This Blackberry Lemon Bread is the perfect balance of tangy, lemon flavor and sweet blackberries with a slightly sweet sugary glaze. It's made extra fluffy and moist with greek yogurt and butter. Plan on making a double batch because this delicious quick bread won't last long!
Jump to:
📋 About the Recipe
- Best way to use up fresh berries. If you find yourself with more berries than you know what to do with, baking this lemon blackberry bread is a great solution. You can even bake several loaves and freeze the excess for later or gift them to neighbors. If you're looking for even more ways to use up berries, try my Blueberry Simple Syrup or Kosher For Passover Cheesecake.
- Suitable for breakfast or dessert. No matter if you serve it as a blackberry lemon cake or a sweet breakfast treat, the whole family is guaranteed to love it. You may love my Apple Cider and Date Coffee Cake or Easy Coconut Lime Drizzle Cake, too.
- Simple ingredients. If you have a kitchen stocked with the staples, you can make this blackberry lemon bread from scratch at any time. All you need is the baking classics, blackberries, lemon, and greek yogurt.
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Greek yogurt - My secret to keeping this bread unbelievably moist! Just make sure to use unsweetened, plain greek yogurt. Use any leftover greek yogurt to try my savory Lemon Dill Yogurt Sauce or No Bake Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Bars.
- Lemon zest - Whenever making a recipe with lemon zest or lemon juice it is imperative to use fresh lemons. A little goes a long way, but makes a huge difference in flavor and freshness.
- Blackberries - Be sure to use fresh blackberries. Frozen blackberries have too much additional moisture and will make your batter too wet. If you have trouble with berries sinking to the bottom of your baked goods, try tossing them in 1 tablespoon of flour before folding them into the batter.
- Sugar - You will need regular cane sugar for the batter and powdered sugar for the glaze, if making. I do not recommend substituting liquid sweeteners as this will make the batter too wet.
- Butter - I prefer to make this blackberry lemon bread with unsalted butter as opposed to oil because it gives it a super rich, moist, buttery texture, similar to pound cake! You simply cannot achieve the same richness with an oil.
📓 Instructions
- Preheat the oven.
- Grease an 8 ½" X 4 ½" loaf pan with softened butter or nonstick spray.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, kosher salt, baking powder and baking soda until evenly combined.
- Whisk together lemon juice and greek yogurt. In a separate, small-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and greek yogurt until smooth.
- Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest together for 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined and smooth.
- Add in the flour and yogurt in batches. Add one third of the flour mixture, followed by half the yogurt mixture. Mix, then repeat again, ending with the remaining flour mixture. Mix again until just combined until you have a thick and creamy lemon bread batter.
- Fold in blackberries. Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold the blackberries into the lemon loaf batter until evenly distributed.
- Transfer to the greased loaf pan. Spread the top of the batter until even and smooth, then press extra blackberries into the top of the loaf, if desired.
- Bake. Bake the blackberry lemon loaf for 65 to 75 minutes, or until the top of the bread is golden and a toothpick comes out of the center of the loaf with just a few crumbs.
- Transfer to a cooling rack. Allow the blackberry lemon bread to cool in the baking pan for 10 minutes after baking, then transfer the loaf to a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely before glazing.
- Prepare the lemon glaze. In a small-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the confectioners sugar and lemon juice until thick and smooth. Spread over the top of the cooled bread, then top with additional lemon zest and blackberries, if desired.
- Slice and enjoy!
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- Out of blackberries? This recipe works great with raspberries or blueberries instead of blackberries. You could even use a mixture of berries if you do not have a full 6 ounces of one berry.
- Out of greek yogurt? Substitute it with sour cream.
- Want a less sweet bread? Skip the glaze on top or halve the glaze for a lighter drizzle.
- Only have salted butter? Substitute the unsalted butter for the salted, and omit the ½ teaspoon of kosher salt.
❄️ How to Store
To store: Since this blackberry lemon bread is made with fresh fruit, I recommend storing it in an airtight container or zip top bag in the refrigerator to preserve freshness. This will also help prevent the glaze from melting at room temperature, especially during warmer months. Enjoy the bread within 5 days.
To freeze: If you are planning to freeze the bread, do so without the glaze. Wrap the bread tightly in plastic wrap, then transfer to a freezer safe zip top bag or storage container. Freeze for up to 3 months for optimal texture preservation. To thaw, transfer the loaf to the refrigerator and allow to thaw completely. Once thawed, prepare the glaze and drizzle before slicing and serving.
🔍 FAQs
When a recipe calls for softened butter (like this one does), it means that the butter should be brought to room temperature and easy to make an indent in with your finger without much pressure. This can take up to 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Take note that this is not the same as melted butter because softened butter remains solid. If you need to soften your butter quickly, check out this trick.
This can happen for a number of reasons, but most commonly, when the batter is over mixed. If you over mix the flour into the batter, this can whip too much air into the batter and over activate the gluten. This causes baked goods like quick breads to become very dense, gummy, and stringy.
It is undercooked. Always check to see if your bread is finished cooking by inserting a toothpick into the center of the loaf. If the toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs, it is ready. If the batter sticks to the toothpick and appears raw, it needs more time. You may need to adjust my estimated bake time according to your own oven and altitude.
💭 A Couple More Tips
- Do not bake in a glass bread pan! Glass pans operate very differently from aluminum, dark pans because they are considered insulators. Glass takes longer to heat up and longer to cool down (hence the reason they are good insulators!). This results in breads needing to be cooked for significantly longer which causes the bread to be overcooked on the outer edges and undercooked in the middle.
- Tent the bread if it begins to brown too much. If you find that your blackberry bread is browning too quickly on top as it bakes, tent the loaf loosely with a piece of foil during the last 20 minutes of baking. This will allow the bread to continue to cook through while shading the top of the bread from the excess heat.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
Blackberry Lemon Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
For Blackberry Lemon Bread
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup fresh blackberries (about 6 ounces)
For the Lemon Glaze
- ¾ cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (from about ¼ to ½ a lemon)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Grease an 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch loaf pan with softened butter or nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, kosher salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and greek yogurt.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and lemon zest on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined.
- Add one third of the flour mixture, followed by half the yogurt mixture. Mix, then repeat again, ending with the remaining flour mixture. Mix again until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Fold in blackberries with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan. Smooth top with a rubber spatula or spoon. Top with extra blackberries, if desired.
- Bake for about 65 to 75 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out with just a few crumbs. You might want to loosely tent foil over the top of the bread with about 20 minutes left to bake. This will prevent the sides from becoming too dark.
- Let cool, uncovered, in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool completely.
- Make the glaze by combining confectioners sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl, mixing until thick, but easy to spread. Spread over top of the cooled bread.
Notes
- If you don't have greek yogurt, you can use sour cream instead.
- This recipe would also work great with blueberries or raspberries instead of blackberries.
- If your glaze is too thick to spread, you can add an additional ¼ to ½ teaspoon of lemon juice to help thin it out.
Nutrition
Want more recipes like this delivered right to your inbox? Be sure to subscribe above and never miss a thing!
Comments
No Comments