Strawberry Cornmeal Quick Bread

I am not afraid of anything (err...except, um, birds, but we'll talk about that some other time...).  Perhaps I should say that I am not afraid of anything in the kitchen.  I have prepared chicken, beef, and pork in a variety of ways, made cakes and cookies, and, oh yeah, prepared baklava, phyllo dough and all, from scratch.  But for this, my very first real food post, I wanted to do something so scary that no one, no one ever does it (at least no one I've ever met).  I invented a recipe entirely on my own:  strawberry cornmeal quick bread.

No ingredient lists, no measurements, no baking guidelines.  I measured as I went but everything I did was based on what I saw.  Too dry?  Add milk.  Too wet?  Add flour.  And here we are.

I added strawberries to this two ways:  mashed and stirred into the batter, and sliced and sprinkled over half the batter in the pan and then covered with the other half. This definitely gives it a full strawberry flavor which meshes well with the cornmeal, adding an unexpected but delicious nuttiness.  And trust me, if you can wait a day for the flavors to meld, it only gets better.

But I told you guys yesterday that I needed to retest this before typing it up.  Why, you ask?  The baking time, actually.  The first time I, shall we say, underbaked it by a bit.  The second time, one hour seemed to do the trick.  However, I know for a fact that my oven runs "hot" (yes, that's the technical term), thus if you have an oven that runs "cool" you should try a longer baking time.  No, I don't recommend a higher baking temperature unless you want a burnt exterior and an underdone interior.

Strawberry Cornmeal Quick Bread

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup coarsely ground cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup mashed strawberries
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (or so) sliced strawberries

Grease and flour a 9"x5" pan.  Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Mix well.  Stir in mashed strawberries.  Stir in milk until all ingredients are well-combined (this will take longer than you think).  Batter will be slightly lumpy.  Pour half the batter into the greased pan.  Sprinkle sliced strawberries over the batter in an even layer.  Gently scoop the rest of the batter over top of the strawberries.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.