Description
As the daffodils pop up in the garden come Spring, this floral sunny tasting bread seems the perfect way to enjoy the fragrance of fresh flowers. The two-tone look on these mini loaves and the simple lemon glaze will add a little bit of color the Easter bunny himself would approve. As this is a one-bowl creation, you can make this in lazy fashion in that time of day before the coffee kicks in.
Ingredients
Scale
Lemon Lavender tea loaf batter
- Cooking spray for the pan
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar (132 g)
- 4 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon food grade dried lavender
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup butter (75 g)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (59 mL)
- 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon natural blue food coloring (Color Kitchen natural food colors ) or a couple drops violet gel food coloring
- 1/4 teaspoon beet powder or natural red food coloring (again from Color Kitchen natural food colors )
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon food grade dried lavender
Instructions
Make the batter
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Spray a silicone mini loaf pan pan or a 9 x 5” loaf pan with a little cooking spray. If you’re using a standard loaf pan, line the pan with a small piece of parchment that covers the bottom and goes up the long sides.
- Place the sugar, 2 teaspoons of the lemon zest, and the lavender in a small coffee grinder . Blitz everything until the lavender and the lemon are well pulverized.
- Stir the flour with the lemon lavender sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter in a small pan or microwave it in a cup. Pour in the eggs, lemon juice, and yogurt and the butter over the dry ingredients.
- Lightly whisk the eggs with a fork to break them up, and then gradually whisk the eggs into the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix everything until the flour just disappears.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the flour and mix just until the flour disappears.
- Scoop about half of the batter into the pans and smooth it with a spoon.
- Mix in the food coloring with the rest of the batter.
- Top the colored batter on top of the lemon batter in each well of the mini loaf pan or on top the big loaf pan.
- Bake the mini loaf pan breads for 30 minutes or the big loaf pan for 45-50 minutes until the top of the bread(s) spring back when you touch them in the middle and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Lift the bread by the parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.
Make the glaze
- Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Dip the tops of the warm loaves in the glaze and then sprinkle the remaining lavender and remaining lemon zest on top. Let the bread cool completely and allow the glaze to harden before cutting slices.
- The bread is best eaten the same day that it is made, but it will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days, loosely wrapped in foil. You can also freeze the bread without the glaze in a plastic bag for up to 3 months. Set the frozen bread on the counter to thaw for a couple hours when you want to eat it. From there you can glaze bread.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Morning breads
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
