Luscious But Light Lemon Blueberry Loaf

One of my all-time favorite taste combos is easily Lemon Poppy Seed, and I love it in a nicely fresh baked bread. Of course if you buy from a bakery or a store it can be filled with preservatives and weird to pronounce ingredients, so I decided to take on the challenge of making it myself. I wanted to make the loaf healthy and light so I could succumb to a slice whenever the craving hit!

Here’s How I Redid the Recipe

• I wanted to add some fruit for added vitamins and have a healthy way to add more flavor. I decided blueberries would be a good addition!(they pretty much are in anything) Unfortunately the grocery store had fresh blueberries for $5 a pop, frozen for a few cents less, and for a 14 oz can of blueberries in water it was $6.39! Eek! Needless to say I was not going to forfeit this challenge. I planned on making the loaf from scratch, but was delighted to find that Krusteaz makes a Fat Free Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix and the package included a can of blueberries all for just $2.79—mission accomplished! Wait, not quite yet!
• I still needed the lemon flavor, so decided to use 2 tsp. of lemon extract and 2 tsp. of lemon juice. Then, since there were no poppy seeds in the mix, I added in 1 tsp. Of course I needed to adjust the baking time for the two mini loaves I planned on making—read on below to see if I was able to redo this recipe!

Budget Analysis

Poppy seeds= $3.31

Krusteaz Muffin Mix= $2.79

Divided by the total amount of slices(32)=0.19 a slice!

*This is assuming you have Lemon Extract on hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake these in 2 7 x 11 loaf pans sprayed lightly with cooking spray at 350 F for 35-40 min until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Whaddya think? Here’s what I thought:

Nutritional Stats- The FF Muffin Mix + the Poppy Seeds added in made into 2 mini loaves each sliced into 16 slices, 1 generous slice clocks in at--

40 calories

0 grams of fat

85.6 mg of sodium

9.5 g carbs

.6 g of fiber

4.6 g of sugar

Taste- Loved it! It reminded me of a slice you would buy at the local bakery.

Texture-Slightly on the more chewier side, which I prefer—not for the hefty loaf lovers though. You could also detect the poppy seed texture which is a good thing. Maybe the blueberries could have been a tad bigger?

Appeal- It looked pretty—it is definitely a presentable bread.

Overall- I am so excited with my new creation and will definitely be making it many times into the future.