Strawberry Tea Bread - Sweet Cheeks Winery

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...We have in our community a winery with a most unusual name. Before that can be shared, I must describe, as best I can, the property on which the winery sits. The acreage is bisected by a service road that cuts through the two rounded hillsides on which the grapes are grown. A contingent of locals insisted the property resembled a well-rounded derriere and conspired to have the winery named Sweet Cheeks. It worked. Now this kind of nonsense can't be plucked from the ether. Every word of this is true. I swear. I'm going to resist jokes about "bottom lands" and instead send those of you who would like to know more about the winery or my veracity here. Now, it is perfectly logical to ask why I bothered to tell you about the winery at all. It's also reasonable to ask what it has to do with a strawberry tea bread. So, here's how we got from there to here. I had promised to bring four loaves of this bread to a meeting this morning. I was in such a rush to finish the breads that I misjudged the distance between oven racks and, as a result, the bottom loaves baked into the racks above them. Bob thought the crease that developed in the two bottom loaves was a lot funnier than was actually the case and dubbed my loaves Sweet Cheeks Strawberry Bread. Those who are fond of European tea breads that are less sweet than their American counterparts will love this bread. If you are accustomed to a really sweet strawberry bread, you might want to take a pass on this. I'll let you judge for yourselves. Here's the recipe.

Strawberry Tea Bread...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Taste of Home magazine

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped fresh strawberries
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted, divided use

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan. Set aside.
2) In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well.
3) Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Batter will be thick. Fold in strawberries and 1/2 cup nuts.
4) Scrape into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle top with reserved 1/4 cup walnuts. Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Yield: 1 loaf.

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