It is just the best when a guest asks for a recipe! This recipe is one of them.
Credit goes to Beth Hensperger and her book “The Best Quick Breads”.
This is one tasty bread with sheer pucker power!
INGREDIENTS
3 Tablespoons poppy seeds
1/2 cup milk (I used fat free)
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Grated zest of 2 lemons
1/4 teaspoon salt
Lemon Syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, combine the poppy seeds and the milk. Let it stand for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 325. Grease a 9X5 pan (or 3 mini pans) with cooking spray.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time making sure that they are well incorporated.
Combine the flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in three equal portions alternating with the poppy seed milk.
Beat just until smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s). Bake in the center of the oven until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. For a mini pan, check after 35 minutes and for the 9X5, check after 55 minutes.
Place on a rack to cook (still in the pan).
About ten minutes before the bread is done, make the Lemon Syrup. Combine the sugar and the lemon juice in a small saucepan Be sure the heat is low and cook just until the sugar dissolves.
Once it is done and the hot bread is on a rack, poke about a dozen holes in the bread with a kabob stick.
Pour the hot liquid over the bread and let it soak in for about thirty minutes.
Remove from pan and wrap when cool.
Serve this deliciousness the next day!
We served this with an accompanying dish of “Lemon Cream Cheese” (one half cup of whipped cream cheese mixed with a Tablespoon each of Lemon Curd and Confectioners Sugar).
The William Henry Miller Inn http://www.millerinn.com
Lynnette Scofield
Bed and Breakfast Foodie