Blueberry Lemon Bread

      

 I had a lot of blueberries after a recent trip to the farmer's market and a couple of lemons I needed to use so I thought blueberry lemon bread would be a great way to go. As usual most of my ingredients were organic. I really feel it makes a difference in the flavor and quality of the foods I feed my family and I encourage you to use organic ingredients when you can. That being said, this is in NO way a healthy recipe. I didn't even use partial whole wheat flour like I typically do. I wanted a sweet treat and that was it. I used several recipes to get an idea of some ratios and then adapted it to my liking. This is my version:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 TBSP Lemon zest ( I used the second to smallest size hole for texture)

1 1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup pasture butter, softened (seasonal, regular or unsalted is fine)

1/2 cup (kind of heaping) cane sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or about 1/2 of a fresh vanilla bean

1/2 cup of milk

Lemon Glaze (optional):

2 TBSP sugar

 1 TBSP lemon juice 

Heat until sugar melts and glaze thickens

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour bread pan generously.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. 

In another bowl take about a TBSP of flour and gently coat blueberries to help prevent the juice running into the bread (optional).

In a mixing bowl beat butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla scraping sides of bowl to combine well. Mix just until combined. Next, beat in milk and flour mixture alternating between the two evenly. Do NOT over-mix or bread will be chewy. Carefully stir in lemon zest and blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit for five minutes before putting on rack to cool. If using glaze follow instructions above in microwave or on stove top and glaze warm bread.