Roasted Strawberry Bread

It's summer! You thought I loved spring just wait until you hear about how much I love summer and then there's fall, which I love more than all of them combined. But summer is really special. I live for summer adventures. When it occurred to me that summer had arrived, I immediately started planning all our summer adventures. In one day, I pretty much filled our entire summer schedule. We will be road tripping to Jackson, camping, fly fishing, backpacking, going to Film on the Rocks, adventuring to Nederland to enjoy our favorite pizza, and walking through the Chihuly exhibit at the Botanic Gardens. And when we are not running around we will sit on our porch and enjoy the immense wonder that is a summer night. I can't wait.

Since it's summer, early summer, that means I am also celebrating strawberries. Strawberry syrup, strawberry cinnamon knots, strawberries on their own, and strawberry bread. Blake loves strawberry bread. His mom makes a particularly awesome version. I thought I would try my hand at this delicious, sweet, quick bread. I roasted the strawberries before hand, which caramelizes the sugars making them extra delicious and of course, browned the butter. Will I ever stop browning the darn butter? I think not. It's just too tasty. As is this bread. It's made even tastier by the realization that it's summer and strawberry bread is just the beginning of all the wonderful things we will enjoy.

Roasted Strawberry Bread
3/4 cup strawberries, quartered and roasted
4 tbs unsalted butter, browned
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup + 2 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 a tsp cardamom (optional)
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a cookie sheet with oil. Place strawberries on the cookie sheet and sprinkle with 2 tbs of the brown sugar and toss with your hands to coat. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool to room temperature.

Brown you butter in a medium saucepan over high heat. Watch as the butter gets bubbly and then subsides. Once it subsides, you should see brown specs at the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cardamom, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, brown butter, and vanilla extract. Add this wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until combined. Add roasted strawberries and mix.

Grease a loaf pan with nonstick spray and pour in batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.