I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos and success tips. I have also made a few small changes to the recipe based on reader feedback. If you find yourself with an overabundance of fresh strawberries (one of my very favorite problems to have!), and you’re not sure how to use them all before they go bad… you could make this reader-favorite strawberry cake, but… maybe you don’t feel like putting in the effort to make a layer cake. Trust me, I get that! Enter this recipe for glazed strawberry bread: a quick bread with a tender, cake-like crumb that’s bursting with fresh strawberry and vanilla flavors. Over the years, I have made a couple adjustments to the original recipe based on reader feedback. The bread slices hold shape better by using less buttermilk, and the bread rises taller using a slightly smaller loaf pan and a combination of baking powder AND soda. The recipe in the recipe card below reflects these small tweaks.
Here’s What You’ll Love About This Glazed Strawberry Bread
Quick and easy to make—no mixer required Excellent way to use up leftover fresh strawberries that didn’t make it into your strawberry shortcake Cake-like texture stays moist for days Extra dessert-like with a topping of creamy vanilla icing Make-ahead friendly: this strawberry bread tastes even better on day 2 Freezes well, so make it when berries are in season and stock your freezer, so you can enjoy that peak strawberry flavor long after their short season ends!
Ingredients You Need & Why
Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of today’s quick bread. Baking Powder & Baking Soda: My team and I tested this recipe several times with varying ratios of these two leaveners, and the hands-down winner was the carefully measured mix of both you’ll see in the recipe below. Salt: Flavor enhancer/sweetness balancer—a baking recipe superhero! Egg: An egg provides structure and binds all the ingredients together. Sugar: Use a mix of granulated sugar and brown sugar to sweeten this cake-like bread. Buttermilk: This power ingredient is what makes my chocolate cake so darn moist, and it serves the same purpose in this strawberry bread. The lactic acid in buttermilk allows the baking soda to produce carbon dioxide. Don’t have buttermilk? Save yourself a trip to the store and see my recipe Note below for a DIY buttermilk substitute. Oil: I prefer to use oil in my quick breads, like in lemon poppy seed bread, chocolate zucchini bread, and cinnamon swirl quick bread, because of the unparalleled moisture it provides. Lately I’ve been making this strawberry bread with melted coconut oil, and it doesn’t make the bread taste like coconut. But if you dislike coconut and can easily detect it in baked goods, play it safe and use a neutral vegetable oil. Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste: I love the combo of strawberries + vanilla, like in this strawberry vanilla crisp. Pure vanilla extract works wonderfully, but I like to use vanilla bean paste here. You can find it next to the vanilla extract in the grocery store baking aisle, or you can order it online. Fresh Strawberries: Chop the berries and gently toss them with a little flour, to prevent them from sinking to the bottom. I don’t recommend using frozen strawberries in this recipe, because they can leak a lot of moisture and turn the bread into mush with an unappetizing purplish hue! Save the frozen berries for smoothies and strawberry sauce.
A Quick Comparison
I want to show you a side-by-side comparison. When retesting this recipe, my team and I tried it using only baking powder. The crumb looked plush and light, but the bread tasted very gummy and the flavor fell flat. Then we used a combination of baking powder AND baking soda. The bread doesn’t rise quite as much, but it develops a beautiful color and almost caramelized-like flavor. It was also moist and tender, without tasting gummy. In terms of taste, the baking powder + soda combo was a clear winner!
How to Make Strawberry Bread
I recommend baking this strawberry bread in a 1-lb. (8×4-inch) loaf pan like this one or this one. If all you have is a 9×5-inch loaf pan, which is what you use for banana bread and pumpkin bread, you can use it, but expect the bread to be a little shorter. Coating the chopped strawberries in flour helps prevent them from sinking in the bread: Expect a creamy and thick quick bread batter with LOTS of strawberries: The bread takes at least an hour to bake. Begin checking at 55 minutes, though, just in case your oven works extra hard!
Vanilla Icing
Back in 2014 when I first published this recipe, the vanilla icing was an afterthought and yet now I can’t imagine the strawberry bread without it! It soaks down into each slice, making the bread even more moist and tender… and it makes the top of the bread melt in your mouth.
Drizzle over the bread before serving.
