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There is a reason comfort food is called “comfort” food. It's for those days when you hit every red light, when you're on the phone all day trying to fix a situation that should never have become broken in the first place, when every attempt at anything gets thwarted somehow, and all you want to do is crawl back into bed, pull the covers over your head, and go back to dreamland with the ponies, kittens, and rainbows (where hopefully they won't be chasing you in some twisted, scary movie, kitten-turned psycho-kitty, kind of way). This glazed lemon bread, a tea cake really, is perfect for chasing off the grouchy-grumblies. It's light, moist, lemony, with just a touch of honey and cardamom. If the magic that is baking can produce this cake, then anything is possible and tomorrow is a new day.
Tip: eggs rise better when they are at room temp. If you are pressed for time and have cold eggs, put them in a bowl of warm water (not hot, warm) for a few minutes before using.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (1 stick, 8 Tbsp) butter, softened*
- 1 cup minus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 eggs (room temp)
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Glaze
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- Do not soften butter in microwave. Either leave a stick of butter on kitchen counter for an hour, or place between two pieces of wax paper and rollout with a rolling pin to soften.
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 4×8-inch loaf pan.
- Beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and honey, continue to beat until creamy, a few minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to incorporate. On low speed, slowly beat the milk in. Do not worry if the mixture looks a little curdled. Mix in lemon zest.
- Sift together the flour, salt, cardamom, baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients, beating until smooth.
- Place batter in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F.
- While the lemon bread is baking, prepare the glaze. Heat the glaze ingredients - lemon juice, sugar, honey - in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Once you have removed the bread from the oven, poke holes all over the top with a thin skewer (this will help the glaze penetrate). Spoon the glaze over it while the bread is still in the pan and is still hot. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan and slicing to serve.
Makes one loaf.
source: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/glazed_lemon_bread/
tags: vegetarian, bake-sale