Lemon poppy seed loaf

A moist and fluffy lemon poppy seed loaf that’s packed full of zesty flavor that’s guaranteed to brighten up your day. It’s delicious on it’s own or topped with a simple glaze.

Hello my lovely bakers, how are you doing on this fine fabulous Friday?

Are you enjoying the beautiful sunshine or is it rainy where you’re at? It’s currently raining cats and dogs here but there’s nothing that a good ol’ baking session can’t fix.

Plus, when you’ve lived through typhoon season, you learn to appreciate rainy days a little more because at least if it’s just raining, there are no tree branches breaking off and whirling around in the air.

The zester

As much as I adore lemon loaf, we hardly ever made it because we didn’t own a zester. I mean, there’s only so much zest you can manage to get off the lemon with a paring knife before you end up getting some of the bitter rind along with it. Which as we all know, is the biggest “no-no” when it comes to making citrus based treats.

But, one fateful Christmas, a zester was bestowed onto us and you can only imagine how excited we were to start using it! First came the citrus marinades, next came the key lime pie, then came the lemon bars and now, we have the infamous lemon poppy seed loaf!

Loaf tips!

Everyone has their own ideas of what they consider the “perfect loaf” and while I prefer my banana loafs to be more cake like, I like my lemon loafs to be denser and similar to pound cake. For this reason, we decided to use whole milk in our batter to give it an added dose of richness.

Another important tip to making sure that your loaf cake has small moist crumbs is ensuring the butter and eggs are at room temperature before adding it into the mixture. This prevents the butter from creating clumps and allows it to cream with the sugar properly which is essential to yielding a fluffy batter.

Last but not least, make sure you take the loaf out of the pan once it comes out of the oven because the loaf pan remains hot from baking in the oven which can leave you with a slightly over-baked end product since the loaf would still be “baking” in the hot pan!

I hope these tips and tricks help you achieve the perfect loaf. And tell me, how do you like your loafs? Light and fluffy or dense and decadent?

Follow and interact with me on Instagram, Bloglovin’, Yummly, Twitter and Pintrest!

Lemon poppy seed loaf recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup milk of choice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (best if it’s fresh)
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the melted butter and sugar together. Then whisk in the milk, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract and egg.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the liquid mixture inside. Stir gently until just combined. Fold in the poppy seeds
5. Grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan and pour the batter in.
6. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted inside.
7. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow it to cool on a cooling rack before slicing to eat or topping with glaze

 NotesTo make the glaze, whisk 1 cup of icing sugar adding 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until it reaches a desired consistency. Add in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of lemon zest before drizzling over loaf.