Healthy Blueberry Lemon Bread
When fresh blueberries are in season during the summer months this Healthy Blueberry Lemon Bread is a must-bake! Sweet, moist, lemony and bursting with juicy blueberries, this quick bread recipe makes a scrumptious afternoon snack or breakfast with a cup of coffee.
Table of contents
Why We Love This Recipe For Healthy Blueberry Lemon Bread
There are few things better than baked goods with blueberries, and this healthy lemon blueberry bread is no different. The blueberries and citrus flavor pair so well together with the turbinado sugar and I absolutely love the sliced almonds on top. It’s so delicious!
Making a few simple swaps, including white whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose flour and canola or avocado oil instead of butter, makes this blueberry bread healthier too.
Recipe Highlights
- Simple to make and it comes out perfect every time.
- Great for breakfast, brunch and snacks.
- Incredibly kid-friendly!
- White whole wheat flour adds fiber and avocado or canola oil adds healthy unsaturated fats.
- Just 3/4 cup of added sugar for the whole loaf.
Key Ingredients for this Healthy Lemon Blueberry Bread
- Flour: This healthy lemon blueberry bread recipe is made with a blend of white and whole-wheat flour. I like to use King Arthur Flour White Whole-Wheat flour because it is milder in flavor and lighter in color than regular whole wheat flour. They act almost the same in baking recipes.
- Turbinado sugar: Sometimes called raw sugar, this light brown sugar is slightly less processed than white sugar so that some of the molasses (stripped out when white sugar is made) is left behind. The flavor has toasty caramel notes. Look for it in the baking section of the supermarket or natural foods stores. You can use evaporated cane juice instead of turbinado sugar, which has slightly finer granules than turbinado. If you like the flavor of coconut sugar, you could use that instead but it may overpower the other flavors. I don’t recommend using honey or maple syrup, which can darken baked goods. When I tested this with honey, even baking at 325 degrees, the bread was too dark.
- Other Baking Staples: Baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, almond extract and salt.
- Fresh Blueberries: I prefer fresh in this recipe. If you want to use, frozen, thaw and drain them before tossing with the flour mixture.
- Oil: avocado or canola oil
- Lemon: You will use the lemon zest and juice.
- Orange Juice: orange juice with or without pulp is fine.
- Eggs: You’ll need both egg whites and egg yolk, separated.
- Sliced Almonds: Can be omitted if needed (in the case of an allergy, omit almond extract as well.) Use a dusting of confectioners sugar on top instead.
Step-by-Step Instructions to Make Healthy Blueberry Bread
Step 1: Preheat oven & prepare loaf pan
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 1.5-quart loaf pan (8.5 by 4.5 by 2.5 inches) with cooking spray.
Step 2: Whisk together dry ingredients
Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Toss blueberries in the flour mixture to coat.
Step 3: Whisk together wet ingredients & add dry mix
Whisk egg yolk, zest, fresh lemon juice, sugar, oil, orange juice, vanilla and almond extract in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir to combine. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. When beating egg whites, make sure there are no traces of yolk or oil in the bowl. Any fat will inhibit the foaming process.
Fold in the egg whites. Use a silicone spatula and take gentle swipes through the batter (also known as folding) only until the whites are incorporated. The goal is to keep as much air as possible in the whites, as this lifts the bread and keeps it from becoming too dense. This is one of the keys to giving this quickbread and light texture.
Step 4: Bake healthy blueberry lemon bread
Pour batter over the bottom of the prepared loaf pan and spread to cover. Sprinkle with almonds. Transfer to the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool in the pan 25 minutes before running a knife along the edges and turning out, cool right-side-up on wire rack.
Tip: Though it may be tempting, try not to check on the bread too many times which will let the hot air out of the oven, making it take longer and possibly compromising the rise. The bread could even end up collapsing in the center if it is still liquid inside. So set the timer for 55 minutes and then check it. If a toothpick comes out with batter on it, keep baking another five minutes. Then check again.
FAQs and Expert Tips
Let the bread cool completely, then store it in an airtight container or Ziploc bag lined with paper towels. Keep at room temperature, not in the fridge. It will stay fresh and moist for up to 4 days. This is great if you want to make the recipe in advance for an occasion.
To freeze, place individual slices in a large freezer bag or wrapped with plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw each slice at room temperature or warm in the microwave or oven.
I tested this healthy lemon blueberry loaf with frozen berries, but they did not set up in the center. You could use frozen berries that have been thawed and drained if you need to, but I preferred the texture and juiciness of the fresh berries.
More Healthy Bread Recipes to Try
- If you love baking, here are a couple more of my favorite bread recipes for you to try.
- This recipe for Healthy Banana Bread with Dates and Walnuts, is naturally sweetened from the dates and only a quarter cup of syrup!
- Taste it and you’ll never believe that this Banana Bread Recipe is made with 100% whole-wheat flour.
- This Healthy Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips has been a fan favorite since its inception many years ago.
- This Healthy Zucchini Oat Bread has raisins and a secret ingredient so very little additional sweetener was needed. It’s perfect for lunchboxes!
- Along with this bread today, this Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread is on my must-bake list every summer. I adore it!!
- If you like the almond flavor in this Lemon Blueberry Bread today, then this Almond Cranberry Bread is for you!
- This healthier Carrot Cake Banana Bread sounds so good to me. It sounds more like dessert loaf cake than a snack!! Yum!
- You can get more healthy bread recipe inspiration here. There are 30 ideas in total!!
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!
Happy Cooking! ~Katie
PrintHealthy Blueberry Lemon Bread
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
When fresh blueberries are in season this Healthy Blueberry Lemon Bread is a must-bake! Sweet, moist, lemony and bursting with blueberries, this quick bread makes a scrumptious snack or breakfast.
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour, preferably white whole-wheat
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 egg yolk
- zest from 1 lemon plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¾ cup turbinado sugar
- 2/3 cup avocado oil or organic canola oil
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 1.5 quart loaf pan (8.5 by 4.5 by 2.5 inches) with cooking spray.
- Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add the blueberries to the flour mixture and toss to coat.
- Whisk egg yolk, zest, lemon juice, sugar, oil, orange juice, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl until smooth. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir to combine. Beat egg whites in a clean bowl until soft peaks form. Fold the whites into the batter
- Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with almonds. Transfer to the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool in the pan 25 minutes before running a knife along the edges and turning out, cool right-side-up on wire rack.
Notes
Baking Tip: To prevent the bread from collapsing, set the timer for 55 minutes and then check it. If a toothpick comes out with batter on it, keep baking for another five minutes. Then check again. Checking too often will allow the temperature in the oven to fall and the center of the loaf will collapse.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Snack
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/12 loaf
- Calories: 256
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 31 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
Keywords: Blueberry bread,blueberry lemon bread,healthy blueberry bread
Katie: I love your recipes, although I can only eat a few of the desserts. I can’t wait to try your lemon-blueberry bread (we just can’t get enough of blueberries!), but I wanted to ask if you thought subbing the sugar with Monkfruit would work?? I’m a Diabetic II so no sugar, but it really makes life easier when I use Monkfruit. You may know about this but you may have not used it, but I thought I would ask..? It looks, bakes and tastes just like sugar – the best thing is it doesn’t raise my sugar levels!! I use the Monkfruit with Erythritol since it measures the same (1 cup Monkfruit to 1 cup sugar). I’ve used it in other desserts, but I thought I would run this by you to see what you thought.
Also, what do you think if I changed the flour to a ‘no or low carb flour’ – didn’t know if the consistency would be the same. Thank you so much Katie for all of your suggestions and sharing your experiences in the ‘cooking world’ !!
Hi Aline. I am so glad you are enjoying my recipes. Thank you for saying so. I think you could easily swap in the sugar sub that you like. I would try that first. I would caution you against swapping both at the same time, that way if it doesn’t come out, you wouldn’t know which factor didn’t work.
The combination of lemon-blueberry-almond never disappoints. This loaf recipe is a keeper.
★★★★★
I loved the flavor combination! This was so good!
★★★★★
I bake these all the time for the kids as a quick breakfast! We all love it.
★★★★★
The lemon and blueberry are one of the best flavors in my book! This bread is so refreshing and I love eating it for breakfast.
★★★★★
All your hard work paid off! This is one perfect, scrumptious loaf of blueberry bread!
★★★★★
This was so light and delicious!
★★★★★
Hi Katie! I have been waiting for a break in this heat wave to try this recipe! I love blueberries and quick breads so it was like you made this recipe for me! I noticed that In step 3 it says to add the orange extract. I assume it is supposed to say almond extract. Other than that it was a pretty easy recipe to follow and the bread is really yummy. Thanks!
Hi Kate. I am so thrilled you made this bread. I cannot believe this heat! Wowza! Yes, that’s my mistake. Thank you for catching it and letting me know. I updated the recipe.
Baked this bread this morning ..it was excellent, thank you! Had to substitute 1/2 light brown sugar 1/2 white sugar for the turbinado sugar though, and did find it a little too sweet. Will using turbinado or coconut sugar correct this, or can I cut the amount of sugar next time? I also had to use some olive oil with the avacado oil ..it seemed to be fine. Would it be better to use avacado or caster oil next time?? Topped the bread with extra blueberries cause I didnt have almonds ..this seemed to work fine.
I am so glad you liked it. Thank you so much for coming back to let me know how it went. You can cut the sugar a little next time if it was too sweet for you. But turbinado should be a little less sweet if you do have it on hand next time. Any neutral oil should work fine.
Thank you Katie ..enjoy your summer!!
This bread is light and so delicious. A good expresso and the lemon and blueberry is a match! I had half of the loaf before lunch and the other half after lunch. I was planing on sharing with my husband or maybe some friends over the wknd but my hubby’s flight got delayed and … Lucky me!
Yay Amelia. I am so glad you liked the bread. I’m so glad it worked out to meet up like that. Thanks again for the headbands for my girls. They have been wearing them almost every day!
Blueberry and lemon is my favorite summer flavor combo!
Really? That’s awesome! I hope you enjoy the bread then Jessica. Have a great weekend.
Love the almond flavors!! Also really like white whole wheat flour for breads like this!!
I am a sucker for a little almond added to baked goods. It just adds an irresistible flavor!
Lemon and blueberry is such a delicious combination! I love the almonds on top of this yummy bread!
I’m glad you think so, since that was an addition toward the end of the testing process. I hope you enjoy the bread!
I LOVE blueberries!! This blueberry bread looks absolutely mouthwatering!
I so agree, what’s not to love about blueberries! Thank you much Elysia. Have a great weekend!
I love how moist and delicious this cake looks…it will make a wonderful addition to our Sunday brunch this weekend.
Oh goodie! I hope you enjoy the bread Sandi. Have a fun time!