Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Baking Notes - Lemon Loaf with Blueberries and Olive Oil



Well, here it is. One of my favourite tea cake recipes altered to use olive oil instead of butter. Butter is so good in so many sweet, baked things, like pound cake and short bread, but what if you want something lighter? And maybe with more of a tangy, earthy quality? I hesitate to use the word 'earthy' because that's not quite right, but olive oil has a flavour that I can't quite put a word to... 'green' perhaps? 'mediterranean'? I don't know, but it's so uniquely delicious, I thought it might just work in something sweet with lemon and berries. I am quite delighted with how this turned out.

Olive Oil Lemon Berry Loaf Cake

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I used spelt) 
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large egg
2-3 tsp lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk (I used coconut milk)
1 1/2 cups mixed raspberries and blueberries, fresh or frozen
coarse sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper or lightly grease and flour.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, olive oil, egg, lemon zest and vanilla extract until smooth and well-combined. Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by the milk. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, mixing just until no streaks of dry ingredients remain visible. Quickly and carefully fold in berries. Pour batter into prepared pan and top generously with 1-2 tbsp coarse sugar.
Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Allow loaf to cool in the pan completely before removing it and slicing it.

3 comments:

Jenny said...

Yum! Sounds delicious!

Lark said...

That looks SOO yummy! Thanks for sharing this recipe. :) If I have time this weekend, I'm trying it!

Connie said...

I love blueberries. This looks so good!