This is my favorite loaf to bring as a hostess gift: Meyer Lemon Loaf
Meyer Lemon Loaf
This recipe turns out two delicious loaves made with sweet Meyer lemons, perfect for spring baking!
Recipe Details
Servings: 2 loaves
Calories: 2472kcal
Ingredients
LOAVES
- 2⅔ cups cake flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 3 medium Meyer lemons (zest only)
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¾ cup sour cream or creme fraiche, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons rum
- 1½ tablespoons fresh Meyer lemon juice
- 1 pinch salt
- 9 tablespoons (1 stick + 1 tablespoon) butter, melted and cooled
SIMPLE SYRUP
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup water
- 1 medium Meyer Lemo (juice only)
Instructions
LOAVES
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. (8-inch loaf pans would work best, but you can use 9-inch loaf pans if you don't mind the loaves a little flatter.)
- Sift together flour and baking powder; set aside.
- Place sugar and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl, and rub together until the sugar is lemon-scented and a bit clumpy. Add the eggs and beat with a whisk until the mixture is a light lemon color and thickened a bit. Whisk in sour cream, then salt, then rum and lemon juice.
- Gently whisk in the flour in four parts, then whisk in the butter in three parts. You'll have a thick, pourable batter flecked with lemon zest.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- While the loaves are baking, prepare simple syrup.
SIMPLE SYRUP
- Boil together sugar and water and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice.
- Turn the loaves out of their pans onto a cooling rack and brush liberally with the lemon syrup, repeat brushing as you feel necessary. Let cool.
Nutrition
Serving: 1loaves, Calories: 2472kcal, Carbohydrates: 378g, Protein: 42g, Fat: 89g, Saturated Fat: 48g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g, Monounsaturated Fat: 24g, Trans Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 752mg, Sodium: 856mg, Potassium: 546mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 255g, Vitamin A: 3018IU, Vitamin C: 20mg, Calcium: 312mg, Iron: 5mg
What can you use in place of rum?
Vanilla?
These are wonderful!! I made icing from the leftover lemons’ juice and used that instead. I loved the mixing by hand. The sugar and the lemon zest combination is sooooo fragrant. I weighed out 266 grams of unsifted cake flour and it works perfectly (I lost my sifter.)
Followed directions exactly as given and the cake did not cook properly. I used a hand whisk and am wondering whether I should have just used my mixer. The recipe also says to add flour mix in four parts, then melted butter so I did it that way, all the while thinking I should have been alternating, but I followed the directions to the letter and word and the loaf/bread/cake was “dumb”. It did not taste bad, but it was just “dumb” Further this was my first time trying Meyer lemons (something I’ve been looking forward to), but I didn’t really taste anything special in this loaf/bread/cake. Maybe I need to try again. If anyone knows where I went wrong, let me know.
yummy i added blueberries 1 cup to the second loaf. your photos are fantastic going to try cranberry chicken next
Can’t wait to try this recipe