Neighborhood Harvest

loaf around with lemons

This is always the time of year when I start missing fresh summer fruit. Instead of settling for some shitty out of season strawberries, I decided to bake with citrus. You should too. And yes, I took more lemons from my neighbor’s tree to make this. In the summer people beg you to take zucchini from their garden because they’re drowning in squash. In LA during the winter, people will throw bags of citrus at you if you linger too long near their tree *life hack*. I wouldn’t say I’m a hero for using all the neighborhood lemons but I’m doing my part to keep rotting fruit off the sidewalks. If you live some place where citrus grows all over, this is your chance to do the same. You can always check with projects like Endless Orchard to see where there are fruit trees that might need some help in your community .

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not the biggest fan of lemon desserts. They are usually cloyingly sweet or taste like a cleaning product to me. No thanks. But when I started thinking of the perfect sweet to go with my midday London Fog, I landed on something with lemon. My wife has been strongly campaigning for a loaf cake for a while and her love of lemon flavored desserts is unnatural, so this matchup was bound to happen eventually. I’m really happy with the final loaf recipe. It’s not too sweet and has the right amount of lemon to taste bright and fruity without going full Lemon Pledge. I added a glaze because it looks so pretty but the basic loaf is delicious all on its own. I took a page from the Spork Sister’s birthday cake and added some spelt flour to make the loaf have a more custardy texture. If you don’t have spelt flour, more all-purpose will do just fine. You want to make the loaf a little fancier, you could add some dried lavender or rosemary to the batter or glaze or brew a bag of earl grey tea in the milk called for in the recipe before adding it to the batter. Even if you keep this shit simple as can be, I know you’ll love it.

Winter Lemon Loaf

Makes one standard loaf, enough for 4-6 people

½ cup cane sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup spelt flour or more all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup nondairy milk

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Lemon glaze

½ cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoons of lemon juice

Warm up your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a standard loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the cane and brown sugar then add the lemon zest. Stick your fingers in there and rub the zest together with the sugar so that it gets all mixed in and you don’t end up with chunks of zest in your finished loaf. Nobody likes that shit. Whisk in the flours, baking powder, and salt until everything is incorporated.

In a medium bowl, stir together the milk, olive oil, lemon juice, and extracts. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture. Stir the batter together until there are no dry spots or large chunks. Pour this into your prepared loaf pan and bake it for 40-50 minutes until the top is golden and a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. Let this cool in the pan for 20 minutes then remove it and place it on a cooling rack until it’s room temperature. If you pour on the glaze while the loaf is still hot it will absorb and kinda disappear into the crust. It’s worth waiting for the loaf to cool, I swear.

Once the loaf has cooled, mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice together until you have a smooth glaze. Remove the loaf from the pan and place it on a cooling rack with a plate underneath. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the loaf and let the excess drip off on to the plate below. Give the glaze a few minutes to set then serve it or store it at room temperature until you get snackish for something sweet.

This will keep for up to 5 days stored in the fridge or at a cool room temperature.

Winter Lemon Loaf

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Thanks for joining me for another week here in Sunday Recipe Club. Have you ever used public fruit maps to find fruit in your community? Is there something else you love sustainably gathering where you live? Let me know in the comments!