TWDBWJ Lemon Loaf Cake

Walk Through The Bible In One YearWeek 12 reading plan per day
Click on the colored link to read each day’s scripture.
Monday Judges 1-4, Tues Judges 5-7, Wed Judges 8-10,
Thursday Judges 11-14, Friday Judges 15-18,Saturday Judges 19-21, Sunday Ruth
Enjoy The Read!

It’s another Tuesdays With Dorie and I am joining 400+ other bakers and bloggers today as we bake and blog about Lemon Loaf Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking With Julia.
I love most anything lemon.
I truly love pound cake.
Lemon Loaf Cake – a bit of a disappointment for me – until the morning after.  There I said it. I made a Tuesdays With Dorie recipe that I probably won’t make again.   In her book, Baking With Julia Dorie Greenspan writes “this cake is a fooler: its texture is that of a classic pound cake, moist, firm, tightly knit, but it’s made in just five minutes using the same sponge technique you’d draw on for almost weightless genoise.”  Having said that, she is right.  The cake fooled me because it didn’t have much lemon taste.  She is right — it is moist and firm.  She is right it — takes just about 5 minutes to mix up and toss in the oven.  However, here is where I got into trouble. Cruising through some TWD chatter I read that Diane of Ginosko said she already had a killer terrific lemon loaf recipe and she didn’t know if she would make this one or maybe do a comparison.  I was intrigued.  I asked her for the recipe.  Then Carmen of Baking is my Zen fame, and my new TWD:BWJ blogger friend, contacted her also asking for the recipe.  Well my friends, Diane sent me a recipe for Jameson’s Lemon Bread.  Little did I know what was about to happen.  I bought lemons –
Cleared the counter and set out to make both of the lemon recipes.  It didn’t take me long to have the counter looking like this.

Just as Dorie said, the Lemon Loaf Cake went together fast and easy.  I was very tempted to add a little lemon flavoring or lemon juice but in true comparison style, I made the recipe just as directed.   The loaf cake raised beautifully and looked gorgeous coming out of the oven.  The Jameson’s Lemon Bread didn’t raise much, but looked good out of the oven.  While it is still hot the real crowning touch is the addition of a lemon/sugar mixture poured over the bread.
For the taste test, I sliced the cake-bread loaves and took them to a fellowship lunch with friends from Community Bible Study.  I served the Lemon Loaf Cake sliced thin with homemade raspberry sauce and a dollop of whip cream. (At the end of the post I included the recipe for Jameson’s and the Raspberry Sauce.)
The Jameson’s Lemon Bread I sliced and served just as it was.  Ten women, ten opinions, and hands down … they all agreed that while the Lemon Loaf Cake was tasty with the raspberry sauce, the Jameson’s Lemon Bread is moist and nutty with a much stronger flavor of lemon and therefore was the overall favorite!  Such a scientific test with results that were exactly how I felt.  🙂
The Jameson’s Bread includes chopped nuts (I used pecans) and the flavor of the nuts really comes through.  Additionally, the juice/sugar topping is a winner.  If I did ever make the Lemon Loaf Cake again, I would add nuts and the lemon juice/sugar topping.  But then, if I am going to do that … why wouldn’t I just make the Jameson’s in the first place?

The bread didn’t last a day between the women and my family.  My sous chef-dish washing mom only got a little piece of Jameson’s for breakfast.  However, it was the morning after that I really made the best discovery.  Two pieces of Lemon Loaf Cake remained.  Oatmeal for breakfast, cake on the side? Sure, why not.  I toasted the loaf cake and found the very best way to serve it!  Lightly toasted it was absolutely wonderful.  I was so surprised what a difference the light toasting did to taste and texture.  I think Dorie even mentions toasting it, but that little nugget of info I apparently needed to discover on my own.

There are several ways you can get the recipe for the Lemon Loaf Cake.  First, to the right of this blog post you will find an Amazon link to Dorie Greenspan’s book should you like to buy the book.  Or, both of today’s TWD hosts have posted the recipe within their blogs.  Click on their name and it will take you to their blog.  Thank you Truc and Michelle!

Truc at TREATS
Michelle at The Beauty of Life

I had fun comparing these two recipes and I am including the recipe for Jameson’s Lemon Bread below.  Thank you to Diane for sharing the recipe, to Carmen for sending it my way and to Dorie for the awesome time I am having baking my way through Baking With Julia!

Bon Appetit’!  Many Blessings and Happy Cooking!

Jameson’s Lemon Bread

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

1 hour 0 min

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

This luscious lemon bread pops with flavor and texture. The nuts and lemon blend together wonderfully and the glaze takes this bread over-the-top. Definitely a keep-close-at-hand recipe!

Author: Bed and Breakfast Cookbook, pg. 55

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

• ½ cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 Eggs, slightly beaten
• 1¼ cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• ½ cup Milk
• ½ cup Finely Chopped Nuts
• 1 Lemon Rind, Grated

Glaze

• ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Lemon, juiced

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 5" x 9" loaf pan.
2. Cream the butter and 1 cup sugar. Mix in eggs. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, stirring as you go. Mix in nuts and grated lemon rind.
3. Bake for 1 hour. Just before the bread is ready to come out of the oven, combine the ¼ cup sugar with the juice of one lemon. Pour over the top of the loaf when it comes from the oven. (Poke a few holes in the bread top with a toothpick so the lemon-sugar mixture will drip into the bread.)
4. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

Can use butter or shortening.

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Raspberry Sauce

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This classic dessert sauce can be served with lemon loaf cake, pound cake, chocolate souffles and cheesecakes, over ice cream, alongside bread puddings - or even to dress up plain yogurt!

Ingredients

• 1 usa pint weight Fresh or Frozen Raspberries
• ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Cornstarch
• 1 cup Cold Water

Instructions

1. Combine the raspberries, sugar, and orange juice in a saucepan. Whisk the cornstarch into the cold water until smooth. Add the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the desired consistency is reached. The sauce will thicken further as it cools.
3. Puree the sauce in a blender or with a hand held immersion blender. Serve warm or cold. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.

Notes

** Original recipe says to strain after blending.  I don't do that, I prefer the seeds and all blended and not strained.

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