The holiday season is officially over. Whew! Made it through another year. I hope you all enjoyed a happy holiday season and rang in the New Year of 2012 with happiness and promises of good things to come for you and your loved ones!
The Happy Meyer Lemon Tree
Wouldn’t that be a cute title for a children’s book? Our Meyer lemon tree is making up for lost time and has been working overtime with lots of juicy, beautiful, and bright yellow fruits. I spent part of the weekend squeezing lemons to freeze lemon juice. I tweeted for some insights from others if anyone knew how to “preserve” lemon zest. It’s such a wasting shame to throw away citrus without zesting it and having it on-hand when needed. I’ve read that you can freeze zest, but that it loses its potency. Blah! Not the ideal preservation method. Please share with me if you have any words of wisdom on how to preserve the zest.
I’ve made this recipe twice over the last week and can attest that it’s a good recipe for lemon bread. I used a slightly larger loaf pan than what the recipe calls for, a 9×5-inch, so my bread obviously didn’t bake as high. There’s some modifications I made that are reflected in my notes and the recipe itself. This quick bread has a good texture and subtle lemony goodness. The complimentary sugary-lemon glaze drizzled on the bread after baking lends to additional moistness and will beckon you for yet another slice!
I’ll be featuring more recipes using lemons…the next feature on Teenie Cakes appropriately uses 4 + lemons. What uses that many lemons? I bet you can guess. :)
- Butter or use something like Crisco shortening to prepare the baking pan. I made this recipe twice using non-stick spray and the bread did not release easily and clean.
- Use unsalted butter.
- Used zest from two Meyer lemons. This recipe will work with other variety of lemons, as well.
- Watch bake time – adjusted from about 50-60 minutes.
- Serving presentation suggestion: If you have some extra zest to spare, sprinkle fresh zest on top of cake slices when serving.
Makes 8-10 servings
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup milk
Zest from two lemons
1/4 cup poppy seeds
Glaze
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
Juice from one lemon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×15-inch loaf pan (do not use non-stick spray).
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
In a larger bowl or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and eggs until it’s light and fluffy. Add milk and flour mixture in two parts, mixing well. Stir in the grated lemon peel and poppy seeds.
Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes (rotating pan half-way through bake time for even browning), OR until a toothpick or tester inserted into center of bread comes out clean. Allow bread to cool in pan for 5 minutes.
Prepare the glaze by mixing together the lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar. Remove bread from pan and poke holes on top of the bread with a toothpick or skewer. Drizzle glaze over the warm bread.
Store leftovers in a cool place, covered in plastic wrap.
Enjoy!
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Teenie, I have the tried-and-true method for preserving lemon zest. Regular lemons (Eureka) have the best, to say, the oiliest zest. Meyer is much more mild and has less oil. Grate/zest the zest and mix with some sugar in a glass jar (I use a 2c. canning jar so I can see through it in the freezer.) It has lasted over a year: the sugar absorbs the oil from the zest, and when added to baked goods tastes just fine to me. Alas, I have had zero luck with limes, and though we often have more Meyer lemons than Eurekas, the Meyer zest has but a fraction of the taste, imho. For the juice we freeze 1-2cup jars or bags of juice of whatever citrus fruit. Hope it helps.
sorry to bother you again, just stumbled upon this post. hope it helps
http://www.giverecipe.com/how-to-dry-lemon-zest.html
Dearest Roxana: Thank you so much for sharing this post about drying lemon zest. :)
I will definitely give it a try and try to preserve some of that precious lemony goodness!
i’m hoping you’ll share a recipe for lemon bars. I’m always looking for new recipes to try and I have some (store-bought) meyer lemons on hand.
The bread looks great Cristina, love the icing running on the sides.
I absolutely LOVE meyer lemons and what a perfect way to showcase these delightful gems. Your bread looks so tasty and just to let you know, my mouth is watering. Seriously. :-)
Lovely Cristina! I love lemon tea cakes! Adding this one to my list!
I like this recipe a lot, it is one of my favourites. I`ve tried it yesterday and it was very good, my husband just loves it, thanks a lot for sharing.
Lemon bread is one of my favorites! I’m so jealous you have a meyer lemon tree! Does it grow indoors? I’ve been thinking of getting one, but its too cold outside for it to survive.
It’s hard to imagine being able to go outside and pick lemons right now, when I just got done shoveling snow! The cake looks awesome for any weather, though!
This is a truly stunning bread, I am on the hunt for meyer lemons here and cannot find them. I will persevere if it takes me all week.
Love this recipe. Go to my blog read about my Meyer Lemon Pasta Sauce.
Hi Suzanne: Thank you for visiting my site! :) This looks like a tasty pasta sauce that I’ll have to try for sure. I’m using a similar sauce and will be sharing about next week too (if I can get to it).
Lemon bars? I love lemon treats so I’m happy to know there will be more to come! Thank you for sharing a wonderfully bright recipe for the New Year!
Hey Monet: Thanks for guessing…not lemon bars but that’s a great idea – I will have to play with some recipes for sure!
Wow, this looks delicious!!
Oh! I am so jealous that you have so many lemons…my lemon trees haven’t given me any lemon yet…luckily my sister is able to supply me with lemons from her tree ;-)
I like lemon with poppy seed…that is a classic, and yours look gorgeous, very tempting with the layer of the sweet glaze.
Hope you are having a wonderful week Cristina :-)
I love love love lemon poppy seed bread and wish I had a litte Mayer lemon tree outside my home to make it anytime I wanted!! This looks wonderful!
This looks so refreshing and moist…the lovely citrus flavors can really brighten up cooler days.
Gorgeous shots and bread :)
BEAUTIFUL! Looks delicious too.
I have fresh lemons from my sister’s tree so I’ll definitely try this out. :)
Am pinning to pinterest also
I have that costco cookbook, and I don’t know if I’ve ever used it, sad. Your bread looks delicious, and it’s inspiring/reminding me to get bust out that cookbook and use it!
Looks so soft and moist!
Beautiful pics and I always appreciate your notes. I also agree that freezing the zest isn’t the best option.
Reading your descriptions, I wish I had a meyer lemon tree!
The bread looks wonderful!
Great pictures!!!! The bread sounds amazing and looks it as well. I love lemon. YUM.
This sounds delicious! I wish I had a lemon tree handy. :)
I’m kinda, sorta, obsessed with lemons, so this bread is calling my name! (If only there had been a Happy Meyer Lemon Tree children’s book as I was growing up…I’d most likely be running a lemon farm right now.) :D
Thanks for the Foodbuzz ad!
Your photography is wonderful. I could dive right into this loaf. I love the Meyer lemon with the poppy – I would love a slice of that for breakfast in the morning with my pomegranate green tea!
What a gorgeous bread, this looks so delicious! :)
This looks delicious! I have a bag of meyer lemons and was planning to use them for marmalade and/or curd, but I may hold a few back to make this bread. :-)
I love Meyer lemons and a tea bread is a delicious way to enjoy them during their too short season. I’ve preserved lemon zest by drying it. You can dry the zest in strips for things like mulled cider, wine or tea, just put them on paper plates and leave out to dry, on the hearth in front of a fire place is good. They’re also good stored in granulated to sugar to flavor it like using vanilla pods., hope this was helpful;-)
Patty, thank you so much for the suggestions and ideas of how I might preserve some lemon zest. I’m going to try drying them as you suggested and trying the sugar method! :)
This looks moist and wonderful!
Our Meyer lemon tree is loaded – hoping to try your lovely recipe soon.
This recipe makes me very happy! I adore Meyer Lemons!
I think it’s so appropriate the Meyer Lemons are so plentiful in January (well, in most places – they’re near impossible to find here!). It’s such a dull month and so grey and gloomy in my part of the woods and lemons are so cheerful and bright! I love lemons and poppyseeds together and this looks so delicious! The lemon glazes is the perfect topping :)