Berrylicious

   I had a friend suggest strawberry bread. I initially thought of doing a swirl bread. But I'm not really sure what to substitute the strawberry for as extra liquid...maybe oil? I received another suggestion that I use the basic recipe for cinnimon raisin swirl but use strawberries instead of the cinnimon goo. During my pondering, the same friend who suggested using the swirl recipe, gave me a recipe she found somewhere for strawberry bread, made similar to banana bread. I looked over the recipe and made some of my own changes.
   I don't think nuts go with strawberries so I 86'd them. Also, it called for 2 cups of sugar which is kind of rediculous, so I halved that but added a teaspoon of vanilla. I also cut back on the oil, from 1 and 1/4 cups to 1 cup. In most cases, you should mix the dry ingredients seperately from the wet ingredients and then fold wet into the dry. I did this and then added the chopped strawberries. I beat it a few extra minutes to sort of "mush" the berries into the batter. I greased 2 loaf pans and baked the bread for an hour at 350.
   In 50 minutes they looked beautiful, slightly cracked on the top (much like banana bread). I let them cool on a wire rack and then cut a few slices and served them warm to Ian and his parents, who happened to be visiting for dinner. Ian said - and I quote - "It's almost just like my grandma's banana bread, as far as how good it is..." This makes me smile.
   My personal critique - it was a little dry, perhaps because I skimped on the oil. But I think next time I will add some applesauce and bake it maybe 10 minutes less. The berries were very tasty and not bitter at all. The sweetness was right on the money, so I think I made a good call by halfing the sugar content.
   P.S. I made a personal delivery of a big slice of the strawberry bread to the friend who suggested it :)