Cake and Bread

I’ve been trying to come up with a recipe for lemon balm bread (because with all the rain, the lemon balm has been doing -very- well this year) and I think I’ve finally got it. The ones I’d found in recipe books or online were using lemon zest and/or lemon juice as well, which, to my mind, is cheating. Therefore…

Lemon Balm Bread without Lemon

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup chopped fresh lemon balm leaves
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped non-red pistachios (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a loaf pan (or round cake pan, or square pan). In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar till well blended. Mix in the lemon balm leaves, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Spoon into pan and bake for about 60 minutes for a 8-1/2″ by 4-1/2″ loaf pan, or more for a smaller loaf pan, or less for a larger loaf pan or flat pan. Check with a toothpick or cake tester to make sure the center is done. Remove from pan, let cool, and enjoy.

It makes for very pretty fine-grained slices well-sprinkled with green leaves and greenish pistachios (should you use pistachios).  The taste is definitely lemony, if mildly so.  The consistency and sweetness is more like a pound cake than like a bread, but that’s the intended effect. If you want a dryer, looser, more bread-like texture, talk to me, I’ve still got the previous attempts written down somewhere.

Source: http://kathryn-aka-kat.livejournal.com/47194.html

Tags: bread, bread recipe, recipe

  Sep 21 bread, recipe