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This Lemon Bread is a quick bread recipe with so much fresh lemon flavor – There is lemon in every bite! It’s soft and tender with a sweet lemon glaze! You’re going to love the moist crumb, thick glaze, and delicious flavor – it’s one of my favorite lemon desserts for breakfast!
Lemon lovers rejoice: you can have lemon for breakfast! I can never get enough lemon flavors in dessert or breakfast foods. Lemon muffins, lemon pie, lemon cookies, lemon cake: you name it I LOVE IT! When you feel like lemon loaf but you want it for breakfast, it’s time to make my EASY homemade Lemon Bread recipe.
The Best lemon bread recipe is a quick bread recipe, meaning it is bread made without yeast. It’s not quite bread, but not quite cake – somewhere perfectly in the middle! With a super moist texture, it has a perfect lemon flavor throughout every bite! There are lemon zest and lemon extract and there is a simple lemon icing!
How to make Lemon Bread
- I always use all-purpose flour. Be sure to measure it correctly!
- Evaporated Milk: Be sure to buy evaporated, not sweetened condensed. It comes in a can in the baking aisle. It adds a richer flavor and some fat to the bread, making it nice and moist.
- I prefer using vegetable oil or canola oil when I’m making quick bread.
- FRESH Lemons are key – you need the lemon zest. The zest is where all the flavor is! Don’t skip it. Learn how to zest a lemon! A tablespoon of grated lemon adds so much flavor.
- I add Lemon Extract to pump up the lemon flavor of this lemon bread recipe.
- I always make this as a glazed lemon bread by making a simple frosting with fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar – it makes breakfast taste more like a lemon loaf cake!
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Expert Tips
- If you want your bread to be really lemony, don’t skip the lemon extract.
- Don’t over bake this – when a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs in the center, it’s done.
- You can also bake this in 3 mini loaf pans. Bake time will be about half.You know when quick bread is done baking when toothpick comes out clean from the center of the bread.
- Make my lemon blueberry bread recipe by adding fresh berries.
- Make it gluten free by using 1:1 gluten-free flour.
Lemon Quick Bread Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (186g) all purpose flour
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large egs
- ⅓ cup (79ml) oil
- 5 ounces (147ml) evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon pure lemon extract optional
- Zest of one large or two small lemons
- ½ cup (57g) powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons (15-30ml) lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8.5” by 4.5” loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray (use the kind with flour if you have it). You can also use an 8”x4” loaf pan.
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Place eggs, oil, evaporated milk, extract, and zest in a large measuring cup or small bowl and whisk. (The extract is optional but gives that telltale lemon flavor.) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until the batter forms.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean just slightly to one side of center. Cool before frosting.
- Whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice (1 tablespoon at a time) until desired consistency, drizzle over the bread. The frosting is optional and makes it more sweet, but the bread is good without it as well.
Recipe Notes
- Make Glazed Lemon Bread by whisking powdered sugar with lemon juice for an delicious topping.
- If you want your bread to be really lemony, don’t skip the lemon extract.
- Don’t over bake this – when a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs in the center, it’s done.
Recipe Nutrition
Step-by-Step Photos
- Whisk together all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar in a small bowl.
2. Whisk together evaporated milk, lemon zest, lemon extract, oil, and eggs. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until combined. You can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, but this is one of my favorite recipes because I can do it by hand.
3. Add to an 8×4-inch loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool on a wire rack.
4. To make the icing, whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice and pour over the bread. This lemon bread recipe tastes like sunshine and is better than Starbucks Lemon Loaf (which is actually lemon pound cake).
I’m craving a lemon bread, but I do not have fresh lemons….only bottled lemon juice. Is there any recipes without the zest?
Hi Dorothy – can regular milk be substituted for the evaporated milk? If not, can something else be substituted for it?
Thank you!
Usually, evaporated milk is a substitute for cream, so I would imagine you could use cream for evaporated milk. Hope that helps.
Easy and tasty. Thanks.
I used 1/2 cup sugar, had no lemon extract, but wanted a lemony taste, added 1/2 oz lemon juice, plus the required amt of extract to the eggs and whisked, and 4 & 1/2 ozs milk.
Thank you so much. Not only for the recipe, but mainly for your honesty about your life. I am going thru a very hard time right now. I needed to see that there’s someone else that felt the same as I do now. Thank you so much. I pray this ends soon.
I make this but double it and use buttermilk! Cook in a bunt pan!
Glad you like it!
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