This strawberry-lemon combo will brighten your day

Sunny strawberry bread marries berries and lemon.  (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

This delightful tea bread combines two favorite flavors of spring: Strawberries and lemon. It also makes good use of small berries.

Small berries is what I have right now. My strawberries have had a bountiful May, producing pint after pint of flavorful berries. And they just keep going.

I grow Seascape, a disease-resistant ever-bearing variety that's bright red all the way through. It can take the heat and produces berries from April through November. Besides all those pluses, the flavor is intense and very berry.

The first round of fruit is always the largest and prettiest; those berries go into shortcake or on top of tarts. In late May, the plants are pumping out little jewels -- thimble-sized berries that are just the right size to bake into bread or other treats.

This recipe is an adaptation of Nicole Routhier's strawberry-lemon bread in her excellent "Fruit Cookbook" (Workman Publishing, 1996).

Tossing the strawberries with a little flour before baking keeps the fruit suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom of the loaf.

Yes, it's a lot of butter, but the result is light and moist.

Still a few large Seascape berries, but mostly small ones now.

Sunny strawberry bread
Makes one large loaf

Ingredients:

Strawberry bread is great for brunch, a snack or dessert.

Transfer batter to prepared pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a long skewer comes out clean.