

Do you like my attempt at artful food photography here? What's doing it for you? The fresh berries? The dirty window sill?

Well, what I lack in photog skills, perhaps I make up for a bit in sweet sticky quick bread making skills?

Two things I've learned about San Francisco in the last little bit. On the down side, it seems that there is no summer, which I still don't quite understand. We lived in Mountain View last summer, where it was constantly (some might argue too constantly) sunny, but just a few miles up the road in San Fran, apparently, summer is pre-emtpted by gray, cold, and wind. My friend Blythe says that she wears her coat more in the summer than she does in the winter. My friend Mark Twain says that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

So that's the negative. The positive (yes, I can be positive) is that the best apple I ever had was a strawberry in San Francisco. That's because they have HUGE, ripe, delicious strawberries here. The sweetest, plumpest, most gorgeous things you've ever seen. No superlative is too extreme.

To honor these beautiful beasts, I decided on Sunday afternoon to make some strawberry bread. I thought it would make me feel more sunny and summery on that cold, gray afternoon. So I hunted around the internet for a good sounding recipe, and came across one that was serendipitously called Carolina Bread. Twas my roots, and so I gave it a try. The results were delcious. Nicely scented. Moist. Good crusty bits on the ends. Pink and sweet inside. A lovely breakfast or late night snack.

Here's the recipe from Big Oven:

Ingredients
-3 cups all purpose flour
-2 cups sugar
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt (I used kosher, so I upped it by a bit)
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-3 eggs
-1 cup canola oil
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 pint fresh strawberries (or 10 oz frozen); chopped
-1 cup chopped pecans (I left these out)

Directions
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
-Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
-Blend eggs, oil, vanilla, and strawberries in separate bowl
-Add strawberry mixture to dry ingredients and mix well
-If using, stir in pecans.
-Pour into two greased 9x5x3 loaf pans
-Bake for 45-60 minutes (in my slow oven it took almost the full 60)
-Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

All mixed up and ready to go

Twins