I've lost count of how many blueberry bread recipes I've made, but whatever the number, this Honey Blueberry Cream Cheese Bread ranks up there with the best. It's a honey sweetened blueberry quick bread with a thick line of cream cheese inside. You can make it as one large loaf or divide it into 4 smaller miniature loaf pans. With the holiday season coming up, it's easy to find the little ceramic ones, which is what I used yesterday.
Mixing Method
This is very easy to make, but the mixing technique is slightly different. You cream the eggs with the sugar and honey then plop the very soft butter into that and keep beating. This probably curbs how much air is introduced to the batter making the bread dense and moist. Or maybe the butter was an afterthought and the original recipe called for oil, which would be added after the sugar and eggs. Whatever the case, I liked the results.
Texture and Flavor
The cheesecake filling is excellent and definitely sweet enough from the 1 tablespoon each of sugar and honey. The flavors in the bread are mostly lemon, blueberry and honey so it tastes lemony with a touch of vanilla and a caramelized flavor from the browned edges. I baked mine in the toaster and purposely got the edges brown because I like them that way. Plus these are so moist it would be difficult to overbake the inside.
Freezing and Variations
Honey Blueberry Cream Cheese Bread freezes well, which is a good thing since we are overrun with sweets right now. I'm looking forward to sharing these loaves and trying a new flavor -- perhaps Mini Honey Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Bread with mini chips standing in for the blueberries. You could use just about any fruit here.
More Great Honey Recipes
Lastly, this recipe is adapted from Honey.com, so if you aren't in the mood for a blueberry bread but need to make something with honey, check out their recipe section. I think the next thing I'll try is their Honey Cucumber Salad since cucumbers are trending right now.
Recipe
Honey Blueberry Cream Cheese Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (weigh or use a light hand) (270 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar (or use ¼ each white and brown)
- ½ cup honey (80 grams)
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, extremely soft (almost melted) (114 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup Greek yogurt (room temperature) (230 grams)
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened (230 grams)
- 1 tablespoon honey (20 grams)
- 1 tablespoon sugar (12 grams)
Instructions
- Bring all of the ingredients to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a loaf pan or four small ceramic loaf pans (the ones that measure about 3x5)
- Make the cream cheese filling first. Beat together cream cheese, honey and sugar and set aside.
- Remove a teaspoon of flour for tossing the blueberries, then whisk the remaining flour with the baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl using a hand-held mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and honey until creamy, then drop in the softened butter and beat until smooth. On low speed or by hand, beat in yogurt, vanilla, and lemon zest and beat until smooth.
- By hand or using lowest speed of mixer, gradually add the flour mixture stirring until it’s mixed.
- Toss the frozen or fresh berries with flour and stir them into the batter. If they are leaving too many trails of blue, consider sticking the berries into the pan as you fill it. This is usually more of an issue with frozen berries.
- Fill the loaf pan (or minis) about half way full with batter. Carefully spoon thick lines of cream cheese mixture down the center, then cover with remaining batter.
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until brown around the edges and fully baked. If making the minis, it should take between 40 and 45 minutes. Let cool for about 15 minutes, then carefully loosen from pan. Let cool completely, then turn from pan.
Anna says
Hi Gloria! Yes, I used regular Greek yogurt. I think a sweetened vanilla flavored yogurt would also be fine, but I did use full fat plain.
Gloria Rice says
Wow this looks delicious! The one cup of Greek yogurt I'm assuming it's sugar-free so just like sour cream?
Thanks!!