Friday, June 24, 2011

Sweet Lemon Nut Bread

Well I have finally cleaned up the floor after the tape and bedding was done in our storage building.  To be honest, I would have rather had my fingernails pulled out.  Cleaning the floor is no big deal, but having to use a putty knife to scrape all that chalky mess off the floor is tedious.  I know that my arms will be sore tommorrow.

Anyhow, now that the worst part of the cleaning is over, I decided to treat myself with this sweet bread.  This recipe uses frozen lemonade to give it the bread that extra lemony flavor. The bread itself is studded with chopped walnuts.  In addition, the top has a glaze with fresh lemon juice.

Sweet Lemon Nut Bread
by flourtrader

Ingredients
2 tbs plus 2 tsp sour cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs corn or vegetable oil
1/4 cup frozen lemonade
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 plus 2 tbs chopped walnuts
4 1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice (for glaze)
2 tbs sugar (for glaze)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 8X4X2 1/2 inch loaf pan by buttering all of the inside and dusting with flour.

In one bowl, add sugar, oil, eggs and lemon zest. Beat with an electric mixer about 2 minutes. Then add nuts and stir with wooden spoon. Set aside.  Take out another bowl and sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Add 1/2 of the dry ingredients, 1 tbs and 1 tsp of sour cream and 2 tbs of the frozen lemonade.  Mix with a wooden spoon until blended then add the rest of the dry ingredients,sour cream and frozen lemonade.  Stir batter until all is evenly distributed.

Pour batter into pan and place in oven.  Baking until tester comes out clean, which should be about 50-60 minutes.  My pan is dark, so if yours is light it may take longer.

During the baking time, prepare the glaze by stirring juice and sugar together.  Glaze is ready when the sugar is dissolved.

One done, remove bread from the oven and run a knife along the edges.  Then brush glaze all over bread.  Some of the glaze will drip down between the cake and pan.  Cool bread in pan completely and then turn out on wire rack.  Cut into slices and serve.