This Blueberry Quick Bread is a wonderful treat when fresh local highbush blueberries are in season. The addition of either orange or lemon zest and juice makes this a very flavorful quick bread. So, according to your taste preference, you can make this a Blueberry-Orange or Blueberry-Lemon bread.
I love highbush blueberries as they give a great burst of flavor in the bread’s batter. However, some varieties of highbush blueberries can be quite large. I recommend using the smallest highbush blueberries you can find for this bread as, if the berries are too large, they will consume too much of the batter and potentially make the loaf quite wet and turn the bread an unappetizing blue color.
I am lucky to live near a highbush blueberry u-pick that grows several different varieties of blueberries so I have my favorite varieties for different purposes. When I am picking blueberries specifically for quick breads and muffins, I try to pick the smaller ones. I find the Northland variety of blueberries great for this loaf as they tend to, generally, be a smaller variety of highbush blueberries. Even at that, I still pick the berries over, choosing the smallest ones (as shown in photo above) for the loaf. This is not to say that there are not other highbush blueberry varieties that would work well in this recipe.
If all you have access to are quite large blueberries, I’d suggest slightly reducing the amount of blueberries in the loaf to ensure there is sufficient batter to hold the bread together when cut. Those blueberries can really burst (as shown in the photo below) when they meet up with the oven heat!
Like many berries, highbush blueberries (because of their weight and size) have a tendency to fall to the bottom of baked goods. To keep the blueberries from doing this in the Blueberry Quick Bread, only fold one-half of the berries into the batter before transferring three-quarters of the batter into the prepared pan. Then, sprinkle the remaining berries over the batter in the pan and top with the remaining batter. I have found this to be the best way to keep the blueberries distributed throughout the loaf.
Serve the bread plain or with a slather of butter. Great for a breakfast, coffeebreak, or teatime treat.
While, for best results, I recommend fresh highbush blueberries for this bread, that is not to say that frozen berries cannot be used. However, if using frozen berries, make sure they are ones that have frozen intact individually and are not clumped together with a lot of frost accumulated between them as this extra moisture will affect the texture of the loaf, potentially causing it to be very wet.
[Printable recipe follows at end of post]
Blueberry Quick Bread
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup almond flour
2½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cardamom
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled (but not re-solidified)
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tsp finely grated orange or lemon zest
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup sour cream, room temperature
1/3 cup of 2% milk, room temperature
2 tbsp orange or lemon juice, room temperature
1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
5¾ oz small highbush blueberries
Method:
Bring eggs, sour cream, milk, and orange or lemon juice to room temperature approximately 25-30 minutes before preparing batter. Melt butter and cool to room temperature but do not let it re-solidify. In small bowl, stir the grated orange or lemon zest into the granulated sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes or so to infuse the citrus flavor into the sugar.
Position oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9”x5”x3” loaf pan with strips of parchment paper (one strip horizontally across the pan and one strip vertically down the length of the pan), leaving enough paper overhang with which to grasp and lift the baked loaf to remove it from the pan. Spritz parchment-lined pan very lightly with cooking oil.
In small bowl, combine the milk and orange or lemon juice. Stir to mix.
In medium-sized bowl, sieve the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom together.
In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and on low speed, combine the vegetable oil, melted butter, and sugar. Beat at medium speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating slightly after each egg has been added. Blend in the sour cream followed by the vanilla. Stop mixer, as necessary, to scrape bowl with rubber spatula to ensure the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Beat entire mixture about 15-20 seconds at medium speed.
With mixer on lowest speed, add the flour mixture in three parts alternately with the milk-juice mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (three additions of dry ingredients with two additions of wet ingredients). Periodically stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl with spatula to ensure all ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium low and beat mixture 15-20 seconds to ensure ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix.
Remove bowl from mixer stand and gently fold in half of the blueberries. Transfer three-quarters of the batter to the prepared pan, smoothing batter evenly with a knife. Sprinkle remaining blueberries over batter. Spread remaining batter over the blueberries and smooth with a knife.
Bake loaf for approximately 55-60 minutes or until cake tester inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. If loaf starts to brown too much before it is baked, it may be loosely tented with tin foil after about 45 minutes of baking. Ensure loaf top is completely set before allowing the tin foil to touch it as the foil may otherwise peel off the top of the loaf. After removing bread from oven, let loaf rest in pan for 15 minutes then turn out on to wire rack to cool completely before cutting.
Yield: One loaf, 14 slices (sliced approximately ½” thick)
Notes: Loaf is best made the day before it is needed. Let cool completely on wire rack then place in airtight plastic bag and store in refrigerator overnight to allow the flavours time to blend and loaf time to set. Loaf freezes well, either whole or sliced into individual slices.
If you have made this recipe and enjoyed it and/or wish to share it with your friends and family, please do so on social media but be sure to share the direct link to this posting from my website.
You may also enjoy these other tasty quick bread recipes from My Island Bistro Kitchen:
Strawberry-Rhubarb Quick Bread
Green Tomato Quick Bread
Classic Banana Bread
Glazed Lemon Pecan Bread
Cinnamon Quick Bread
Cherry Loaf
Orange, Date, and Spice Loaf
Cranberry Orange Eggnog Loaf
Blueberry Quick Bread
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cardamom
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup butter, melted and cooled (but not re-solidified)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tsp finely grated orange or lemon zest
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1/3 cup of 2% milk, room temperature
- 2 tbsp orange or lemon juice, room temperature
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5¾ oz small highbush blueberries
Instructions
- Bring eggs, sour cream, milk, and orange or lemon juice to room temperature approximately 25-30 minutes before preparing batter. Melt butter and cool to room temperature but do not let it re-solidify. In small bowl, stir the grated orange or lemon zest into the granulated sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes or so to infuse the citrus flavor into the sugar.
Position oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9”x5”x3” loaf pan with strips of parchment paper (one strip horizontally across the pan and one strip vertically down the length of the pan), leaving enough paper overhang with which to grasp and lift the baked loaf to remove it from the pan. Spritz parchment-lined pan very lightly with cooking oil.
- In small bowl, combine the milk and orange or lemon juice. Stir to mix.
- In medium-sized bowl, sieve the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom together.
In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and on low speed, combine the vegetable oil, melted butter, and sugar. Beat at medium speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating slightly after each egg has been added. Blend in the sour cream followed by the vanilla. Stop mixer, as necessary, to scrape bowl with rubber spatula to ensure the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Beat entire mixture about 15-20 seconds at medium speed.
With mixer on lowest speed, add the flour mixture in three parts alternately with the milk-juice mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (three additions of dry ingredients with two additions of wet ingredients). Periodically stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl with spatula to ensure all ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium low and beat mixture 15-20 seconds to ensure ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix.
Remove bowl from mixer stand and gently fold in half of the blueberries. Transfer three-quarters of the batter to the prepared pan, smoothing batter evenly with a knife. Sprinkle remaining blueberries over batter. Spread remaining batter over the blueberries and smooth with a knife.
- Bake loaf for approximately 55-60 minutes or until cake tester inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. If loaf starts to brown too much before it is baked, it may be loosely tented with tin foil after about 45 minutes of baking. Ensure loaf top is completely set before allowing the tin foil to touch it as the foil may otherwise peel off the top of the loaf. After removing bread from oven, let loaf rest in pan for 15 minutes then turn out on to wire rack to cool completely before cutting.
Recipe Notes
Yield: One loaf, 14 slices (sliced approximately ½” thick)
Notes: Loaf is best made the day before it is needed. Let cool completely on wire rack then place in airtight plastic bag and store in refrigerator overnight to allow the flavours time to blend and loaf time to set. Loaf freezes well, either whole or sliced into individual slices.
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