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Meyer Lemon and Blueberry Bread

In looking for a way to use up the rest of my meyer lemons, it occured to me to make some sort of baked good. A stretch, I know. Actually, my first thought was to make a lemon pudding. This thought took place before I completely lost my appetite for custardy desserts, so it wouldn’t do. I started searching for lemon bread recipes instead.

The most common lemon bread combinations seem to be zucchini lemon and blueberry lemon. I immediately ruled out anything with a glaze, as I wasn’t looking for a cake. After perusing several recipes, it occured to me to use a recipe I already had. I simply substituted meyer lemon juice for orange juice and blueberries for cranberries in my orange cranberry bread.

It occured to me that the bread might not be sweet enough with a one-to-one substitution, but I did not alter the amount of sugar for two reasons. First, meyer lemons are noticeably sweeter than ordinary lemons. Second, blueberries are much sweeter than cranberries. I figured that everything would balance out. The other change I made involved the mixing method. Since I used frozen blueberries and did not want the batter to turn pink, I stirred them into the dry ingredients, poured over the wet ingredients and folded the batter together until just combined. This is a thick batter, but the flour protected the blueberries nicely. Also, perhaps having something to do with the weather (it is very dry), the bread took slightly less time to bake today than it ordinarily does. I would think that the lemon substitution would not explain such a change.

Overall, this turned out to be delicious. It was a very cakey bread, not overly moist or heavy but certainly not dry at all. The lemon flavor was strong but not overpowering, and not in the least bit bitter. I loved it.

Meyer Lemon and Blueberry Bread

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup fresh squeezed meyer lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated meyer lemon zest
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup dried blueberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Grease a 8×4 inch loaf pan.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Combine lemon juice, lemon zest, oil and egg in small mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.

Stir blueberries into dry ingredients to coat. Add lemon mixture to dry ingredients and fold together until just combined. Spread evenly in loaf pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf..

By the way – this bread gets even more moist and lemony the next day if you wrap it well once it’s cooled.

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13 Comments
  • Doc2be
    April 2, 2005

    Wow, That looks great! I’ll be trying that for sure, I love your blog.

    Keep It Up!

  • Nic
    April 3, 2005

    Thanks, Doc2Be. I know you’ll like this recipe, too!

  • Chloe
    September 8, 2005

    I have been looking for a lemon and blueberry inspired recipe… I have to try this!! YUMMMMM!

  • erin
    March 1, 2006

    I had a bunch of lemons that someone had given me from their tree (one great thing about southern california). But, I didn’t really account for how tart these lemons would be- nothing like the store-bought variety. The bread turned out fine b/c the blueberries were quite nice but it did pack a punch as far as the lemon was concerned 🙂

  • karen
    April 14, 2006

    Not sure where to go to answer this, but I’m making a recipe that calls for Meyer lemons, and I can no longer find them in the store (time of year?). Does anyone know if substitution is possible using regular lemons, and if so, any adjustments?

  • Nic
    April 14, 2006

    Hi Karen. Meyer lemons are quite a bit sweeter than regular lemons, so if you substitute directly, your bread will have a strong lemon flavor, as the commenter above you found out. Adding an extre 2 tbsp of sugar to the recipe should help out!

  • amanda
    May 18, 2008

    Made this tonight and it is superb! I made the following changes, all with great success: for the flour, I used 3/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and 1 1/4 ap, subbed the lemon juice for 3/4 c. buttermilk (as I noticed you did in another recipe for this bread), included the juice and zest of one regular (not meyer) lemon, and added 2 1/2 teaspoons of poppyseeds and two extra tablespoons of sugar.

    Lots of little “tweaks” but they all worked great. Mine took 50 minutes to bake (the last 5 minutes covered with foil). Hope these suggestions are of use to someone else!

  • Sofia
    October 30, 2008

    I just made this… quite good, and I’m sure it will be even better for breakfast tomorrow. Mmm.

    Mine took about 50 minutes to bake.

  • sabrina
    January 28, 2009

    Hi, Just curious if I am the only one who failed in making this bread. My batter was really dry. I used 1C ap, 1/2C whole wheat flour and 1/2C whole wheat pastry flour. I cut back sugar to less than 1/2C. I wonder if that made the batter too dry. Any suggestions? Thanks

  • emily
    January 28, 2010

    I am baking this bread in the oven as I type this. I followed the directions and my batter was VERY dry I added some milk and it got a little more moisture. Smells so good though! can’t wait to try it!

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