January is the month when I like to experiment with more whole grain recipes, so I bought bag of King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour to try some new things. This is one of those things. It's Lemon Poppy Seed Bread, and it is adapted from the King Arthur Book of Whole Grain Baking. It's very lemony and has a little crunchiness from the poppy seeds. Plus you can eat it for breakfast knowing you've at least got a few whole grains in.
Oat Flour
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread calls for oat flour, but only ½ cup. Since it uses such a small amount, you may want to just grind it yourself rather than buy a whole bag. To make oat flour, just put oats in a coffee or spice grinder and grind into a fine meal.
Lemon Glaze
As for the glaze, I changed it a bit from the original and used my favorite melted butter lemon icing which drizzles nicely, sets quickly, and is opaque.
Notes About Measurements
If you have this old book, you may notice that some of their volumes are different from mine. For instance, they have 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour listed as 6 oz which is 170 grams. A more realistic volume for 170 grams of flour is 1 ⅓ cups (126 x 1.33) so I changed it for people who don't have scales. That, plus most people are probably going to have to sub in all-purpose since white whole wheat flour isn't as easy to find.
Small Loaf
If you are dying to make this (or any quick bread, for that matter) but don't need a full loaf of bread, I recommend buying a cube shaped loaf pan. This was one of the best purchases I've ever made! I used it recently to make a half batch of the lemon bread. Total time baking was only about 45 minutes.
Recipe
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups white whole wheat or all-purpose flour (go by weight if possible) (170 grams)
- ¾ cup all purpose flour (95 grams)
- ½ cup oat flour (50 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (114 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- ¾ cup lemon yogurt (or just use plain)
- ¼ cup poppy seeds
Icing
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons of lemon juice probably just need 2
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5 inch metal loaf pan.
- Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, scraping sides of bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in the lemon zest. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture and stir it in by hand or using lowest speed of mixer. Next, add some of the lemon juice, another ⅓ of the flour mixture, remaining lemon juice and the rest of the flour, stirring to mix. Stir in the yogurt and poppy seeds.
- Transfer to the pan and bake on center rack for 1 hour and 5 minutes. Cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Loosen from pan with a knife and then let cool a bit more before flipping from pan. Let it cool completely before adding the icing.
Icing
- Melt the butter in a bowl or large Pyrex mixing cup. Stir in the powdered sugar so that it's lumpy and thick. Add the lemon juice one tablespoon at a time stirring until you get a nice drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the cooled loaf.
Jennifer says
You can also make oat flour in your food processor or blender. It might not be as fine as store-bought, but it's worked for me in the past.
The recipe looks delicious, by the way.
Sue says
I still haven't purchased the white whole flour. We use whole wheat flour all the time to make bread, and I just don't think about the white whole wheat unless I see it in a blog recipe.
Ryan says
Ooooh, yum! I love lemon poppy seed bread but I've never made it before. This looks so good!
Mackenzie@The Caramel Cookie says
I never thought to make my own oat flour, but it makes complete sense!
BakerMan says
Looks fab!
Katrina says
Hmm, lemon yogurt. That's interesting. I'm all for whole grains whenever possible.
Funny, TWD this week is poppy seed muffins that I'm planning to make tomorrow. Tis the season.
vanillasugar says
oat flour! i love making my own too. i make mine and use in my morning glory muffins. it is the perfect way to get my junk food hubby to eat grains without him even knowing it. lol
so yep, I will definitely be printing this one out.