I’m re-sharing two recipes today that I’ve already posted because they’re just way too tasty to only share once. I’ve been making these fruit cheesecake bars for most of our get-together this summer, and they’re always popular. Both need fresh fruit, so this is the best time of the year to plan on enjoying them.
I posted a form of this bread before — trying to turn it into a lemon-almond loaf — but it’s this version that I keep going back to when I want to make a lemony quick bread. This bread has a light lemon flavor — not too sweet, not too lemony. When you bake it, it almost develops a glaze on the top. The original recipe baked it in one loaf pan, but I was having trouble getting it to cook through without burning the edges, and then the center of the bread got squishy. Baking it in two pans, or four mini-loaf pans as I did here, or seems to do the trick.
3 cups flour
1, 3.5-ounce box lemon flavor instant pudding
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
Mix together flour, pudding mix, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. In large bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, and butter. Add vanilla and lemon and mix well. Add the flour mixture, along with poppy seeds. Mix until just combined.
Grease and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans, or four mini-loaf pans. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Allow loaves to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely.
While visiting a friend is Wisconsin, I was introduced to an amazing almond lemon bread with some kind of glaze. It reminded me a little of the lemon bread recipe I’ve used a few times, so I decided I’d try to alter that recipe to match the almond lemon bread. The recipe I’m sharing today is my first experiment. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it has a good flavor. I think my next step will be to add extra almond, maybe some lemon juice to make it more moist, and change the glaze a little. This glaze is very lemon-y right now, especially if you try to eat the bread right after glazing instead of waiting until the next day.
3 cups flour
1, 3.5-ounce box lemon flavor instant pudding
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
¼ cup powder sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans.
Mix together flour, pudding mix, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl mix together the milk, eggs, and butter. Stir in extracts and mix well. Add flour mixture, along with poppy seeds. Mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow loaf to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, mix powder sugar and lemon juice. Brush glaze over fully cooled loaves.
The oven is back! As of last Wednesday afternoon, I’ve been able to bake. I promptly made bow-tie pasta, chocolate chip cookies, easy bread sticks, and now I can finally share these cheesecake bars. The crust came from this recipe, and I borrowed the filling from this Annie’s Eats recipe. The first time I made it and took it to church, I received several compliments on the flavor. In particular, people liked the shortbread crust as an alternative to graham cracker.
Warning: do not attempt to substitute wax paper for parchment paper. It refuses to come out of the pan. Aluminum foil would work much better, I think.
Shortbread Crust
1 cup butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepared a 9”x13” baking dish with a parchment paper sling. Cut the butter into the flour and confections sugar and press into the baking dish (I use the bread hook attachment on my hand-held electric mixer). Bake 20 minutes or until light brown. Let cool on wire rack.
Filling
2 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 pint fresh blueberries
Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sour cream with an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Add in the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in vanilla, salt, and lemon juice. Fold in blueberries gently with a spatula until evenly incorporated. Pour mixture over the shortbread crust.
Bake for 35 minutes or until just set and the center no longer jiggles when the pan is tapped. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before removing from pan using parchment paper. Cut into bars and serve.
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