There are a lot of tea breads that I love. Lemon-blueberry tea bread is my favorite though. The flavor of lemon in this bread isn’t some pale background note; it is the main player. The sweet blueberries compliment the lemon, not the other way around.
When I bake tea breads, I don’t use a traditional 9” x 5” bread pan. I like smaller slices so I use a 12" x 4" x 2 1/2" pan. It holds the same amount as a 9" x 5" and recipes don’t have to be adjusted. The timing should be decreased, however. If you don’t have this special pan, you might want to consider cutting the slices of tea bread in half. Unless you’re serving only tea bread and tea, a whole big slice is just too much to eat.
Here’s the recipe:
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
GLAZE:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup sugar
In mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, juice and eggs. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into egg mixture alternately with milk. Fold in peel, nuts and blueberries. Pour into a greased 12” x 4” loaf pan. Bake at 350ยบ for 45-50 minutes. (If using 9” x 5” loaf pan, bake for 65-70 minutes.) Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine glaze ingredients. Remove bread from pan and drizzle with glaze. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf
