Orange Blossom Yogurt Lemon Loaf

This recipe from the L.A. Times came with the long name.  I would probably leave out the yogurt part to reduce its length.  The orange blossom part is what caught my attention.  While the recipe uses orange blossom water, I did make my own orange blossom extract and have been looking for a use for it.

The directions have you use the food processor, which to me seemed very dangerous for a quick bread.  They're easy to over-mix by hand, much less in a machine.  I added some almond flour to reduce the gluten and a little extra lemon juice to the batter to offset it.  That also allowed me to sprinkle the top with almonds.

If you can't find orange blossom water, you can use lemon, coconut, or almond extract in its place.  That will change the flavor of the loaf slightly, but should still work.

If you choose to go by the original recipe link, beware that it's not well written.  The amount of lemon juice in step 2 is if you do the simple syrup brushing, which I did not do and am not listing here.  I used the glaze, and ended up with an extra lemon.  I have an idea what to do with that.  The recipe link does have instructions at the bottom for making it without a food processor.  My guess is the author decided that as long as she was using the processor for the lemon sugar, she might as well do the whole thing that way.

1-1/3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 C granulated sugar
1 lemon
*2 Tb almond flour
1/3 C vegetable oil
2 eggs, room temperature
1 C full-fat Greek yogurt
*1 tsp orange blossom water, divided
1 C powdered sugar
sliced almonds for garnish

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Lightly spray a standard loaf pan (or 3 minis) with pan spray.  Line the bottom with parchment and spray again.

2.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.  In bowl of food processor, add granulated sugar and almond flour.  Use a microplane grater to zest lemon directly into the processor.  Juice the lemon and set the juice aside.

3.  Pulse the sugar mixture until it's even and has the texture of wet sand.  Add oil and pulse again until well mixed.  Add eggs and pulse to incorporate.  Add the yogurt, 1-1/2 Tb of the lemon juice, and 1/2 tsp of the orange blossom water.  Pulse until the last streak of yogurt disappears.  This is the last of the gluten-free portion of the recipe, when it's difficult to over-mix.

4.  Sprinkle flour mixture over wet ingredients and pulse until just mixed.  Alternately, you can pour the wet ingredients in a bowl and fold in the flour by hand if you don't care about getting an extra bowl dirty.  Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes for a full loaf or 30-35 for minis.  Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes.

5.  Turn loaves out of the pan, peel off the parchment, and allow to cool completely.  In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, remaining 1/2 tsp of orange blossom water, and as much lemon juice as necessary to create a thick glaze.  Powdered sugar glazes go from too thick to runny very easily, so add 1/2 tsp at a time.  Drizzle glaze over cake and sprinkle with almond slices before the glaze has set.

Makes one full loaf or 3 minis, about 12 servings

Difficulty rating  :)