Lemon drizzle loaf: soaked with syrup, moist, glazed
A creamed butter loaf with three lemons: zest rubbed into the sugar for the batter, juice and sugar poured into the hot cake so it soaks in, and a thick sharp glaze on top. Yogurt holds the moisture, so the loaf stays good for four days. Twenty minutes of work and a tin that scents the whole flat.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Creaming 20 min
- Baking 50 min
- Soaking 30 min
- Cooling 60 min
- Glaze setting 30 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneRub the zest into the sugar
Heat the oven to 170 °C and line the loaf tin with paper. Wash the lemons in hot water and grate the zest on a fine grater, yellow layer only. Add to the sugar and rub together with your fingers for a minute, until the sugar is damp and yellow. Set the lemons aside: their juice goes into the batter, syrup and glaze.
Ingredients: 200 g butter · 200 g sugar · 3 pcs lemons · 4 pcs eggs · 220 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 1 pinch salt · 100 g natural yogurt
TipRubbing the zest into the sugar releases the oils from the zest cells and spreads them through the whole batter. Zest thrown in on its own stays in clumps and smells noticeably weaker.
Zest and sugar, rubbed with the fingersCream the butter, add the eggs
Beat the soft butter with the lemon sugar 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating half a minute after each. If the mixture starts to curdle, add a spoon of the measured flour.
Pale and fluffy, eggs one at a timeAdd the flour and yogurt
Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, add to the mixture and fold briefly with a spatula. Add the yogurt and the juice of one lemon (about 50 ml), mix only until smooth. The batter is thick and creamy.
TipYogurt and lemon juice acidify the batter: the acid with the baking powder gives a tender, fine crumb, and the yogurt holds moisture for days.
Flour briefly, yogurt and juice lastBake
Scrape the batter into the tin and level it. Bake 45–50 minutes at 170 °C, until the top splits lengthways and turns golden and a skewer comes out dry. If it browns too fast, cover with foil after 30 minutes.
A split golden top, a dry skewerSoak the hot loaf with syrup
Stir the lemon juice with the sugar, don't cook it; some sugar should stay in crystals. Prick the hot loaf, still in the tin, densely with a skewer down to the base and spoon the syrup over slowly so it soaks in. Leave in the tin 30 minutes.
Ingredients: 1 pcs lemon, juice · 50 g sugar
TipA hot loaf drinks syrup like a sponge; a cold one absorbs far less and stays wet only on top. The sugar crystals left on the crust give a crunchy layer under the glaze.
Prick, pour, it soaks in while hotGlaze
Turn the loaf out and cool completely on a rack (about an hour). Beat the icing sugar with the lemon juice, adding it a teaspoon at a time, into a thick glaze that flows slowly off the spoon. Pour over the loaf, let it run down the sides and leave 30 minutes to set. Keeps 4 days in a tin.
Ingredients: 150 g icing sugar · ½ pcs lemon, juice
TipGlaze on a warm loaf soaks in and disappears. On a cold one it sets into the white, sharp shell that is the point here. Too thin? More icing sugar; too thick? A drop of juice.
Thick glaze on a cold loaf
Before you start
With poppy seeds
2 spoons of poppy seeds in the batter with the flour: the classic lemon and poppy seed pairing, pretty when sliced.
With lime or orange
The same method with 4 limes (sharper) or 2 oranges and 1 lemon (milder, wintry).
The loaf sank in the middle
The oven opened too early, or underbaked. Don't peek for the first 35 minutes and test the skewer in the thickest part.
