Buttermilk Banana & Strawberry Bread

I am currently obsessed with using buttermilk in baking. If a recipe ever called for buttermilk I would usually just substitute it by adding lemon juice to milk, but never again! This fantastic and extremely moist Cornmeal Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting (and just to inform you, this is seriously the BEST chocolate frosting I have ever tasted) from Evil Shenanigans definitely changed my mind.

Buttermilk just makes everything so moist and adds a unique and subtle flavor to whatever it is baked into. Since making that cake, I have made my family and I's favorite chocolate cake, (which I use as the base for any recipe that I make which involves chocolate cake) into like the best cake EVER (according to my family and I)! I just substituted buttermilk for regular milk and frosted it with the chocolate buttermilk frosting. I have also made these Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes, which then leads me to this Buttermilk Banana Strawberry Bread. It is a fabulous quick bread recipe that is very moist, buttery, rich, and so delicious! It is perfect to eat plain, or you can smear it with butter, toast it and spread on jam, or eat it warm with some nutella or drizzled with honey.

Needless to say, I am in love with buttermilk and will be using buttermilk in my baking more and more!

Buttermilk Banana Strawberry Bread: (adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium sized bananas)
• 4 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup diced strawberries, plus 2 whole srawberries thinly sliced for the top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 1 large loaf pan or 4 small loaf pans (I used 4 small loaf pans). You can also make banana muffins with this recipe, as well. Set pans aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla until the batter is well mixed.

Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Mix until well combined. Gently fold in diced strawberries. Divide batter into greased and floured pans and top with thinly sliced strawberries. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let bread cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen the bread with a knife and carefully remove from pan. Cool completely on rack. Slice and serve once cooled.