Lemon Blueberry Bread

Clearing my pantry : dried blueberries. I made this bread many months ago, when I found a small pack of dried blueberries in my fridge that I have completely forgotten about. Browsed thru some of  my bread books for a recipe and so happy to see that I have the exact amount of 2/3 cup for this recipe! If you're looking for a sweet (well, slightly sweet) bread that you can enjoy on its own or with a spread of butter, this bread would be a lovely one to try. It is a nice, soft,  no-fuss, simple sweet bread to be enjoyed with a cup of tea.

This bread was meant to be baked in the bread machine, of course as usual, I use the bread machine to do the kneading and then shape it into a loaf and finish off the baking in my oven. The stars in this bread are obviously lemons and dried blueberries. According to the book, in order to avoid staining the dough with the colour of blueberries, dried blueberries are used, as you can see from the photos above, even though I've used dried blueberries, a few minutes after I've added them in, I saw the dough turning from white to the tinge of blue as the machine continues to  knead the dough. But then, I'm not concerned with that. And it smells really lemony nice while the bread is being proved in the bread machine.

I used a 9x5-inch loaf pan to bake the loaf for 35 minutes at 175C .

A lovely bread, with specks of lemon zest in every slice. Soft, moist and good enough eaten on its own. And it stays soft too the next day, just wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and place in an airtight container.

I'm sharing this with :
See Ya In The Gumbo hosted by Ms. enPlace
Tea Time Treats hosted by Lavender and Lovage and What Kate Baked

Lemon Blueberry Bread
(adapted from : "The Artisan Bread Machine" by Judith Fertig)
Makes 1 loaf (750gm)
2/3 cup milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 large egg, beaten
1 large egg yolk, beaten
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I use bread flour)
1-1/2 tsp instant or bread machine yeast
2/3 cup dried blueberries

1. In a small saucepan, scald milk, over medium-high heat until small bubbles form around the edges. Remove from heat and stir in butter and sugar. Tansfer to the bread pan and let cool to lukewarm (between 86F and 95F/30C and 35C).
2. Add salt, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs to the bread pan. Spoon flour on top of liquid. Add yeast. Place blueberries in the dispenser (or add at the "add ingredient" or "mix in" signal).
3. Select the Sweet or Fruit & Nut cycle and press Start. When the cycle is finished, transfer the loaf to a wire rack and let cool for 1 hour.

Kitchen Flavour's notes :

~ I use bread flour instead of AP.

~ Follow instructions up to step 2, select Basic Dough cycle (my machine takes 1hour 35 minutes for this cycle, first rise in machine and punch down by machine), remove dough to a lightly floured work surface, dough is slightly sticky, just sprinkle lightly with flour, roll out to 9" square and roll up dough like a swiss roll. Place in a greased 9"x5" loaf pan. Cover with a lightly greased plastic cling wrap loosely and leave to rise about 30 minutes until risen, about 1-1/2 inch above pan level. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 175C.

~ Bake for about 35 minutes until done. 

#10/100