Grandmother Bread with Fresh Berries

Jul
9

It’s a beautiful time of year. A beautiful berry time of year, that is. I love berries. Who doesn’t? (No, actually, I know people who don’t like fruit! What’s up with that???) Blueberries are one of my favorites. Along with strawberries and blackberries. (It’s almost blackberry picking time!) And of course I love to bake with berries–blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry clafouti. (What?! I haven’t posted about clafouti? Must post that recipe soon.)

But! Blueberries are for more than muffins and pancakes and clafouti. Make blueberry bread. Of course, you want to make it with Grandmother Bread!

By the way, in response to requests, I’ve created an entire Grandmother Bread page. You can find all the Grandmother Bread recipes in one place. (I’ve also created a Quick Mix page with all my Quick Mix recipes.)

(Note: If you’re going to make berry bread with whole wheat, be sure to use homemade dough enhancer.)

I’m baking Grandmother Bread with Fresh Berries here using the one-loaf standard Grandmother Bread recipe with the addition of fresh blueberries and extra sugar for more sweetening. You can use any fresh berries (or other cut-up fresh fruit) for the same result.

How to make Grandmother Bread with Fresh Berries:

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh berries
4-5 cups flour

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, berries, sugar, and salt. Let sit five minutes.

Stir in flour with a heavy spoon until dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily.

Add a little more flour and begin kneading. Using fresh berries is a bit different than using dried fruit, such as raisins. I go ahead and add the fresh berries early in the process, right into the warm water before adding flour. When making muffins or pancakes, for example, you’d add the fresh berries last in order to avoid squishing your berries. But when making bread, you’re dealing with a dough that is going to become quite stiff. You just can’t add the berries at the end and expect them to be thoroughly mixed. You’ve got to go ahead and get them in.

My tips for using fresh berries in making a yeast dough? Knead gently, and as briefly as possible. Trust the dough. Oh, and you’re gonna squish some of the berries. It’s okay.

The amount of flour is approximate–your mileage may vary! Continue adding flour and kneading (gently!) until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually, 30-60 minutes.)

Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again before shaping dough into a loaf. Place in a greased loaf pan and cover with greased wax paper or a wet paper towel. Let rise until loaf is tall and beautiful and berry-licious! (About an hour, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.)

Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven.

Fantastic straight out of the oven with a pat (or three) of butter. Or toasted. Or–FRENCH TOAST. You haven’t had French Toast till you’ve had it with berry bread.

Go ahead. Find out. I dare you.

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18 Responses
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7-9
1:57
am

This sounds good! Almost like baked with jam in the dough.
MMMMMMMmm!

monica - Reply
7-9
3:38
am

Love your blog!! I mean I look forward to getting up in the morning to get my coffee and reading your blog.Love everything about it. I will be making theis bread today..LOOKS FANTASTIC!!
Have A Beautiful Day!!
Hugs Grany Trace

Granny Trace - Reply
7-9
3:51
am

Perfect timimg with this post! I happen to be in possession of 10 pounds of fresh berries and already have made another 12 pounds into jam! I’ll be baking up several of these loaves for my freezer! Thanks so much!!

Debi - Reply
7-9
4:30
am

Blueberries are my favorite berry. My bushes have slacked off in production the last few years due to age I suspect. This year I was down to only a gallon. But the blackberries, ohh that’s another thing entirely. Got to pick on Sunday and they are sweet. More coming on every day now.

Box Call - Reply
7-9
5:03
am

Oh my! Oh my! There is going to be a loaf of blueberry gma bread baking here today!! So I can have stuffed blueberry french toast tomorrow……oh I hope there will be some bread left

Thanks for another great recipe!

CindyP - Reply
7-9
5:49
am

That first picture of the bread is so pretty and yummy looking! I’m strangely craving blue berry muffins this morning…

Kacey - Reply
7-9
5:50
am

Aww Suzanne! I baked that lucious white cake with the 7-minute icing the other day! And it was wonderful. My husband ate it for breakfast! Sweet toothitis! I gotta pass on this. Sure does look good though.

Lynda Dunham-Watkins - Reply
7-9
6:22
am

mmmmmmmm….french toast with blueberry syrup

Bev - Reply
7-9
6:37
am

About fruit…

Our kiddo has had the same best friend since she was three. This other kiddo’s mom is a blend of germ-o-phobe, martha stewarty, and whatever.

Last week, the kiddos were having a sleepover here. I had some fresh strawberries for strawberry shortcake. Delicious! Right? Ha.

Other Kiddo takes one look at the strawberries on her shortcake and announces she likes her strawberries PEELED. Seriously. Thinks the seeds make her gag. My kid said noone peels strawberries. Other kid said my mom does. My kid said anyone ever tell you how weird she is?

becki - Reply
7-9
7:39
am

This post is just another example of why your blog brings me joy on a daily basis .

Jenny S. - Reply
7-9
8:41
am

Oh my goodness Becki, that’s hilarious!!! I do have to say in Martha’s defense though, that I suspect if anyone suggested to her that strawberries should be pealed, that when she finished laughing in their face, she’d tell them they were just as weird as your daughter thinks this other mom is. I find LOTS of Martha’s recipes very useful, though I too leave off some of the fussier aspects of some of them, but lots of the basic recipes are darn good as is.

Suzanne’s recipes are indeed more straightforward, and do fit into my world better, but there’s room in my kitchen for all kinds of goodness! G-Ma bread is awfully special I must say. I need to hit a U-Pick farm for some blueberries now!

BuckeyeGirl - Reply
7-9
8:53
am

Oh, no, the drool is back on my keyboard. I have no idea HOW it got there! Until today I thought the only heavenly baked item was blueberry pie, but the bread is making me think again.

I had a giggle at your stash of peppers – I’m the same way with Green Goddess dressing – yep – the oldie but goodie, formerly by Seven Seas, now under the Kraft label and found only at Wal-Mart (here at least). I plan to buy several bottles before moving to Iowa, “just in case”.

Nancy in Atlanta - Reply
7-9
9:00
am

Oh. My. Golly. Gee. Whiz.

I need to make me some of that!

Caryn - Reply
7-9
9:59
am

What on earth is clafouti? I have never heard of it! Off to google…

Kirsten - Reply
7-9
11:08
am

I love blueberry muffins but never thought about bread. This is definitely on my to-do list. You are so right about the french toast…I made some using cinn. raisin bread and was so surprised at how good it was.

Darlene - Reply
7-9
5:38
pm

Hi, Suzanne. I just tried your Summer Veggie Pie recipe (I call it Garden Glut Pie) and liked it very much. I am going to try making it with artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, feta cheese and spinach…ought to go well with a grilled leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary (Munster or Asiago cheese ought to work with those flavors as the “binding cheese” in the recipe). Uh, oh…I’m making myself hungry, LOL. So anyway, thanks for all the great recipes. I’d been getting a little stale in the kitchen lately, but then I found your site and have become inspired again, thanks to you.

Helen - Reply
7-9
8:01
pm

We’ve been stocked with fruit – watermelon, canteloupe (trying to like it), blackberries, blueberries, white cherries, strawberries, you name it and I’ve been making blueberry pancakes!! Love them.

Donna - Reply
7-9
10:22
pm

I was thinking about that throwing it out to the universe thing, in regards to the elephant (and also to the person who wanted a giraffe). Now, who wouldn’t want an elephant, they make tractors look like useless pieces of metal, but here’s the thing. It’s not the herculean fencing it takes for a pen, it’s not even what or how much they eat (what do they eat?), the thing you must consider is how do you medically take care of them? There are no traveling elephant vets. Heck, I don’t think vets travel much at all these days. I speak from experience, I once raised large exotics birds, emus. If they needed something, I had a wonderful vet, but we would often times stand outside the pen, look at each other and shrug. Another friend has a large cat refuge(tiger, lion, etc.) and another has ostriches. She finally gave up as she couldn’t get a vet to come to her. And how do you transport a full grown elephant? I don’t mean to be the party pooper here, but you’re building a beautiful place and I can tell you really love your animals. So if your wished for, oh say 6 mo. old elephant was sick, what would you do? Blueberry bread looks so so good you can almost smell it!

Kathy - Reply