Lemon Loaf

 This loaf friends. It was soooooo good! It was everything you've ever wanted from a lemon loaf. Wonderful lemon flavour with just enough zing. A tender and moist crumb, with a beautiful melt-in-your-mouth texture! It didn't even need the icing, but I felt it was a must. I mean how can you have a lemon drizzle, without the drizzle?!
This recipe is originally from The Loopy Whisk. A gluten free recipe which I tweaked with some regular flour, greek yoghurt and a dollop of cream cheese in the icing. I really love cream cheese guys, and I'm always trying to sneak it in somewhere hehe.
The greek yoghurt really helped to get that dreamy soft texture in this loaf because it locks in moisture. My family aren't even lemon-in-baked-good-lovers but it was gone in 2 days flat. This loaf was amazing when it was still warm, and I can firmly say it was even better the next day!
My sister and I were amazed at how much more we loved it the morning after. And dare I say, this tops the Starbucks lemon drizzle by far. Yep. I just said that.
Now if I were you, I'd get into the hype and make this straight away!

serves: 10

freezer friendly: most likely!

INGREDIENTS:

lemon loaf:

200g plain flour

65g ground almonds or almond flour

3 tsp baking powder

200g granulated sugar

226g butter, softened (I used salted, if using unsalted add a pinch of salt to the mix)

3 lemons, zested

3 medium eggs, room temp 

75g greek yoghurt, room temp

120ml milk, room temp

2 tsp vanilla extract

*6 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

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lemon drizzle:

120g icing sugar, sifted

**1 tsp cream cheese

6-7 tsp lemon juice

*I found that 1 lemon yielded 2-3 tbsp of juice so I'd say you'd need about 5-6 lemons for this recipe in total, depending on size

**if you don't have this to hand, leave it out

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a loaf tin with baking paper or grease one well with butter.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds and sugar (add salt here if needed).

3. Add the softened butter, and using a hand mixer or stand mixer (with the paddle attachment) mix the butter into the dry ingredients until you're left with a mixture resembling chunky breadcrumbs. If you overwork the mixture, it might come together. Use your hands to break it up and add the lemon zest.

4. In another bowl, whisk the eggs to break them up. Then whisk in the greek yoghurt. Next add the milk, vanilla and lemon juice and stir. This will make your mixture curdle - that is okay. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry butter mixture and whisk until there are no flour clumps and the mixture is cohesive. It might look like the batter has split, this is fine. Magic will happen in the oven!

5. Pour or spoon the batter into your prepared tin. Smooth out the top and gently tap the bottom of the tin onto a hard surface to get rid of any trapped air bubbles. Bake in your preheated oven at 180C for an hour, or until risen and *golden brown! I like to test the middle with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's done!

*If it gets brown too quickly, cover in some foil.

6. Allow your lemon loaf to rest in the tin for about 10-15 minutes. While you're waiting, make the drizzle by combining the sifted icing sugar and cream cheese in a bowl before adding the lemon juice, a tsp at a time. If you've left the cream cheese out, then combine the icing sugar and lemon juice until you get your desired consistency. 

7. Take your loaf carefully out of the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool further. At this point you can drizzle away while it's still warm (which I did) or you can wait until it's completely cool and then drizzle. Either way, you'll be moments away from eating the best lemon loaf you've ever had in your life!

P.S. I promise I'll get better at posting on my Instagram page and my blog, I'm just shy! If you don't follow me on Instagram yet, here's my account:

@claudia.loves.food

all the love!

♡