Bursting with citrus flavor from both the extracts and grated peel, this citrus quick bread is soft, summery, and moist without being heavy.

I’m and will always be a chocolate girl at heart but come winter months, put some snow on the ground, freeze the lake and you got me craving all things citrus while being into a continuous state of summer daydreaming. Can you blame me? Just like my husband sometimes jokes that I was not born to be frugal, I can tell you I was not born to be in the cold.

So I bake citrus.all.the.things. I love Meyer Lemons and Blood Oranges this time of the year. Maybe because you can only get them for such a short period of time. But I also love a good pink Florida grapefruit.

Since I could not decide wat citrus to use in my quick bread I added a little bit of each. Lemons, lime, orange, grapefruit – an explosion of citrus flavor!!

This citrus quick bread – well it’s quick to make although it does take about 1 hour to bake. But that’s the norm with any quick bread.

It’s also soft, summery, and moist without being heavy. And since it uses all butter it’s not oily at all (like some citrus quick bread can be – I’m looking at you Starbucks lemon bread! ).

The bread itself is bursting with citrus flavor and the glaze on top boosts the citrus flavor. I used 2 teaspoons of lemon extract and 2 teaspoons of orange extract plus 3 tablespoons grated citrus peel – for me that was the perfect amount of citrus flavor. If you want just a lemon quick bread you can use all lemon. The same goes for orange bread. But I love the combination of lemon, orange, grapefruit, and lime. They all bring a little something to the bread making it simply perfect!

Yield: one 8" loaf

Citrus quick bread

Print

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon extract
• 2 teaspoons orange extract
• 3 tablespoons grated citrus peel
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk

icing

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• few drops of orange or lemon juice

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350F. Grease an 8" loaf pan. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl add butter and sugar. With the paddle attachment on, beat on low speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Stir in the lemon and orange extract and grated citrus peel.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Combine the flour with the baking powder and salt.
6. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk.
7. Stir until just combined.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf and bake in preheated oven for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted n the middle comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven, let the bread cool for 10-15 minutes before inverting from the pan.
10. Cool completely on a wire rack.
11. To make the icing, add enough citrus juice to the powdered sugar to make a pourable icing.
12. Spoon it over the cooled loaf.
13. Decorate with fresh citrus slices - optional.

If you enjoyed this citrus quick bread, you may also like

Double lemon cheesecake – Smooth, creamy and full of citrus flavor, these lemon cheesecake bars are topped with a thin layer of lemon glaze and prepared on a simple graham cracker crust

Chocolate and orange ricotta cookies – Light and flavorful soft cookies with a cake-like texture, these chocolate and orange ricotta cookies are a crowd pleaser.

Ricotta lime tart – creamy ricotta meets crunchy almonds and refreshing lime in this light tart, perfect for spring-summer dinner parties.