A moist, rich, delicious lemon blueberry quick bread baked in mini loaf pans; kind of a cross between a blueberry muffin and a blueberry coffee cake.
My family is crazy about my lemon blueberry coffee cake, so I couldn’t resist turning it into a quick bread that’s quicker and easier to make. I baked the lemon blueberry quick bread in mini loaf pans, which reduces the cook time.
In fact, I love the mini loaf pans so much I almost never make quick bread in a large loaf these days. They’re easier to share, or tuck a loaf or two in the freezer for another day.
This bread is load with blueberries. The batter is thick so you don’t need to worry about the blueberries sinking to the bottom.
It has a bright lemon flavor and a crunchy streusel topping with makes it pretty much irresistible.
My daughter makes this lemon blueberry quick bread often and she thought it was time I shared it again with some updated pictures. She serves it with scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning, and then tucks a couple loaves in the freeze for another day. So smart.
Lemon Blueberry Quick Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 ½ cups blueberries fresh or frozen
Streusel Topping
- â…“ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray four mini loaf pans (5 ¾ x 3 ¼ x 2 ¼) with non-stick cooking spray with flour.*
- Prepare streusel topping and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest. Add butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and milk.
- Add flour mixture and mix just until combine. Stir in blueberries.
- For the streusel crumb topping, in a small bowl, combine sugar and flour. Add butter and mix until mixture is crumbly.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping.
- Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. An internal temperature of about 205°.
Notes
More quick bread recipes you might like:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Bread
Streusel Topped Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Mary Kendall
Streusel topping made with melted butter as indicated produces gooey topping not crumble?
Aditi
I have never used frozen blueberries before but plan on using them for this recipe. Do i thaw and dry them before usung? Also, what if they are sour? Can we coat them in sugar and then add?
Melissa Griffiths
They should be fine if they are a little tart and no, you just throw them in frozen, no issues there.
Roxanne
Hello Ladies 🙂 I was looking for a 4 loaf mini pan bake time and found your site. Tks
Question: your blueberry recipe tho, at the end #8 is missing and #9 says to mix the strus topping. Now, wouldn’t you be baking the loaves with the topping applied already? as the flour would be raw. tks
Melissa Griffiths
Thank you for taking the time to bring that to our attention! We have been moving recipes into a new “recipe card” which digitally formats them for viewing and printing and I think this one just got jumbled up. It’s all fixed now! We appreciate the help on that.
Peg
Can I use 2% milk instead of whole milk without it negatively affecting the recipe?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Peg – yes, it will still work well. I occasionally sub 1% if it’s all I have. Enjoy!
susan papciak
Could I make this in a wilton 8 loaf pan?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Susan – yes, just don’t fill the pan more than 2/3’s full.
Barbara Douglas
Can I substitute the unsalted butter for regular salted butter and maybe decrease the 1/2 tsp. salt the recipe calls for? Thanks,
Barbara Schieving
Hi Barbara – yes, that will work great.
Ashley
can i use almond milk instead of milk?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Ashley – I haven’t tried it, but I think it will work well.
Teresa Malacki
Barbara
I made the mini blueberry muffins last night and they were delicious. Will they be just as good if I make ahead and freeze?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Teresa – the topping isn’t quite as good when it’s frozen and thawed, but I do it all the time and it’s delicious.
Shweta Rai
Can I still use this recipe for a normal size loaf pan? Would it call for a change in temperature or time to cook?
Barbara Schieving
Yes, you can – I’ve updated the recipe with instruction for using a full-size loaf pan. Enjoy!
Shweta
I made it today 😊… baked them as muffins though… accordingly regular size 12 muffin… can’t attach the picture unfortunately. It looked so good… can’t wait to try it! Thank you so much
Barbara Schieving
Great! So glad you loved them and they were picture perfect. If you’re on Instagram post a picture and tag me 🙂
Shweta
Sure! What’s your gram handle?(how do i find you?)
Barbara Schieving
BarbaraBakes – https://www.instagram.com/barbarabakes/
Nissa Chichester
Barbara, I have been making this recipe for about a year now, whenever blueberries are available at Costco. My friends and family thank you and so do I, absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!
Barbara Schieving
That’s great – thanks Nissa!
Kathy
I’ve never made streusel topping before. Â You list sugar, flour and butter twice in the ingredients. Which measurements are for the bread and which are for the topping?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Kathy – I’ve updated the recipe so it’s clearer. Enjoy!
Peggy
I not sure what went wrong but, I made this recipe today, making sure I would not miss any of the ingredients, followed the instructions exactly, and sorry to say, it was a disaster. The dough was extremely thick, so thick in fact that it couldn’t even be spread into the pans.
It broke my heart to have to toss out good, expensive blueberries as well as all the other ingredients this recipe called for.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Peggy – sorry you had problems with the recipe. Sounds like you may have inadvertently used more flour than the recipe called for.
Nissa Chichester
Peggy this batter is extremely thick!! The first time I made it I thought I too had made a mistake but I went ahead and baked those little loaves up….Delicious one of my family’s favourite. Good luck, worth trying again!
Beckie B
My daughter made this for her FFA farmer’s market. It was a hit! She had rave reviews & sold out.
elisabeth
These look amazing…baking me a batch tonight! Will also try out your other recipe versions and share your website alongside the pics of my mini breads!
Barbara Schieving
Great – thanks Elisabeth! Enjoy 🙂
Carolyn R
I made the lemon blueberry quick bread today and they came out great!  Just the right amount of sweetness and mild taste of lemon.  I had to cook mine for 40 minutes till the tester came out dry, but even so, they weren’t too brown or too light – Just Perfect!  Thanks for the recipe.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Carolyn! Glad it was a hit 🙂
Carol
If you use frozen blueberries, do you need to thaw them first before adding to batter? Thanks.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Carol – no, you’ll want to add them frozen and increase the cook time slightly.
Carol
Thank you. Can’t wait to try these. They look so good.
Darlene
This looks sooooooo good.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Darlene – I hope you’ll give them a try.