Lemon Tea Bread

I was going to do the whole "when life gives you lemons..." cliché but that's not the case.

All things considered, my life is pretty peachy these days.
♦ ♦ ♦

Life did give me lemons on sale at the grocery store the other day, so I bought a bag of them and whipped up a loaf of lemon tea bread - my grandma's recipe that my mom wrote down for me a few years ago and I've never made until now.

We have a whole bunch of citrus trees around these parts, and I'd been hoping that someone with a lemon tree would bestow enough fruit on us so I could whip up a batch of limoncello like Beverly did last year, but alas, I'm left to the store bought version {although, now that I think of it, they were cheap enough I probably could have sprung for it...}.

But I digress. If you want a light and yummy lemon bread recipe, I have just the one for you. I'm not telling Doug that it's called "tea bread" because it might sound a little bit girly, but oh did the house smell good when he came home from work that day!

Lemon Tea Bread

1 c. sugar

1 T. lemon extract

1/3 c. butter, melted

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 c. milk

1 T. grated lemon rind

3/4 c. chopped nuts {optional...}

Glaze:

juice from one large lemon

1/3 c. sugar

{find a measurement converter here}

Beat together 1 cup of sugar, extract and butter. Add eggs and beat well.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture, alternating adding milk, mixing well after each addition. Fold in grated lemon rind and nuts.

For glaze, mix juice from one lemon with 1/3 cup sugar and set aside.

Bake tea bread in greased 4x8" loaf pan at 350° for 45-55 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and drizzle with glaze mixture. Cool in pan. Remove from pan and let stand 24 hours before cutting. {We didn't make it 24 hours before cutting. Who made that part up anyway? Although, it actually did get better with time.}

My notes: I didn't have lemon extract on hand, so I added two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and decreased the milk by one tablespoon. I also added about a 1/2 tablespoon more of the grated lemon rind than the recipe called for. Delicious!!!

♦ ♦ ♦