Strawberry Creamcheese Bread

You show me some fruit, first thing I think about is how to make a cake out of it. Second thing would be how to make a bread with it. It is kind of sad that I keep thinking about how to bake with any of the ingredients all the time, but it is so true. I had a pint of strawberries which, for some reason no one wanted to eat. I ate some, then remembered that I had half a block of cream cheese in the refrigerator. Since strawberry cream cheese is so good, I decided to make a bread using these two ingredients. My idea was to make one 9 X 5 loaf, but I added a bit too much water and ended up adding more flour. Result was awesome even when I did not increase the fat content. I did adjust the sugar so that it is a sweet breakfast bread. This is making me think about a rich strawberry flavored bread and all I need is another pint of strawberries to make it.

One Year back - Mango Ice cream
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 4 - 5 cups (It took 4 3/4 cups for me - See Notes)
Strawberries - 8 - 10
Water - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Instant yeast - 2 1/4 tsp (It might look less for this much of flour, but trust me the bread was light and spongy enough)
Salt - 1 tsp
Cream cheese - 1/2 a block of 8 Oz block at room temperature

Method:
Chop the strawberries roughly and put it in a microwave safe bowl. Add the 3/4 cup of water to it and microwave for a minute or two till strawberries are soft. Mash roughly and when it is warm, start making the bread. In a bowl, take the strawberry water mixture that you have mashed, cream cheese, sugar, salt. Mix and add yeast. Start adding the flour. Start with 4 cups and use as per the need. This dough after kneading is still a lot tacky and a little sticky. Start kneading the dough adding enough flour to make it easy enough to knead. Do this for about 10 minutes or until elastic. If it is getting too hard to knead it, oil your hands and knead. Place the dough in the bowl and coat with oil. Turn it once to coat all over and let rise for an hour to hour and a half or until double in volume.

When it has risen, punch down and place the dough on a well floured counter. Divide the dough into two parts. It helps if you oil your hands or the bench scraper. Grease two 8 X 4 loaf pans with oil. Set aside. Shape the dough into loaves. This part was also a challenge and I just rounded them up like a boule and plopped them into the pan. Push the dough so that it covers the entire pan. Cover with an oiled plastic wrap and let it rise for an hour or until double in volume. Towards the end of the rise time,  preheat the oven to 400 F (I did mine at 375 since I was using glass pans). Just before placing the pans in the oven, make a vertical slit in the center or slash the way you want. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn down the temperature to 350 F (in my case to 325 F) and bake for another 20 minutes. When done, the crust will be pale and not very brown. You probably can get a better crust if you use egg wash. Internal temperature should be between 200 - 210 F. Cool on the wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. Slice when completely cool. Kids ate with some nutella and adults ate as is. I was curious how it would taste with strawberry jam and it tasted awesome since it enhances the strawberry flavor.

Notes:
If you do not want two loaves, try using only 1/4 cup of water with the strawberries. Reduce the sugar to 1/3 cup and use 3 - 3 1/2 cups of flour. You can use just 2 tsp of instant yeast and the loaf will be perfect.

This loaf is on its way to Susan's Yeastspotting and to Srivalli's Breakfast Mela.
Also, linking it to 'A Themed Bakers Sunday #5 - bread' .

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