Both times I’ve made the loaf I have had to add a little bit of water after the kneading process, but not a huge amount..  The bread tastes pretty good by itself. It is sweet, but not overly strawberry flavored. I find that it actually tastes more strawberry-like when it’s made into french toast, but even then don’t expect to be hit with an intense strawberry flavor. It’s very subtle (but delicious!)

For french toast, I recommend cutting the loaf into about 12 slices for thick-but-not-too-thick french toast.  I admit that I don’t follow an exact recipe for french toast, but the basic gist of it is to warm up a griddle or frying pan (be sure you have some kind of substance to help the french toast not stick – butter, pam, whatever..)  I usually soak the bread in a mixture of eggs,  milk, vanilla and cinnamon until it is saturated – but not excessively dripping.  The strawberry bread is very dense, so it helps if you poke the bread a few times with a fork while soaking to let it go all the way through. Then cook the bread on the heated surface until it’s golden brown (and not dripping liquid ).    Top with maple syrup or strawberries and whipped cream or even just a little pat of butter… and enjoy!

The first is for a strawberry shake (from the “Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home” cookbook):

Ingredients:

• 1 pint fresh strawberries (cleaned and stemmed)
• 1 cup plain, vanilla or lemon nonfat yogurt (I’ve used vanilla each time I’ve made this)
• 3-4 tablespoons of orange juice, apple juice or apple-strawberry juice
• 2-3 tablespoons of maple syrup

Put it all in a blender until smooth. I’d recommend chilling it a little bit before serving so it’s nice and cold, but it still tastes good right out of the blender.

Second recipe is for egg-free chocolate chip cookies (from allrecipes.com). They may be just as bad (calorie wise) as other cookies, but for some reason using yogurt makes them seem healthier to me.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar (you can reduce the amount of sugar a little bit and it will still taste plenty sweet)
• 1/4 cup margarine or butter
• 1/4 cup shortening (I actually just used a little bit more butter instead of shortening)
• 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugars, butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Stir in yogurt and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture, then mix in chocolate chips. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. (Recipe, in theory, makes 36 cookies)

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Cool for a minute on the cookie sheets before moving to wire racks to cool completely.

When I made these cookies, the consistency was more muffin-like than cookie-like, but they still tasted delicious. I think next time I am going to divide the batch in half – one half of the dough for making cookies and the other half for eating raw. That’s one of the major perks of cookie dough without raw eggs!