If you love lemon, you need to bake this Kefir Lemon Bread, which is bursting with lemon flavor. Kefir makes it light and wonderfully moist. A quick lemon jam for the topping is a bonus. This bread is perfect for lemon lovers!
Lemon is one of my favorite foods. If you have been following our blog for some time, you already know that because you must have seen several recipes based on lemon on the blog such as:
- Glazed Zucchini Lemon Bread
- Lemon Ice Cream
- No Pectin Lemon Jam
- Lemon Thumbprint Cookies
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cake With Yogurt
If you haven't seen these and want to learn more lemon recipes, just write lemon in the search box to see the full list.
Another thing you might know about me is that I'm trying to include kefir in baking as much as I can. Moist Red Velvet Cupcakes and Persimmon Tart are just two of my favorites. So I made a change in the original recipe. I substituted kefir for milk this time and I'm glad I did so. Kefir really changed things a lot. The bread turned out even more luscious and I had to change its name from classic lemon bread to Kefir Lemon Bread.
About The Recipe:
- The sharp flavor of kefir makes the lemony flavor more noticeable.
- If you don't have kefir on hand, you can use regular plain yogurt or Greek yogurt but you might need to change the amount of it depending on their thickness. Kefir is not as thick as these two, so you will need to reach the same consistency by mixing yogurt with some water.
- The quick lemon jam topping is optional but it's just another thing that makes this bread so good. For one thing, it gives a nice look on the bread. Plus, the lemon zest tastes like candy as it waits.
- The process can get even easier if you use a homemade yellow cake mix. Use 3 cups of your mix, leave out flour, sugar and baking powder. Then continue with the other ingredients listed in the recipe card below.
Below is the original post written about 7 years ago.
It has been a long time since I wrote my last post. I have been working till late hours, so I can not even write back to your so much valuable comments. Hope you understand me. I didn't even notice that Give Recipe left a year behind until my hubby reminded me 4 days ago. He asked, “Aren’t you thinking of making something special to celebrate our child’s birthday?” You see, Give Recipe is like our child as he says I spend a big part of my time either dealing with it or thinking about it. I know I’ve neglected it since the school started (working as a teacher) but it’s always in my mind. However, I’m grateful to hubby for reminding me of my first blogoversary.
It was on a weekday and unfortunately, I couldn’t make anything special, so I had to postpone it to this weekend. I was decisive on making something sweet as I think it’s not a real celebration if there is nothing sweet. I thought a lemon bread would be great to celebrate a blogoversary. And of course it wouldn’t be a real celebration without some guests, so we called a few friends and enjoyed this bread together with Turkish black tea.
Finally, thanks a million to everyone for visiting Give Recipe and for helping me improve it with your comments, suggestions and questions.
As a big fan of lemon, I don’t want to waste any part of it. Believe it or not, I eat lemons with their rinds, they are not different from any other fruit. Most of my friends find it weird, but I do love the bitterish taste of their rind. When preparing the cake batter, I thought it would be great to garnish it with some slices of lemon rind. On the other hand, I didn't want that bitterness on my sweet bread, so although it wouldn't be a problem for me, I must find a way to make its rind sweet (for my friends). I just followed the steps similar to my usual jams, just in small amounts. You can play with the amounts of sugar and water to have the consistency you like.
So when you put the bread aside, you can prepare the lemon jam to make your cake have a ‘lemon’ cake look. Slice the lemon rind thinly, put them in a small pan, add sugar and water in it. Heat it over medium stirring occasionally until the sugar melts and continue simmering over the lowest heat until it thickens. Then you can take it from heat and top your bread with it.
More Sweet Bread Recipes
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Kefir Lemon Bread
A super moist and lemony bread with a quick lemon jam on the top.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the bread:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup kefir
- ½ cup sunflower oil (grape seed, light olive oil, coconut oil are ok too)
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 and ½ tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups flour
- 1 and ½ teaspoons baking powder
For the jam on the top:
- 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ¾ cup water
Instructions
For the bread:
- Preheat oven at 350F. Butter a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
- Cream eggs and sugar well. Add in kefir, oil, lemon zest and lemon juice.
- Sift the flour into a bowl. Add it with baking powder into the wet mixture and mix just until combined.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan. Bake about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let it cool before removing from the pan and slice.
- Serve with extra lemon zest or lemon jam and rosemary.
For the lemon jam:
- Slice the lemon zest thinly(mostly without the white parts), put them in a small pan, add sugar and water in it.
- Heat it over medium heat stirring occasionaly until the sugar melts. Let it simmer until thickens.
- Then you can take it from heat and garnish your cake.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 324
- Sugar: 24.9 g
- Sodium: 89.4 mg
- Fat: 13.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 47.2 g
- Protein: 5.8 g
- Cholesterol: 59 mg
Keywords: kefir bread, lemon kefir bread, moist kefir bread
Abby says
I used a bit less sugar than called for, 1 cup oat flour and 1 cup regular, extra lemon juice, no jam topping but just stuck lemon wedges to bake into the top, and it was exactly the election night comfort food we were looking for!! So delicious, thanks!
★★★★★
Yusuf says
Hi Abby,
Thank you for sharing your twist on the recipe!Happy to hear that you loved it!
Stefanie says
I made it with coconut kefir instead of regular kefir since it’s what I had, doubled the recipe, and it turned out better than I even expected! Next time I will add more lemon though just because I love lemon lol. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
Priscila says
Just baked it and turned out delicious! To make it healthier I skipped the topping and used one cup of oat flour and one of regular flour in th dough. Also used coconut sugar instead or regular sugar. Super yummy.
★★★★★
Yusuf says
Hi Priscila! Glad to hear that you loved this lemon bread recipe. Thanks for what changes you made! I'm sure it will help to others too.
Barbara says
Turned out wonderful, moist and flavoursome. You must cream the sugar and eggs well and when you add the kefir it bubbles up. Didn’t bother with the lemon jam due to sugar content but will do in future as a treat. Thank you for this recipe.
★★★★★
Stephanie says
Third time making this. Tonight I opted for about 1/8 cup less sugar, and used just under 1/2 cup avocado oil. I put these in mini muffin tins and baked for about 30-35 mins. Turned out really nice, moist, soft, flavourful. Doesn’t even need the jam. Next time I would add more lemon juice maybe but definitely more lemon zest.
★★★★★
Annaanni says
I made it, added some shea seeds and fresh strawberries. Otherwise exactly the same. Yummy!
Xgardener says
Hi do you use the liquid milk kefir or kefir cream
Yusuf says
Hi! We use liquid kefir.
Heidi says
Followed the recipe exact except cut back sugar by 2 Tbsps and used coconut oil/butter. Cake seemed very heavy and a little rubbery. Could it be that I didn't beat the eggs enough? Will try all butter next time. Should I do 1/3 cup instead of full amount of oil? Thanks. Love the kefir idea!!
★★★★★
Zerrin says
Hi Heidi! I'm sorry it didn't come out well. It's probably because of the eggs. Beating eggs well is what makes cakes fluffy. You can definitely try it with butter. I guess 1/3 cup would work fine. Hope you end up with a better result next time.
Nina says
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I was looking for the recipe for using an extra milk kefir, and I just baked this bread today and it was so good with milk/coffee!
I changed 1 cup of sugar to 3/4 cup of sugar and add 1 TBSP of chia seeds. I might add more lemon juice/zest next time and even try to make with coconut flour 🙂
★★★★★
Lisa Huff says
Delicious! Looks fabulous!
brenda says
i would love to make this lemon bread but i dont know what 100grams is or 125 grams of butter can u make
it a little more understandable please
Zerrin says
I just wanted to be precise with those measurements. We don't have butter in sticks here, but I searched for a converter and found that 1 stick of butter is 113gram, so you will use less than a stick. Use about 3/4 cup sugar depending on your taste and 1 and 1/2 cup flour. Hope these help.