Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Back to the comfort of my own kitchen and these cooler temperatures make me want to bake.

You know how I found this recipe? Through Pinterest! This social media website is brilliant and I enjoy it in several ways, one of which is browsing through foodie pictures (which are all categorized according to type and the names people have given their own boards) and saving onto a board of my own entitled Recipes I have to try.

It is instant and saves me copying, cutting, saving, classifying as one used to do. All I have to do when I want to cook something different is go to my own board! Which is what I did.

This recipe, which comes from  the blog Cooking Classy (love that name!), has somewhat Turkish-sounding ingredients and is the type of cake I tend to go for: not fussy or creamy, no elaborate icings or sickly fillings. A simple loaf at the end of the day – ideal for children and adults alike!

Lemon poppy seed bread

One of the ingredients is the ever-tricky sour cream which we don’t get here: my solution-to-hand is always plain yogurt!

I would love to know how sour cream actually behaves in a cake like this since I have no experience of it at all. Yogurt works fine as far as it goes, and produces a very moist cake that keeps exceptionally well.

I love the little dots of the poppy seeds and the shiny lemony glaze that gives it that slightly tart taste!

Adding the lemon zest to the sugar

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F degrees.
• Butter and flour an 8” x 4” baking dish and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt with a spoon.
• In a separate bowl, add sugar and lemon zest. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until mixture becomes moist and pale yellow.
• Add butter to sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl while mixing. Mix in eggs one at a time, adding in vanilla with last egg. TIP: I suggest doing this the other way round: soften up the butter first with the electric hand mixer and then gradually add the sugar mixture, followed by the eggs and vanilla.
• Mix the milk into the sour cream (or yogurt).
• Working in 3 separate batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, alternating with ½ of the milk mixture and 1 tbsp lemon juice (each time) and mixing just until combined after each addition.
• Bake in preheated oven 45-55 minutes until toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes in loaf pan (and no longer than 8 minutes or it won’t be as porous and absorb the lemon glaze (it will take several coats but use it all. Give it a second between coats to absorb as needed). Let loaf cool on wire rack.

For the lemon glaze:

Combine lemon juice and sugar in a small pan and gently heat until sugar dissolves. Pour over slightly cooled cake as described above.

Brushing the loaf with the lemon glaze

Lemon poppy seed bread

 

So now all I need to do is remove this recipe from my board ‘Recipes I have to try’! Because I’ve tried it. Twice!
Why don’t you try it tomorrow? It’s a really nice little cake 🙂