Strawberry-Rhubarb Bread

This one is a completely experimental recipe, but I got some good feedback from the folks who I tried this experiment on ;-)... so I figured I could post this! It’s a roasted rhubarb and strawberry bread, but any other fruit would also work, as long as it doesn’t release a lot of juice while baking. The reason I roasted the rhubarb with some sugar was to reduce the tartness, but this is optional. If you like the tart flavor of rhubarb, this step can be skipped. I plan to try using mango in this recipe while the stores still have good mangoes, and will update this post with the outcome of that… hopefully it will be just as delicious!

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter / margarine

1 cup + ½ tbsp brown sugar

2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups chopped fruit (rhubarb and/or strawberries)

¼ tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

¼ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Mix ½ tbsp. sugar with the chopped rhubarb, and broil for a ~3-4 min. This can also be done in a pan on the stovetop.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or two loaf pans (I used three mini loaf pans and another small baking dish). Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter with ¾ cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat. Fold in the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately. Add vanilla and mix. Stir in fruit.

Add batter to prepared pan. Mix nutmeg and cinnamon to ¼ cup brown sugar and sprinkle on top of the batter. Bake for ~35 min or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

~Gayatri