After what seems like months of unbearable heat, we enjoyed a cool and rainy day yesterday. Finally a chance to use the oven. I love to bake, and have realized that no matter how creative I am experimenting with all sorts of recipes and techniques for the grill, including a cheesecake, I miss baking something in my oven. So as I was listening to the gentle rumble of thunder, I decided to put a second pot of coffee on and savor my cool stormy morning sifting flour. Here’s what I came up with.
- 1½ cups flour + 1 Tablespoon divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1½ cup fresh blueberries
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 teaspoons water
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Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, dust with flour, tap out excess.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together, flour, baking powder, and salt.
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In a large bowl, mix together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, extracts, and oil.
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Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir until mixture is smooth.
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In a small bowl toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour to coat. Gently fold blueberries and almonds into the batter.
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Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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Allow bread to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning out on a wire rack over a piece of parchment paper to glaze with lemon syrup.
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Heat lemon juice and sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Continue heating for about three minutes or until syrup just begins to boil.
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Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
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Place a piece of parchment or wax paper under the cooling rack. Using a tooth pick or thin chopstick, poke holes in the top of the warm loaf of bread. Slowly pour the warm syrup over the bread allowing it to soak in to the loaf.
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Cool Completely before icing
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Mix powdered sugar with almond extract.
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Add water about a half a teaspoon at a time to make a thin icing.
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Drizzle over the top of the bread.
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Allow icing to set up before serving.
That is so pretty and a perfect way to spend the rainy day. Thanks for sharing at What’d You Do This Weekend.
Stopping by from “What’d You Do This Weekend. Wow, this looks fantastic and easy – I like! Love the texture and your icing. Pinning this!
Thanks Ai Lin. This bread is fantastic, and the texture if amazing. Hope you give it a try!