Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

One of the easiest ways to use up fresh strawberries is to make strawberry shortcake. I knew I wanted to make that with the strawberries that I bought at the farmer’s market, but I wanted to make it more special. I had seen this recipe on Katie’s blog So Tasty, So Yummy. I’ve followed her blog for a while now and I participate in a cooking forum that she’s a part of too. I was really excited to make something from her blog and I figured that this bread would be a perfect base for strawberry shortcake.

I’d made a strawberry quick bread many, many years ago, but I don’t recall too much about it. What I was interested in with this loaf is the cream cheese in the batter. Strawberries and cream are such a great pairing and I was hopeful that this would shine through in this bread. I think that it did with this bread. You could smell and taste the creaminess of this bread. It is fairly soft, so you have to be careful and let this cool completely before trying to slice it. It’s hard to be patient with this one!

This was absolutely the best base for strawberry shortcake that I’d ever had. You got the strawberries in two different ways, and it wasn’t dry like shortcake can be sometimes. Because of the strawberries in the bread, you do have to be careful because the do eventually spoil. Not that that is usually a problem in our house! Just plan to use this one up within 2-3 days. It tastes so good, that I’m sure that won’t be too much of a hardship!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup buttermilk
2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried and chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended. Add buttermilk and only stir until just combined; do not over mix. Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, cool before slicing.

Recipe from So Tasty, So Yummy