Thursday, August 20. 2009
Blueberry-lemon Bread
Thursday, August 20. 2009
Around mid-July, I became obsessed with the idea of lemon and blueberry in baked goods. I know exactly what sparked it: I was driving home from work in Tucson and stopped off at a bakery for a blueberry muffin. I had some lemon Frut2O in my possession, and spent the drive drinking this nondescript blueberry muffin and my lemon water, marvelling about how much better that muffin tasted right after I took a drink, or how the aftertaste was just more blueberry-ish after taking a swig.But I had a huge problem: nowhere in my rented kitchen was a muffin tin, or even a bread pan.
Woe!
So I waited, considering my options for breads and muffins and what would do me better.
Ultimately, I decided on a blueberry-lemon bread recipe found on epicurious, and just had to wait until I happened to have everything I needed to bake it.
As luck would have it, this coincided the same weekend I was gifted with a ginormous mutant zucchini, and I had to put the bread aside for a few days to deal with the squash. But now, it's 4am, and I couldn't sleep -- too jazzed up. I was hungry, and my sister (my roommate) is gone for the rest of the week, called into work unexpectedly. So I decided to make that blueberry-lemon bread to calm down, and while it baked away, unpacked and cleaned my apartment a bit. (As sad as it is that I've been here 17 days now and am not fully unpacked, but truthfully: I unpacked what I originally brought, and went to my parents' to pick up some more things they'd been holding for me, stashed in the room that used to be mine.)
Anyway: this is brightly lemon, with juicy blueberries. It's a great, sunshiney bread, good for a raining morning like today.
Blueberry-lemon bread with lemon glaze
Yields: 2 loaves of bread
3 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (12 Tbs)
1 1/2 C white sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 lemon, zested (about 2Tbs; save the lemons for juice)
1 C milk
2 C fresh blueberries
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C (4 Tbs) fresh lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 2 8"x4" loaf pans.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the butter until just soft. Beat in 1 1/2C of sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time, add each egg, being sure to beat until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Alternate between the flour mixture and milk -- adding 1/4 of the flour mixture or 1/3 of the milk, as appropriate. Be sure to fully incorporate before adding anything else. Beat until it just comes together. Carefully fold in the blueberries.
Pour the batter into two pans, about half-and-half. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick comes out with a moist crumb.
Bring the 1/2C of sugar and 1/4C lemon juice to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Pierce the hot bread all over the top with a fork or skewer, and pour the glaze on top. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes, remove from the pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Yields: 2 loaves of bread
3 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (12 Tbs)
1 1/2 C white sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 lemon, zested (about 2Tbs; save the lemons for juice)
1 C milk
2 C fresh blueberries
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C (4 Tbs) fresh lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 2 8"x4" loaf pans.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the butter until just soft. Beat in 1 1/2C of sugar until light and fluffy. One at a time, add each egg, being sure to beat until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Alternate between the flour mixture and milk -- adding 1/4 of the flour mixture or 1/3 of the milk, as appropriate. Be sure to fully incorporate before adding anything else. Beat until it just comes together. Carefully fold in the blueberries.
Pour the batter into two pans, about half-and-half. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick comes out with a moist crumb.
Bring the 1/2C of sugar and 1/4C lemon juice to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Pierce the hot bread all over the top with a fork or skewer, and pour the glaze on top. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes, remove from the pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
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