A quick bread with simple ingredients, similar to a light pound cake that bakes to a golden brown and is covered with the most eye-catching pink icing. The flavors are amazing together, you can use fresh or frozen fruit, the crumb is soft and the cake keeps well. It's one of our favorite recipes to make for Easter and Mother's Day brunch.
On one side, blackberry season usually doesn't last long, so there are several blackberry recipes in this blog to take advantage of these unique berries. We even have beautiful blackberry tea cakes but they involve almond flour so they don't fall under the quick breads category.
On the other, this moist blackberry loaf cake can be made with fresh berries or frozen ones. So there you go, an easy quick bread to make year-round.
About this recipe
- Great texture and flavor: you'll love how soft and perfectly dense this quick bread is. And the flavors pair very, very well together.
- Keeps well: the crumb stays wonderful for a few days in the refrigerator and also when frozen, always well wrapped.
- Versatile flavorwise: you can use fresh blackberries or frozen ones, and use different types of liquid for the powdered sugar glaze like orange juice (instead of or in addition to the lemon), creme de cassis liquor.
Ingredients
As with most quick breads, you need simple ingredients (besides the blackberries, of course) and mostly pantry staples.
- Blackberries - you can use fresh, juicy blackberries or frozen ones, directly from the freezer, no need to thaw them. Wild blackberries can also be used.
- Lemon - fresh lemon juice and fresh lemon zest deliver the best results.
- Unsalted butter.
- Yogurt - you need to use a plain, natural, unsweetened one, such as Greek yogurt.
- Sugar - both regular, white granulated sugar and brown sugar (light or dark) are used for the best flavor and sweetness.
- Eggs - fresh, large.
- Vanilla - I use pure vanilla extract or pure vanilla paste when available, but a good vanilla essence (artificially flavored) also works.
- Flour - all purpose flour is the first choice. Cake flour also works and you will get a tad softer crumb.
- Salt: I use kosher salt for my baking, but table salt also works.
How to make this blackberry bread
This is a butter-based recipe. The steps are easy and you'll need an electric mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment for best results.
- Creaming: this step is essential to achieve a soft crumb and having the butter at room temperature is crucial. Otherwise, it won't integrate well with the rest of the ingredients. You cream butter with sugar and eggs to incorporate air and make the texture lighter. Respect the amount of time this should take as specified in the recipe card.
- Flavorings: lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla allow the blackberries to shine while adding some acid and extra flavor. The batter might look curdled at this point but it will smooth out after the dry ingredients are added.
- Sifting the flour mixture: it's a way to create a fluffier texture and helps to integrate the dry ingredients better. You can sift them before in a separate bowl or have them measured and sift them as you add them, like I do.
- Wet ingredients: that would be the yogurt in the recipe and is added alternating with the dry ones. This way they are mixed in parts, making sure they meld well. At this point the batter will be smoother.
- Berries: add the blackberries last and don't use the electric or stand mixer as they will crush the fruit. Use a spatula and lightly incorporate them to the lemon batter.
- Loaf pan: the final batter should not use more than ⅔ of the total capacity. This way, it has space to grow in the oven without overflowing.
- Baking: this lemon blackberry bread will rise, crack in the middle and bake to a golden brown.
How to make the pink glaze
This pink icing adds a somewhat dramatic color to this blackberry lemon bread that is very eye-catching! It's a simple powdered sugar glaze, so you know it's terribly easy to prepare.
- Blackberry juice: simply crush some berries through a colander set over a small bowl and collect the juice. You can also use bottled juice.
- Put powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix with the juices until you have a smooth, pourable, but not runny mixture, similar to thick honey.
- Pour the glaze over the cool loaf down the middle and let it drip down the sides. Let dry before cutting and serving.
Top tips
- Organization: always read the recipe first and make sure you have all the ingredients, at the right temperatures, and also the rest of the equipment and space to make it. This will make the process so much easier!
- Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer that is placed inside the oven (like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Pan sizes: make it in a loaf pan or double the recipe and use a tube pan or bundt pan. Make it in muffin pans, it will yield about 12, maybe more depending on how large your blackberries are.
- Glaze: you can also use a lemon glaze by substituting the blackberry juice for lemon. It will be white and not pink. Also, if you like a boozy touch, use creme de cassis liquor instead of the berry juice.
- Flavor variation: orange juice and orange zest can be substituted for the lemon. As we already know from the Orange Blackberry Muffin loaf, it's a wonderful pairing. I'm still partial to lemon, but it is a great option. Also, a mix of both works well too.
Related recipes you might like:
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Lemon Blackberry Bread
A quick bread similar to a light pound cake that bakes to a golden brown and is covered with the most eye-catching pink icing. The flavors are amazing together, you can use fresh or frozen fruit, the crumb is soft and keeps well. It's one of our favorite recipes to make for Easter and Mother's Day brunch.
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
Units
For the bread:
- 2 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen)
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose or cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup white granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup Greek yogurt, at room temperature (see Notes for substitutions)
For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ tablespoon blackberry juice (from 3-4 berries)
- ½ tablespoon of lemon juice
- Extra fresh blackberries and lemon zest to decorate (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350°F/180°C.
- Butter or spray a 9x4 inch (10x24 cm) loaf pan and, if you want, add a strip of parchment paper to cover the bottom and two shorter sides. The long sides will remain unlined. This will make it easier to remove the cake.
- Wash and dry the blueberries if fresh, or use directly from the freezer but make sure they are not clumped.
For the cake:
- Beat soft butter for 20 seconds in a large bowl with electric beaters or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
- Add both sugars gradually while you continue beating at medium speed, and then for 2 more minutes after adding all of it. The mixture should be light in color, fluffy and the sugar will have partially dissolved.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl regularly.
- Add vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice and mix. It might look curdled, but don't worry.
- Sift the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) together in a bowl, or have them measured and sift them directly over the cake batter (how I do it).
- Add them in 2 parts, alternating with the yogurt in 1 part. That means you start and end with the dry ingredients.
- Mix and integrate everything well, but don't beat much at this point. After adding the last part of the flour mixture, don't incorporate it fully so you have dry spots when you add the berries. After adding the flour, cake batters should be beaten on low speed *just* until integrated, but not overmixed as that will develop gluten and toughen the baked cake.
- Add the blackberries and lightly fold them into the batter with a spatula. Make sure everything is incorporated and try not to crush the fruit. But make sure there are no flour spots. You should have a thick, smooth batter with berries. If some of them break and color the batter, that's fine.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake in the middle rack for about 45 minutes, until it rises, the top cracks, and a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If the top is browning too quickly but the middle is not done, cover the top of the bread loosely with a piece of aluminum foil and continue to bake.
- Cool on a wire rack and remove carefully from the pan, removing the strip of paper.
- Drizzle the glaze (instructions below) over the completely cooled loaf and let it drip down the sides.
- Add some blackberries and lemon zest before it dries out if you want to.
- Let it dry before cutting and eating.
- Keep leftovers at room temperature for a day or in the refrigerator for several days, with plastic wrap in both cases or in an airtight container. Or frozen for a month, also well wrapped.
For the glaze:
- Put a small bowl with a colander on top, add the blackberries and crush them with a fork. The juice will be collected in the bowl. Measure it in a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon and add enough lemon juice to make a full tablespoon.
- Put the powdered sugar in a bowl and add the liquid.
- Check the consistency. It should be like thick honey. Add more juice if needed to adjust the consistency.
- Pour over the cooled cake and let drip down the sides. Let dry before cutting.
Notes
- Organization: always read the recipe first and make sure you have all the ingredients, at the right temperatures, and also the rest of the equipment and space to make it. This will make the process so much easier!
- Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. You can use a thermometer that is placed inside the oven (like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that your oven is at the right temperature. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Creaming technique: this step is essential to achieve a soft crumb and having the butter at room temperature is crucial. Otherwise, it won't integrate well with the rest of the ingredients. You cream butter with sugar and eggs to incorporate air and make the texture lighter. Respect the amount of time this should take as specified in the recipe card.
- Substituting the yogurt: you can use the same amount of buttermilk or 5 tablespoons of sour cream + 3 tablespoons milk instead of the yogurt.
- Pan sizes: make it in a loaf pan or double the recipe and use a tube pan or bundt pan. Make it in muffin pans, it will yield about 12, maybe more depending on how large your blackberries are.
- Glaze: you can also use a lemon glaze by substituting the blackberry juice for lemon. It will be white and not pink. Also, if you like a boozy touch, use creme de cassis liquor instead of the berry juice.
- Blackberries - you can use fresh, juicy blackberries or frozen ones, directly from the freezer, no need to thaw them.
- Vanilla - I use pure vanilla extract or pure vanilla paste when available, but a good vanilla essence (artificially flavored) also works.
- Flour - all purpose flour is the first choice. Cake flour also works and you will get a tad softer crumb.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cooling time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Quick bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: International
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/10
- Calories: 414
- Sugar: 33.7 g
- Sodium: 98.4 mg
- Fat: 16.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 60.1 g
- Protein: 6.9 g
- Cholesterol: 112.9 mg
Keywords: blackberry bread
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