Strawberry Bread

I’ve tested so many quick bread recipes throughout the years, but this simple strawberry bread consistently ranks among my favorites. It’s a snap to mix together, it stays deliciously moist and tender for days, and is chock full of fresh strawberries in both the loaf and the glaze.

Best of all, you only need 10 basic ingredients (most of which are pantry staples) and just 10 minutes of active prep to make it. It’s the perfect way to celebrate strawberry season!

A reader, Jon, says: “This was so quick and simple to make, but such a wonderful result! This is a winner in terms of payoff for investment. My wife said she would love this instead of a cake for her birthday. Huge success!” ★★★★★

Easy Strawberry Bread Ingredients

These are the main ingredients you need to make this easy strawberry bread. You can find the full list of ingredients and measurements in the recipe card below.

Fresh strawberries — “fresh” is the operative word here! When you’re shopping, give the berries a sniff. If they are ripe and flavorful, they’ll be deliciously fragrant. If they don’t smell like much, they won’t taste like much either! They should also appear rich in color.

Granulated sugar — white sugar has a neutral flavor, ensuring the bright flavor of the strawberries shines through.

Whole milk — adds moisture and fat, leading to a perfectly tender crumb. If you’d like a nondairy alternative, feel free to swap in full-fat oat, almond, or soy milk instead.

Vegetable oil — any neutral-flavored oil can be used here. Using a liquid fat keeps this cake soft and moist for days, even when refrigerated, because it doesn’t firm up when cold. You can swap it for melted butter for flavor, but the texture will be firmer once the bread has cooled.

Large egg — make sure to let it come to room temperature so it’s easier to mix into the batter. You can soak the egg in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes to speed up the process.

Vanilla extract — use a good-quality store-bought or homemade vanilla extract for the best flavor. You can also use an equal amount of vanilla paste, adding small black flecks of vanilla bean, which is especially pretty in the glaze!

Powdered sugar — this fine sweetener is what helps the glaze thicken up and set. If you’re fresh out, you can make your own confectioner’s sugar by blitzing white sugar and cornstarch in a food processor.

Can I Use Frozen Strawberries?

Unfortunately, no. While frozen strawberries work well in some desserts (like my strawberry rhubarb pie or classic strawberry cake), they are too wet and soggy for folding into the quick bread batter. They will leave you with a streaky, overly moist loaf. The same goes for canned strawberries. Make sure you stick to fresh strawberries for this one! If fresh strawberries aren’t in season, check out the Variations section below for swaps!

How Do I Keep The Strawberries From Sinking?

Don’t skip the step where you toss the chopped berries in flour. That small step makes all the difference! Why? The flour creates a little jacket around each berry piece and provides friction with the batter, helping keep the berries suspended without sinking. I also like to reserve some of the berries to sprinkle on top of the batter right before baking. This way, the loaf baked up with little pockets of berries right on top for a professional bakery-worthy result!

Variations and Substitutions

The great thing about this fresh strawberry bread is how versatile it is! Here are just a few ways to shake things up to suit your pantry or your mood:

• Other fruit: Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, or cranberries are all delightful swaps you can make to suit the season you’re in. Other juicy fruits like plums, peaches, nectarines, and cherries also work if you’re not a fan of berries.
• Change the topping: Instead of a strawberry glaze, try introducing some texture by sprinkling a cup of streusel on top before baking. You can also mix and match flavors by swapping in a tangy lemon glaze, vanilla cream cheese frosting, or even a chocolate ganache.
• Add different mix-ins: If you like a bit of crunch, try adding about ½ cup of chopped roasted pistachios or toasted pecans. You can also add some mini chocolate chips for a fun flavor twist on chocolate-dipped strawberries, particularly if you pair it with a ganache topping!
• Gluten-free strawberry bread: Swap in an equal amount of your favorite cup-for-cup gluten-free baking flour. If possible, opt for one that includes xanthan gum for structure to help mimic gluten.
• Strawberry muffins: Spoon the batter into muffin liners about ⅔ of the way full, then bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. You can also try my strawberry muffins recipe, then add the strawberry glaze after the fact!

Pro Tips For Making Glazed Strawberry Bread

This bread works in most standard loaf pans. Loaf pans come in slightly different sizes, from wide and squatty to narrow and tall. Either a 9×5-inch loaf pan or an 8½x4½ inch (1-pound) loaf pan works great for this recipe. So as long as your pan is close to that, it should bake up great!

Use a scale to measure your flour. This will yield the most accurate results without overpacking the measuring cup, leading to dense or dry bread. However, if you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour with a spoon and then spoon it into your cups before leveling it off with a knife.

Avoid overmixing the batter. Overmixing creates an excess of gluten, which leads to a dense and tough quick bread. Mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated—meaning the streaks of flour have disappeared—then stop!

Fully cool the bread before glazing. If you don’t give the loaf time to reach room temperature, the glaze will just melt into the bread. Letting it cool allows the glaze to rest on top.

How To Make Strawberry Bread

Below, I’ve highlighted portions of the recipe in step-by-step process images along with instructions for making fresh strawberry bread. You can find the full set of instructions in the recipe card below.

1. Make the batter by combining the wet ingredients—sugar, milk, oil, egg, and vanilla—in a medium bowl, and whisking them together. In another medium bowl, stir together 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and the last 2 tablespoons of flour. Toss to coat strawberries. (This helps prevent them from sinking during baking.)

3. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients and fold them together until just combined, and the flour disappears.

4. Fold the flour-coated strawberries into the batter using a gentle folding motion so you don’t mash the fruit.

5. Pour the batter into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, then let the bread cool in the pan on a wire rack.

6. To make the glaze, place the fresh strawberries in a small bowl and mash them.

7. Add the powdered sugar and milk and stir until the glaze is thick but pourable. Add more sugar or milk if needed, depending on how juicy the berries are.

8. Remove the cooled bread from the pan and spoon the glaze over the top of the loaf. Let it stand for 30 minutes or until the glaze sets before serving.

4.85 from 167 votes

Strawberry Bread Recipe

Dive into spring baking with this easy Strawberry Bread recipe. The loaf is studded with fresh fruit and coated with a pretty pink glaze thanks to fresh strawberries.

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Course bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Resting Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 8 servings

Calories 396kcal

Author John Kanell

Video

Equipment

• ▢
  Mixing Bowls
• ▢
  Loaf pan
• ▢
  Wire cooling rack

Ingredients

For the Bread:

• ▢ ¾ cup granulated sugar (150g)
• ▢ ½ cup whole milk (120mL)
• ▢ ½ cup vegetable oil (120 mL)
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour divided (255g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 ½ cups diced fresh strawberries (230g)

For the Glaze:

• ▢ 3 tablespoons diced fresh strawberries
• ▢ 1 cup powdered sugar (120g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon whole milk

Instructions

For the Bread:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with baking spray. (You can also use an 8½x4½ inch pan for a slightly taller loaf, if you’d prefer!)
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, milk, oil, egg, and vanilla. In another medium bowl, stir together 2 cups (240g) of flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir until just combined.
• In a small bowl, combine strawberries and 2 tablespoons flour, tossing to coat strawberries. Fold the strawberries into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
• Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Glaze:

• Place the strawberries in a small bowl and mash. Stir in the powdered sugar and milk. Spoon over the cooled bread. Let stand for 30 minutes or until the glaze sets before serving.

Notes

• Avoid opening the oven door often while it bakes. When you open the oven, the cool air from the kitchen will rush in. If you do this too much, you risk the middle of the bread collapsing. Wait until it is close to the end of the baking time to check the bread.
• Depending on how juicy the strawberries are, you may need to increase the powdered sugar or just omit the milk in the glaze. The glaze should be thick enough to spoon over the bread and slowly drip down the sides.

Nutrition

Calories: 396kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 268mg | Potassium: 118mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 63IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 92mg | Iron: 2mg

*Nutrition Disclaimer

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How To Store

Due to the strawberries in the bread and the glaze, I recommend storing the strawberry bread in the fridge. Tightly wrap it with some plastic wrap or transfer it to an airtight container and keep it for up to 5 days.

Freezing: For an easy grab-and-go snack, you can freeze the bread in slices. You can also freeze the entire loaf unglazed. Once cooled, wrap the slices or whole loaf with plastic and freeze for up to 3 months. You can thaw the bread overnight in the fridge and warm it up in the microwave or defrost it from frozen in the microwave.

More Quick Bread Recipes To Try

For more delicious and easy bread recipes, try one of my other popular recipes!

If you’re craving a fruity treat in cooler weather, give my Glazed Cranberry Orange Bread a try. It’s a delightfully sweet-tart and perfectly moist way to celebrate fall and winter!

For a warmly spiced, deeply chocolatey treat, you can’t beat my Chocolate Zucchini Bread that’s brimming with cocoa and melty chocolate chips in every bite.

If you prefer a chocolatey twist on a classic, give my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread a shot. It’s my boys’ favorite after-school treat!

Sweet, juicy pops of fruit in a tender, vanilla-scented loaf are what make my favorite Blueberry Bread so craveable. It’s like a giant bakery muffin in a sliceable format!

Of course, you can never go wrong with a loaf of classic Banana Bread. It’s moist, tender, and the perfect way to use up spotty bananas all year round!

If you’ve tried this Strawberry Bread recipe, then don’t forget to rate it and let me know how you got on in the comments below. I love hearing from you!