loveysoven

As you may recall, last week I had a lot of reservations about my muffins, and needed some reassurance.  In addition to feedback from coworkers, I also sought out one of my baking mentors, K.  Even though she’s been trying to avoid sweets, she was willing to take one for the team so that I could get the opinion of someone whose oven I trust completely.  To thank her for this, I offered to let her pick my next recipe.  Almost instantly, the words ‘lemon poppy bread’ came tumbling out of her mouth.  Okay, works for me!

This recipe is very high on the lemon scale, without being totally over the top.  The texture is almost in the realm of pound cake.  And the glaze that you pour over the hot loaf when it comes out of the oven…nice.  It soaks in, adds more lemon flavor, and gives just a little crackle from the sugar.

So thanks, K, for your brave sacrifice for the greater good – this one’s for you!

LEMON POPPY BREAD

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup poppy seeds

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon lemon oil (optional)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

for the glaze:

1/4 lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Cream together butter and sugar until thoroughly combined.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add lemon juice and poppy seeds, and mix until well blended.
• In small bowl, mix yogurt, lemon oil, and lemon zest.  In second bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder.
• To the first bowl, add half the yogurt mixture, and then half the flour mixture.  Blend thoroughly, and then repeat with remaining yogurt and flour mixtures.
• Lightly grease a loaf pan, and gently pour in batter.  Tap pan on the counter once or twice to knock out any air bubbles.  Bake at 350F, and start checking for doneness at 50 minutes.  (This may vary depending on the exact size of your pan, and if you’re doing a loaf or muffins.  I used a standard loaf pan, and ended up cooking for 72 minutes before my cake tester came out clean.)
• Leave loaf in pan and place on cooling rack.  Using cake tester or skewer (or a thin knife), poke holes all over the top of the cake.  Wisk together lemon juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved.  Drizzle gradually over cake – I paused for a moment halfway through to give it time to absorb.
• Leave loaf to cool in the pan on the rack for 15 minutes.  Remove loaf from pan and allow to cool completely before slicing or wrapping.  Warning, the glaze makes this sticky – I found wrapping in parchment and then foil to be the best solution.