Strawberry bread makes a versatile breakfast bread, anytime snack, or a decadent dessert.
This recipe for strawberry quick bread turns out sweet, moist, and oh-so-delicious. It’s loaded with berries, and a light powder sugar glaze makes the perfect topping.
Our Favorite Quick Bread!
- Our copycat recipe from Panera uses Challenge Butter to get that bistro-quality flavor and soft, moist texture!
- This bread uses simple ingredients you likely have on hand.
- Challenge Butter is farmer-owned and made the old-fashioned way from fresh cream from happy cows! It adds delicious flavor while making for an extra moist loaf.
- Make this easy quick bread recipe to serve with tea or coffee!
This recipe has been sponsored by Challenge Butter.
Ingredients for Strawberry Bread
Strawberries – Fresh strawberries add flavor and color, but other fruit can be substituted like rhubarb or blueberries. Frozen strawberries can be used (no need to thaw) however you’ll need to add a few minutes of baking time.
Butter – Use a good quality fresh butter like Challenge for the perfect texture (aka crumb) and great flavor. Challenge is made with just two ingredients, cream and salt so it provides consistent results.
Batter – To make the base of your strawberry bread, you’ll need all-purpose flour, a bit of sugar, light cream, and eggs.
Mix-ins – A few sprinkles of poppy seeds, lemon zest, or even white chocolate chips can be added.
Glaze – The glaze adds a delicious tangy sweet flavor to each slice but is totally optional!
How to Make Strawberry Bread
A quick overview, here are the step for making the strawberry bread recipe below.
- Cream: Cream sugar and butter, add eggs and cream. Combine the dry ingredients.
- Mix: Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and fold in fresh berries.
- Pour: Batter into a metal pan and top with more berries
- Bake and Cool: Before slicing.
Pro Tips For Perfect Quick Bread
- If using frozen berries, toss them in the dry mix before adding them to the batter to keep them from sinking to the bottom.
- Use unsalted butter in baking and add your own salt.
- Don’t over mix, or the bread will be too dense.
- Let the eggs come to room temperature before use.
Save a Loaf for the Freezer!
- Store strawberry bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Wrap whole loaves or slices in plastic wrap and place them in zippered bags for up to 8 weeks.
- Use strawberry bread to make this favorite bread pudding recipe that can be made in advance and served hot or cold!
Our Favorite Quick Breads
Did your family love this Strawberry Bread? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Strawberry Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour + 1 tablespoon for dusting strawberries
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup salted Challenge butter (1 stick), softened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup light cream
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 ¼ cups fresh strawberries diced, divided
Glaze
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon milk or as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×4-inch baking pan.
- In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, cream sugar and butter together. Add eggs, cream, and lemon juice. Mix well to combine.
- Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and stir just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Set aside 2 tablespoons of strawberries for topping the bread. Toss the remaining strawberries with 1 tablespoon flour. Remove any excess flour and very gently fold them into the batter.
- Spread the batter into the baking pan and top with reserved strawberries.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Glaze
- Once the bread has cooled, combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl until smooth.
- Drizzle over the top of the bread and let set.
Video
Notes
- If using whole berries like blueberries, toss them in flour first so they don’t sink to the bottom of the batter.
- Ensure the butter and eggs are softened before mixing and cream until light and fluffy before adding other ingredients.
- Avoid overmixing the batter or the bread will be tough and chewy.
- The pan can be greased or lined with parchment paper.
- Use a metal baking pan for the best results.
- Be sure not to over bake the bread, a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.
- Cool completely before slicing.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Bread, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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Just realized my bread pan is 9×5. Should I decrease the cook time in this case?
Yes, a large pan will cook a little bit quicker.
Hello! Right now I don’t have cream, would it be a good idea to use whole fat milk instead?
I haven’t tried it with whole milk but I do think it would work. Canned evaporated milk would also be a good alternative.
Omgoodness I’ve made this 3 times in one week and shared the recipe with 2 friends! Hands down the best strawberry bread EVER!
So happy you love this recipe as much as we do, Cindy!
Help! I tried the strawberry bread recipe and it fell apart. It looked and smelled delicious until I took it out of the bread pan (which was greased) upon which fell apart into 4 big chunks. It appears to be done in the middle. I used a stonewear bread pan and used pam to coat the pan. What am I doing wrong?
As mentioned in the post and recipe notes, we had the best success with this recipe cooked in a metal pan. It didn’t bake up as nicely when we tested in a glass pan so perhaps that could be why. I hope that helps.
Did you maybe over stir? I fold my batter till almost completely distributed and then finish by folding in the strawberries. I find that most bread type batter turns out better with folding not stirring and only till mixed. Hope this helps :)
Well maybe earlier reviewer wasn’t having trouble baking fully due to pan. I am now on 75 minutes and center seems to be doughy and giggly, toothpick is not coming out clean. I can see this is going to fail.
Wasted time and ingredients
Sorry to hear that Jon. Did you use an 8×4 metal pan? We find that produces the best results. Another reader used a glass baking dish and found it needed close to 90 minutes to fully cook.
This was almost my first “spendwithpennies” disaster, which would have been my fault. I baked the bread in a smaller Pyrex loaf pan, but it was not cooked in the middle after the allotted time. My bad! I cooked and retested over and over and was about to declare Uncle! when after 90 minutes, the toothpick in the center tested clean. The bread was DELICIOUS even after baking for what seemed like forever…
I really cannot wait to try it again … following the instructions … or maybe using a muffin tin? Thank you for another delicious recipe Holly!
So glad you were able to rescue it, Mo!
I used blueberries and strawberries and baked them in mini loaf pans. Gave out as gifts wrapped in wax paper with dried flowers as a finishing touch.
That sounds delicious Mindy, and a beautiful gift idea! Those are some lucky friends ♥️
Followed recipe as written except added more strawberries….lTerrific! Definitely a keeper!
Could not find breakfast bake in Crockett