Originally Posted by
John K Jordan
Mark, we did make the strawberry bread on Saturday, and because of your comment on basil and my Lovely Bride's reminder of the Strawberry/Basil sauce we first had in a hilltop restaurant in the center of Italy, our bread was strawberry/basil and it is delicious, but not much left!
This also spurred panna cotta in the fridge and a fresh batch of strawberry/basil sauce to dribble over fruit on top. Ooo.
Just put 1 to 1-1/2 cup strawberries, a bit of confectionery sugar and a couple of basil leaves in the food processor.
JKJ
I ended up making a sweet bread instead. I did pear/cranberry with a little basil. End result was it was pretty good, but could not taste the basil. I used some pear juice as part of the water, then added about a cup of pear sauce (you know like apple sauce but from pears) plus two pears diced up. Used a cup of diced dried cranberries. Normally my bread dough is easy to form into loaves. The sweet bread had too much liquid and I had to 'pour' it from the scale to the pan. I weigh my bread so them loaves are uniform in size. I gave some out to friends to get their thoughts. One guy and his wife are still annoyed with me because I have given them about six loaves in the past four weeks and both have gained 5 pounds. Another couple across the street called and said they had eaten four sliced toasted the night I gave it to them, and finished the loaf the next morning. Weight gain with breads is not optional.
What I will change for the next batch is to reverse the pear and cranberry, making a cranberry sauce to infuse the entire batch, with added diced cranberries, then add three pears diced. Infusing the bread with pears puts too much sweetness into it and using cranberries will make it seem less sweet. I will also need to double or triple the basil amount so it is stronger, but not over-powering. Using orange is an interesting idea, which I will have to incorporate with something else.
With summer coming I will try out using a number of fruits, strawberry, orange, perhaps mango and cherries too.
I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.... It seems to me that Montana is a great splash of grandeur....the mountains are the kind I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda. Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans. Montana has a spell on me. It is grandeur and warmth. Of all the states it is my favorite and my love.
John Steinbeck