Lemons and blueberries, yes please!  This Lemon Blueberry Bread is delicious, moist, tangy and so good!  It starts with butter and cream cheese and then mix in lemon zest, infused sugar.  Add the dry ingredients, fold in the blueberries, bake and then pour on a beautiful, lemony glaze while the bread is still warm.

The crown on top is the glaze made with melted butter and powdered sugar and, of course, lemon juice.  You and your family will be very happy if you make Lemon Blueberry Bread soon.  Blueberries are on sale everywhere so pick up several quarts and make several loaves of Lemon Blueberry Bread.

How To Make Lemon Blueberry Bread

1.  Zest two lemons.  A microplane grater is the best tool to zest lemons.  It takes off the fragrant, top layer of peel, without any of the bitter, white pith below.
Using a box grater works well, too.  The small side is the best to use.  It creates small strips of lemon peel that will mix well in the sugar. Don’t push very hard because you only want the skin, not the white pith below. 

2.  Add the lemon zest to the sugar and mix well with your fingers.  Mixing the lemon zest and sugar together first will give the sugar time to get infused with the deep flavor the zest provides.  

Forgot to leave the cream cheese and butter out to soften, no problem!

3. In a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat the softened cream cheese and butter together for several minutes, until light in color. Softening the cream cheese and butter is easy if you leave them on the counter several hours before you need them. There are lots of tricks online to soften cream cheese and butter, if you forget, or don’t have time to do it hours ahead.  You can find a plethora of youtube and Tiktok videos.  I have tried them all, but my favorite is the microwave.

Did you know you have a Cook Power button on your microwave?  When softening butter, leave the outer paper on the butter and place it on a plate. Push the Cook Power button so it reads one. This is 10% of the power available on your microwave.  Then press the Cook Time button for 1 minute. 

When the timer goes off, open the door and turn the butter over and do the same thing again.  The two minutes at power 1 is perfect to soften the butter.  Since the microwave cooks from the bottom up, turning the butter over is important. 

Repeat the same process with the cream cheese, but take the metallic paper off so you do not get sparks in the microwave.

4.  Add the sugar with lemon zest into the cream cheese and butter mixture.  Once the sugar has been added, bump up the speed a notch and cream everything together for 4 minutes.  It takes a little time for the sugar crystals to get enrobed in the fat to create fluffy, light batter for the best bread ever. 

Line the loaf pans with parchment paper for an easy release when the bread is done.

5. While the sugar and cream cheese and butter are doing their thing, mix all the dry ingredients together.  Preparing your loaf pans is a good use of your time as well.  I like to spray the pans with vegetable spray and then line them with parchment paper.  It makes taking sweet breads out of the pan, very easy.

6.  This is also a good time to juice the naked lemons you left on the counter.  Often when you juice a lemon, there are little seeds left in the juice.  You can leave those in or strain the juice in a small strainer. Even a thin, clean kitchen towel works well to strain out the seeds.

7.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.

8.  Add 1/2 cup of dry ingredients at a time to the batter.  Mix in 1/4 cup of buttermilk after each 1/2 cup of dry ingredients.  Also, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in the middle somewhere.  You will use the rest in the glaze.  Continue to add the dry ingredients and buttermilk until all is mixed well.

Don’t over mix the batter.  Stop the mixer when the dry ingredients are not visible any more.  Then add the blueberries, by hand, folding gently with a spatula. 
You can see from my pictures the blueberries did not sink to the bottom.  The cream cheese and buttermilk make a full body batter that is thick and heavy.

Lining loaf pans with parchment paper is a guarantee for an easy release after the bread has cooled.

9.  Place an equal amount of dough in the two loaf pans.  You can cut this recipe in half, and make one loaf, but I promise you do not want to.  Be careful not to over fill your loaf pans. At 2/3 the way full, the batter will rise to the top edge. If you fill to the top of the pan, they will overflow when cooking.

This recipe makes a little more batter than you need for two loaf pans. I filled two full size and then two small loaf pans. 

10.  Bake at 350° for 50 – 60 minutes.  The perfect amount of time in my oven is 55 minutes.  I look for a golden brown top.  When I touch the top is bounces back.  There also needs to be crack down the center, too.  If it looks wet inside, leave the bread in the oven for a minute or two longer.

Cool bread for 10 minutes on a cooling rack.  Then use the parchment paper to easily pull the bread out of the pan.  Remove the paper immediately.

11.  Prepare the glaze while the bread is cooling.  Melt the butter and mix with powdered sugar and lemon juice together.  Use a wire whisk to get all the lumps.  You can also sift the powdered sugar to reduce the lumps.  

Place the frosting in a plastic bag and cut the corner off when you are ready to glaze.  Make ribbons of glaze that go back and forth across the warm bread.  The glaze will melt. Leave the glaze as is or use a knife to spread more evenly.  I kind of like the uneven, oozy drippings on the side created from the back and forth motion.

Here are a few products I like to use when making Lemon Blueberry Bread.

When you purchase items from the Amazon links below, I receive a small commission.

Let me know on Instagram or Pinterest if you make this.  Post a picture and tag me @ dinasdiner.

Please leave a rating and feedback on the recipe if you make it. I love hearing from you!

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