Celebrating Spring with Citrus (say it 5 times fast!)

In celebration of getting through the first couple weeks of spring (ie allergies), we decided to take a solid lemon poppy seed bread recipe and put a TCC spin on it. Citrus to us screams that warm weather is either here, or on its way. Because it’s still a little chilly in the morning, enjoy a slice of this with a hot mug of tea. Don’t worry, the weather will eventually catch up to the calendar!

Citrus Poppy Seed Bread:

3 large eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
¼ c. milk
1 ½ c. flour
¾ c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
3 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1 ½ stick + 1 Tbsp. butter (softened)

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter and flour a loaf pan (alternatively, you can make these into muffins).

In a bowl combine eggs, vanilla and milk.

In a separate bowl: combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon and orange zest, and poppy seeds.

Once dry ingredients are combined, add butter and half of your egg mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until moistened, increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute (we’re building some muscle, so we did this by hand).

Scrape down your bowl and add half of the remaining egg mixture, beat for 30 seconds. Add the remainder of the egg mixture and beat once more for 30 seconds.

Pour batter into pan, and bake for 55-65 minutes (check with a toothpick to see that it comes out clean). If you notice that you’re bread is getting too brown, cover it with aluminum foil.

If you want to make this bread extra special, you can use the following syrup:

¼ c. orange and/or lemon juice (we found that the juice of 1 lemon and ½ an orange gave us exactly ¼ c.)
1/3 c. granulated sugar
½ Tbsp. honey (this is optional)

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan, and heat until sugar and honey are melted.

Once the bread comes out of the oven, poke the top with holes (use a small skewer) and brush with half the syrup. Let cool for 10 minutes (in the pan), then turn out onto a greased wire rack. Brush the remaining syrup over the sides and bottom of the bread. Turn the bread right side up and let cool completely before wrapping.

If you can wait to eat your bread, store it overnight so they syrup has time to do it’s thing (it’s like magic).

Notes:

- The original recipe came from the Joy of Baking website, check it out here.

- Use other citrus fruits to come up with variations. One of our taste testers really wanted to see it made with limes and lemons.

- If you want your bread to be less intense in the citrus department, put half the amount of zest, if you want more, sub out all or part of the vanilla with citrus extract.

Remember, this is the last day of Mystery Month. If you want to guess, we’ll need your guesses before our next post (April 4th). The first person to email us with the correct answer gets a mystery prize!!

Here’s a collective list of the entire month’s dates and recipes:

March 3rd- Mulled Wine
March 7th- Rice Crispy Cereal Sushi
March 10th- Blueberry Popovers
March 14th- Homemade Potato Chips
March 17th- Corned Beef and cabbage and apple salad
March 21st- French Bread Garlic Bread
March 24th- Chocolate covered Raisin (Raisinet) Oatmeal Cookies
March 28th- Black Forest Cake (balls) on a Stick
March 31st- Lemon and Orange Poppy Seed Bread

Good luck!!! And remember, Google can be your friend.