Make lemonade…and Lemon Bread!

This past weekend Adam and I went over to an old family friend’s house that happens to be 10 minutes away from us here in California. I have never met them before, but apparently they all grew up with my dad and his siblings, so it was fun to meet them for the first time and hear some old stories. Plus, it was a really nice house, with an amazing view of the ocean. We were not there for very long, about an hour and a half, but I did notice that John had lemon trees in his backyard, FULL of massive lemons, so being me, I of course mentioned them. This got John VERY excited to talk about his trees, and then he proceeded to harvest a bunch and gave me a bag full. Score!

Thus, starting the process of thinking, “What should I do with these?” After not much deliberation (all inside my head,) I decided to make a lemon bread! Well, it is more like a lemon cake/bar, but I baked it in a bread tin, so that makes it bread right? Let’s go with… pound cake! Best of both.

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Ingredients

• 1.5 Cups Flour
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Butter – softened (1 Stick)
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream OR 1/4 Cup Sour Cream
• 1 Lemon worth of Juice (or less depending on the flavor you want)
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Teaspoon Almond Extract
  
  Lemon Icing (Optional)
• 1 Cup Confectioners Sugar
• 1 – 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
• 1 Tablespoon Heavy cream (or milk but won’t be as thick)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º and grease your bread loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat again until fully combined.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing lightly.
4. Mix in the heavy cream, lemon juice, and the vanilla and almond extract.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet, until smooth. The mixture will be thick!
7. Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-60 minutes. Because it is so dense, it takes a long time. After about 30 minutes take a peak, if the top is getting brown you can make a tent with aluminum foil to prevent more browning and continue baking.
8. Making the icing (optional.) Whisk all the icing ingredients together and pour over the cake. Can be done warm or cool, your choice.

I did not end up making icing just because I did not have any powdered sugar on hand, if I did, I definitely would have.

Making this bread only used ONE of the several lemons I procured, so of course I ended up making lemonade with the rest. Mmmm refreshing.

What do you think?

Cheers!