September 9, 2009

The New Basics Cookbook has been on my shelf for a long time, but I don't think I've ever made anything from it, until I heard last week that one of its' authors, Sheila Lukins, had passed away after battling cancer for only 3 months.  I decided it was time to put the cookbook into use by baking something from it in Sheila's memory.

I've been on a lemon blueberry kick lately, hence the two batches of Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars, so I gravitated toward Sheila's Lemon Blueberry Bread.  It's described as a classic tea bread, but I would describe it as more of a cake or coffeecake.  I would also say that it's delicious!  It's so good that after I ate two slices, it became clear to me that it had to go in the freezer if I didn't want the whole thing to end up in my mouth and then on my butt.

This bread is chock-full of blueberries and has a nice subtle lemon flavor in the background.  The topping tastes like cinnamon toast to me; don't leave it off!  It makes the bread really special, I think.  I only made once change, since I don't buy milk and didn't have any almond milk in the house.  Instead of 1/2 cup milk, I used 1/4 cup orange juice and 1/4 cup water, and it seemed to work fine.

Thanks for the recipes, Sheila.  This one's for you.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Lemon Blueberry Bread
(The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins)

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 9×5 loaf pan (I used pan spray with flour included).

Stir topping ingredients together in small bowl until smooth and set aside.

In medium size bowl, combine sugar, milk, butter and egg until smooth.

In another bowl, toss flour with baking powder and salt. Stir this into wet ingredients; then gently fold in blueberries and lemon zest.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with topping. Bake 50 minutes, until topping is deep golden and has formed a thick crust. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to wire rack for cooling.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

~BigSis