Sweet Lemon Bread

As the summer approaches, I find that I start craving more light and refreshing flavors like lemon, and less rich and earthy flavors like pumpkin. In this spirit, I decided to make a new lemon bread recipe. I have found many recipes like this where there is a basic quick-bread base and a lemon/sugar glaze added post-baking, but this one looked really simple and like something I would have a hard time messing up! 

(if you look closely you can see that one side of the loaf is higher than

 the other... this is due to the floor in my apartment being slanted, 

thus causing the oven to tilt downward. what a joy!)

This recipe really couldn't be more straightforward, and the directions are probably the simplest I've ever read: "Mix all ingredients, pour into loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour." That's it. I might add that I first creamed the sugar with the butter and milk, then I added the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, I combined the flour, salt, baking powder and lemon rind. Once the dry mixture was all mixed up, I added it to the wet mixture and stirred it by hand until incorporated. I was careful not to over-mix, as that tends to make baked goods chewy and a little tougher. Additionally, when it came to making the glaze, I mixed the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and heated it over the burner for a minute or two, just to help the sugar dissolve. 

My only problem with this recipe occurred when taking the loaf out of the pan. I sprayed the pan with plenty of PAM, but the bottom still stuck. My assumption is that the glaze made the edges stick. In the future, I might try removing the loaf from the pan and then spooning/pouring the glaze on top.

In terms of taste, I had a teeny-tiny sliver and it was very moist and a good mixture of sweet and tart. It was well-received at work (I don't think it lasted past 11am!) so I would certainly recommend this recipe. It seems like a great addition to coffee or tea, or excellent just on its own!

Sweet Lemon Bread

From Your Homebased Mom

1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. soft butter
1 ½  cup flour
¼  tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½  cup milk
Grated rind of one lemon
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients, pour into loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

(See above for the order in which I added the ingredients.)

Glaze:
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Juice of one lemon
 
Mix together over the stove for until completely combined and pour on top of bread while warm and still in the pan.  Let cool in the pan and then remove.

Back in Business!

Hello again, readers!

I can't even remember the last time I posted here -- it's not that I haven't been baking at all, but more that it's become less frequent and I never got to take pictures before the goodies were eaten. Blog posts aren't as fun without pictures!

Since I last shared a recipe with you I have picked up more classes at the gym, mostly in the evening, which limits my baking time. I now regularly teach four per week and will occasionally sub an extra one here and there. I really, really love doing it, I just wish there were more hours in the day! 

In addition to my gym schedule, I just completed a month-long elimination diet with the hopes of determining the cause of my frequent stomach issues. The conclusion I have come to is that am intolerant to both soy and gluten. Intolerance is not the same as an allergy, so there is likely a breaking point where I can have little bits of both without any symptoms, but for now I am so enjoying the no-stomach-aches thing that I'm trying to completely avoid both. That being said, there may be some atypical recipes showing up here from time to time: gluten-free, soy-free, vegan, etc. I'm looking forward to playing around with different combinations of flours (I recently bought brown rice and oat flours) and trying some new things (xanthan gum? whaaat?).

I'm planning on doing some baking tonight, so stay tuned for a new recipe very soon!