This was my first pinterest fail. Normally I can sort the good from the bad for the most part by looking through the recipe, but for some reason I followed this recipe blindly and didn’t think to edit it. So when I went to make this lemon blueberry bread, I took it’s lemony, berry goodness from the oven and was impressed at first. Then I poked holes in it and brushed what I can only remember as an endless supply of lemon-sugar syrup onto it (reassured by the recipe to make sure to use it ALL). Then, I made the lemon glaze. And lemon lemon lemon later, I tried a piece. My husband got a good kick out of watching me bite into it and literally shiver. I shoved it all into the garbage, regretting the time it took to make when I could have been sleeping cleaning the house in high heels. Yeah. But I remembered how happy that little loaf looked before I drowned it in lemon, so I gave it another shot. I followed the recipe, omitted the syrup, and made a vanilla glaze. It is a great balance of flavors and perfectly moist. I recommend a slice with a big cup of coffee. Because it’s bread. Not cake. So it counts as breakfast. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise : )
Lemon Blueberry Loaf
adapted from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen, who got it from Smitten Kitchen, who got it from Ina Garten
| 1½ | cups + 1 tbs all-purpose flour, separated | |
| 2 | tsp baking powder | |
| ½ | tsp kosher salt | |
| 1 | cup greek yogurt (I used vanilla bean instead of plain to add to the flavor) | |
| 1 | cup sugar | |
| 3 | large eggs | |
| 2 | tsp grated lemon zest (I only needed one lemon) | |
| ½ | tsp pure vanilla extract | |
| ½ | cup vegetable oil | |
| 1½ | cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed (I didn’t thaw mine and it was fine, used a 10oz bag of Publix Greenwise frozen blueberries) |
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess. (I use baking spray that has flour in it already, then lay a rectangle of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan, and spray the top of the paper lightly).
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil.
- Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Mine needed a few extra minutes, so don’t sweat it if you have to add 5 or 10 minutes on. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.
Vanilla glaze
| 1 | cup powdered sugar | |
| 1 | tbs vanilla extract (I used imitation which is clear so that the glaze would be white) | |
| 1 | tbs milk (add more if you want it runnier for drizzling) |
- In a small bowl, combine all ingredients, mixing well until smooth. The glaze should be thick but pourable if you want a nice thick layer like in my picture. If you want to drizzle it over the cake, you can add a little more milk.
- Once the cake it cooled, apply glaze and let set before cutting. Enjoy!