Do strawberries have seeds?

When I worked at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair this past winter, I worked at the Functional Food booth and there was this game where kids could play. One of the questions I asked kids was, “Do strawberries have seeds?” Many kids answered in hesitation, thinking it was a trick question. If I was a kid, I would hesitate as well, because in general, when you think of seeds, you think, it is something in the inside of a fruit or vegetable right? Well, strawberries are special. Their seeds are visible are on the outside. The answer to that question was…. yes, strawberries do have seeds; on average, they have 200 seeds! Isn’t that fascinating? =P They are the only fruit that carry their seeds on the outside.

So I had a box full of strawberries in the fridge and when I came upon this recipe, I thought it would be perfect to try out and use up the strawberries before they go bad. I made strawberry bread.

... go on, read more ;)

{Strawberry Bread}

2 eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups fresh diced strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 4″ loaf pan.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until the evenly yellow (but not frothy). Stir in the yogurt, oil, and vanilla and stir until evenly mixed. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no longer traces of flour. Gently fold in the strawberries, then pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the bread and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

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RESULTS: So when I first looked at this recipe, I was contemplating its use of whole wheat flour, because my family doesn’t really eat whole wheat desserts and I didn’t want to make something they wouldn’t eat or like. However, I still wanted to try the whole wheat flour out because it is healthy! So I decided to do 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup all purpose flour and see how it would turn out. In the finished product, you could not taste the whole wheat flour, which was good, because it was like tricking people who would never eat whole wheat! HAHA =D Evil?? I wouldn’t say so, cmon, I’m helping you have the best of both worlds! Something sweet and healthy at the same time! Plus, FIBRE is good for the HEART <3

Anyways, the strawberries bread were okay. I wouldn’t say it was amazing. But I felt it was missing something… maybe like some additional flavour? Like maybe some cinnamon would have made it better… And I cooked it for much longer because the middle wasn’t cooked after 40 minutes so it made the bread kind of dry. I am definitely sticking with my banana bread next time!

By the way, strawberries are a great snack food if not used in desserts. They are packed with Vitamin C, potassium, and antioxidants. GO BERRIES & their antioxidant powers!!! They fight off the bad free radicals in our body. Strawberries and berries may be small fruits, but they provide many nutrients and are powerful fighters! Sometimes, great things come in small packages. (Berries and ME … hahaha!!!)

Oh yeah, one very important thing, when baking anything in a pan, like this strawberry bread I made. When putting the mixture into the prepared pan, for the middle part of the mixture in the pan, use a rubber spatula and have less mix in the middle, so that the whole thing will cook evenly and you won’t have an uncooked middle later. I always found this helped me, but maybe that’s just me. I totally forgot to do it this time, thus having to cook the bread for much longer. If you didn’t get what I meant that, here’s a little diagram:

The dent/ movement of the mixture doesn’t have to be that big at all.. just a little bit. I’ll take a picture next time I do this, but hope that helps you out in your baking!

Bon Appetit,

Jenny