This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, read my disclosure policy.
This Lemon Bread is a quick bread recipe with so much lemon flavor – There is lemon in every bite! It’s soft and tender with a lemon glaze – it’s the perfect breakfast, lunch, or dessert! Learn how to make this lemon bread and never make another recipe again.
Best Lemon Bread Recipe
This lemon bread 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 glaze!
One of the things I love the most is lemon! I can never get enough lemon flavors in dessert or breakfast foods. Lemon muffins, lemon pie, lemon cookies…you name it I LOVE IT and so do you all! When you feel like lemon loaf but you want it for breakfast, it’s time to make my EASY Lemon Bread recipe.
Lemon Bread Ingredients
- Flour: I always use all-purpose flour. Be sure to measure it correctly!
- Baking Powder: This helps the bread rise.
- 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.
- Oil: Vegetable oil or canola oil
- Lemon Zest: This 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.
- Lemon Extract: Always buy PURE extracts. The lemon extract pumps up the lemon flavor of this lemon bread recipe.
- Powdered Sugar + Lemon Juice: You need these for the glaze. Be sure to use fresh lemon juice!
How to make Lemon Bread
- Whisk together all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar.
2. Whisk together evaporated milk, lemon zest, lemon extract, oil, and eggs. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until combined.
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!
Expert Tips
- Make Glazed Lemon Bread by whisking powdered sugar with lemon juice for a delicious topping. Lemon glazed bread is so sweet and tart.
- 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.
- Turn this into lemon blueberry bread by adding fresh berries.
- Make it gluten free by using 1:1 gluten-free flour.
FAQs
Store covered on the counter in an airtight container or freeze it for up to 3 months. To freeze lemon bread, wrap the whole loaf in plastic or place slices in sandwich bags and seal, then place in freezer. Remove to counter to thaw.
If stored in an airtight container this bread will last in the refrigerator up to 4 days.
A toothpick will come out clean from the center of the bread.
I have never tried this so I do not recommend it.
Lemon Quick Bread Recipe
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 Video
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.
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!
Featured In
Rate This Recipe
Recipe Ratings without Comment