Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

In our last post, Blueberry Oatmeal Bread, I mentioned that I've been looking for excuses to bake because it is soooooo cold here.  I wasn't kidding.  Today the high is predicted to be 4 degrees.  We have a wind chill warning until tomorrow afternoon because with the wind chill it can feel as cold as -30 degrees!  We usually spend Sunday mornings at church, but it was cancelled.  So, we are all still in our PJs.  My husband is getting ready to start a fire in the fireplace and I've been looking for more excuses to turn on the oven and bake.

This time my excuse is Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread.  I love quick breads because they're simple to make, mix up quickly and then hang out in the oven for about an hour.  The house smells amazing and everyone here loves to eat them!

Recipe Link
Ingredients 
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried and chopped
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese together until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended. Add buttermilk and only stir until combined; do not over mix!
4. Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake in oven for 50-60 minutes (until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.) Remove from oven and let rest in pan for 5 minutes. Then, remove bread from pan and let cool completely on cooling rack.
Makes one loaf

Adapted from My Baking Addiction

Creaming the butter, cream cheese and sugar

After adding the eggs, vanilla and flour mixture, the dough gets thick. The buttermilk helps thin it out.

I usually don't buy strawberries out of season, but the store had lots of decent looking strawberries out for valentine's day.

Ready for the oven!

The Results...
Overall, Fresh Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread received 3 1/2 stars (out of 5).  It was tasty, but we wanted more strawberry flavor.  My husband suggested adding more strawberries or making a strawberry sauce or glaze to go with this bread to kick up the flavor.

This would be a great recipe to make again during strawberry season.  I think a slice of this bread with some fresh strawberry sauce and whipped cream on top would be amazing!