Hi! My name is Christine, I'm 22, and I have a ridiculous addiction to Pinterest. Since Easter is coming up I have been all over the Food & Drink section looking for something I can bake and put in my family's Easter baskets. I was so happy when I found a recipe for Lemon Blueberry Bread.
The Original Pin
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| http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2012/05/lemon-blueberry-bread.html |
It looked amazing in the pictures and I recognized all the ingredients in the recipe so of course I had to try it out. So a few days ago while I was at the store I picked up lemons, blueberries (frozen- because it said I could), and yogurt- I had everything else at home, which for a recipe found on Pinterest is pretty impressive for me.
Everything started out great, the ingredients for the bread were straight forward and the batter tasted really good. There were a few minor hiccups though. First the instructions said to use a 9X5" loaf pan and I had a disposable one a little smaller than that. I didn't think too much of it, I just put the extra batter into muffin cups instead. Then the recipe says to grease the bottom and sides of the pan then dust with flour, well I greased but forgot to flour dust the pan. To be perfectly honest I have probably only done that twice when baking so I really didn't see that as a huge setback. I followed the recipe exactly except for the size of the loaf pan and the flour dusting so I was 100% sure this was going to be my Pin Win and that I was going to impress my family, friends, and all of Facebook with this beautiful and delicious bread.
After baking for 55 minutes (maybe an hour...sometimes I forget to set the timer right away) I tested it with a knife and it came out clean. Now, I know you're supposed to use a toothpick but I don't have any so I just test everything with a really thin knife and it's worked for me so far. Anyway, I let the bread cool in the pan for the designated ten minutes and after that things got messy. When trying to remove the bread from the pan about a quarter of it decided to stick to the bottom...alright, no biggie I decided to just plop the bread back in the pan and skip the cooling on a wire rack part. I think I figured that by some magic the part that had stuck to the pan would decide to get back together with the rest of the bread and all would be well. Since I don't have toothpicks I just used a kitchen thermometer to poke holes in the bread and then proceeded to brush the loaf with the lemon syrup. Let me tell you, there was a LOT of lemon syrup, even divvied up between the bread and the muffins it got to the point where my boyfriend looked at me with raised eyebrows and a look of slight terror at the amount of time I'd spent brushing this sauce on the bread and said "I think that's enough.”
I took his advice and not all of the syrup got used up but I figured it was good enough at that point, there was a lot of syrup! The lemon glaze went off without a hitch and I let the bread sit overnight so that the glaze would harden.
Now, I have absolutely no idea how this person managed to get these blueberries spread out and have the bread look yellow and beautiful and perfect. My bread had this purple/red color to it, all the blueberries had sunk to the bottom, oh and it leaked!
Now, I have absolutely no idea how this person managed to get these blueberries spread out and have the bread look yellow and beautiful and perfect. My bread had this purple/red color to it, all the blueberries had sunk to the bottom, oh and it leaked!
The Pinstrosity
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I think it tasted somewhere along the lines of what I imagine lemon Pledge would taste like, it was tart to the point in made my mount pucker and there was no blueberry flavor. I don't know what happened. Like I said, the batter tasted pretty good, but it turned into this mushy mess. The bread was still in the loaf pan and I couldn't get it out so to get this picture, I cut the loaf pan apart and smush/slid this thing onto the baking sheet (it wasn't plate worthy) then I cut a slice and it fell apart. This is definitely nothing like the beautiful picture Pinterest shows. I don't know where I went wrong but this picture comparison is too funny not to share. I posted it on Facebook and someone said, "It looks like one of those 'Nailed it!' pictures of pin fails." I also go that it looked like a zombie cake. So there it is, the beautiful Lemon Blueberry Bread turned Leaking Zombie Fail Cake.
Hmmmm, did you thaw the blueberries? You can use frozen blueberries, but they have to still be frozen. Otherwise they dye everything before they bake.
ReplyDeleteI second the no-thaw suggestion. To avoid sinking, you should roll berries in flour before adding them to a batter. Did you do that?
ReplyDeleteI've made this bread before and loved it! A few thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFlouring your pan will make a HUGE difference in your ability to get it out in one piece.
Quick breads like this need to be mixed carefully, if you stir them too much they will crumble (http://www.bhg.com/recipes/bread/quick-bread/).
As far as the berries go, if you go to the original post for this recipe (http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/05/lemon-blueberry-yogurt-loaf/) you will see that if you are planning on using frozen berries you are supposed to thaw and rinse them first. Also you DO NOT want to skip the step where you coat the berries in flour, as this will help them stay distributed throughout your loaf instead of sinking to the bottom.
I have made this recipe (the version from Sweet Pea's kitchen) and it turned out perfectly. I used frozen berries (unthawed) coated with flour, and I also floured my pan.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! I made this bread once before and the amount of syrup that went into it was ridiculous. I had the same result (and I floured the pan and berries). I think it would've turned out better if only a fourth of the syrup was used (if it even needed that!).
ReplyDeleteWhen I bake something using frozen berries, I never thaw them beforehand - they get all mushy and soft and ugh. However, I roll them in starch (corn or potato - doesn't matter which, starch is starch) and that helps with the moisture, perhaps even a tad more efficient than coating the berries in flour.
ReplyDeleteI used frozen berries and I coated them in flower first, I definitely made sure to do that step! I let them sit on my counter a couple minutes before I put them in, so they weren't right out of the freezer but I don't think they were 100% thawed. Maybe I'll try using a corn starch if I ever try to make it again. Thanks for all of your tips everyone! :)
ReplyDelete