There are a few recipes that mean Christmas to me, and this lemon loaf is one of them. The recipe originally comes from the wife of my dad's previous boss. She would bake little loaves for the whole office every year and I always looked forward to the day when my dad would bring it home. I honestly remember being sad when my dad left that job for bigger and better things because I thought it was the end of lemon loaf. (Ahhh, the things you think are important when you are growing up.) Luckily for me, my mom had asked for the recipe a few years earlier. There is something about the lemony flavor and the rich, dense loaf that is perfect to me. It is just sweet enough with the right touch of lemon, and it has a rich, buttery taste and texture. The lemon glaze on top adds a great punch of flavor that really makes the bread special.

Lemon Loaf

By HeatOvenTo350 Published 12/10/2012

Ingredients

• 1 medium lemon
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. From the lemon, grate 1 tablespoon peel and squeeze 4 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice; set aside. Grease a 9" by 5" loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and 1 1/2 cups sugar. With pastry blender or knives used scissor-fashion, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in peel.
3. In a small bowl, whisk eggs slightly and stir in milk; stir this mixture into flour mixture just until flour is moistened.
4. Spoon into pan. Bake 1 1/4 hours. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan
5. In 1 quart saucepan over medium-high heat, heat lemon juice and 2 tablespoons sugar to boiling. Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. With pastry brush, brush sugar mixture evenly over top of bread. Serve warm, or cool loaf completely to serve later.

Yield: 1 loaf
Prep Time:10 min
Cook time:1 hour 15 min

Recipe Source: Family friend

Posted in: Dessert