Lemon Blueberry Bread

I was applying for a scholarship back in the day (which was a Wednesday) and I remember one of the essay questions had asked me what was my long term goal?

I knew. I KNEW! My little 18 year old heart was definite in it’s answer … owning a Bed & Breakfast. It would combine all the things that I loved along with the knowledge I was going to obtain at college for hotel/restaurant management.

Funny how your goals change – I currently don’t have a clue what my goals are … isn’t that a kick in the head!

However, if I were to have a B&B then this Lemon Blueberry Bread would be served.

I love having “dessert” for breakfast – I love dessert period, exclamation point.

This is what you would call a quick bread – to me it’s like a large muffin (I’m not bluffin’) that you share.

The tanginess of the lemon comes through in every bite thanks to the lemon juice, lemon yogurt, and lemon peel that is used in the recipe. The plump blueberries with it’s mild sweetness complements; it gives you a break from the acidity that is lemon. This bread is also dense yet moist. It’s a great contradictory food to break your fast with or have featured during brunch.

Lemon Blueberry Bread
Adapted from King Arthur Flour’s Lemon Bread

Ingredients:Bread
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup lemon yogurt ( I used Chobani Lemon Greek Yogurt)
1 teaspoon lemon rind, grated
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries, fresh or thawed

Glaze
1/4 cup lemon juice, fresh
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until combined. Beat in one egg at at time into creamed mixture. In a separate bowl whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, and grated lemon rind and set aside. Sift together the remaining dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Add 1/4 dry and 1/4 wet ingredients to the creamed items until fully incorporated. Gently fold in blueberries into batter. In a large (8 1/2 inch x 4 1/2 inch) greased loaf pan add batter and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes.

While bread is baking make your lemon glaze. In a bowl whisk together lemon juice and sugar until sugar has dissolved, set aside.

Once bread has completed baking and is still hot poke with holes using your poker du jour (I like to use a wooden kabob skewer) through out the bread. Then spoon the lemon glaze over the bread and allow it to soak into it. Let the bread cool for approximately 15-20 minutes before removing it from the pan and slicing to serve.

Makes 1 loaf.

Sweet Potato Bread

A few weekends ago the age old question of – “What should I make?” struck me.  After perusing through my cabinets and with holiday season upon us … I decided to make a Sweet Potato Bread.  Of course, I could have gone with the ever popular Pumpkin Bread. Since, I don’t like Pumpkin anything, I nixed that idea.

It seems that Pumpkin and Butternut Squash are the most popular items for autumn. I don’t care for either. Picky eater table of one!

I love Sweet Potatoes — okay I love Sweet Potato Pie and Candied Sweet Potatoes. I chose to see this bread making experiment as a challenge – step out my comfortable box and try something different.

It’s great to stretch one’s boundaries from time to time. It’s even better when it’s a success.

This particular Sweet Potato Bread is more like a sweet/spicy bread with undertones of Sweet Potato.  Moist like the Banana Bread and finished off with a crumb topping.   Dare I say if you were doing homemade gifts this would be a great gift to give!

This year I am going to do homemade/ quasi homemade gifts for my family, except for my youngest nephew – I don’t have a way of making a homemade or even semi-homemade iPod.

I hope you will also enjoy this recipe as much as my office guinea pigs did!

Sweet Potato Bread
Adapted from My Kitchen Café’s Buttermilk Banana Bread

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 ¼ cup baked & mashed sweet potatoes or 1 large sweet potato baked and mashed

4 tablespoons buttermilk

½ teaspoon of vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon of robust molasses

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

¼ teaspoon of nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

½ teaspoon of allspice

¼ teaspoon of ground ginger

1 ¾ cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

¼ teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

In a bowl cream butter and sugar together; add eggs one at a time until incorporated.  Add in the following: mashed sweet potatoes, buttermilk, vanilla bean paste, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and ginger; mix all together.

Add the dry sifted ingredients into the wet mixture; mix until combined.

Pour mixture into a large greased loaf pan (9 ¼ x 5 ¼ inch) and bake for 55 -60 minutes.

Let cool for approximately an hour before serving.

Note: You can top the batter before baking with either an evenly coating of brown sugar or a crumb topping for some extra razzle dazzle!

Until next time!
Jennifer