Wow your family and friends with this simple dish! The dessert loaf is impressive on its own, but when you pair it with a sunshine-filled lemon drizzle, you have a blue-ribbon winner. Lemon essential oil gives this dish its unique, delicate flavor.
Table of Contents:
Benefits of Lemon Essential Oil
Lemon essential oil can bring a lot of freshness to your diet. We love using lemon EO in our essential water concentrate, healing lemon oil cooler, and of course, this recipe! Lemon essential oil is filled with d-limonene, one of the best terpenes out there. It can help boost immunity and is often found in many sanitizing EO blends. (1)
When I’m feeling run down, I like to drink a hot cup of herbal tea laced with liquid stevia and lemon essential oil. It’s soothing to the heart and body!
Lemon essential oil can also help reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality. (2) I love putting citrus EOs in my diffuser because they are instant-mood boosters! D-limonene-filled essential oils are full of antioxidants which can help reverse the effects of free radicals. (3)
On a practical note, lemon is a wonderful deodorizer, especially when mixed with baking soda! If you have kids, you’ll want to invest in a bottle, as it takes crayon marks off walls and eliminates sticky goo from surfaces.
Safety Note: Ingesting essential oils is safe when done correctly. This recipe uses multiple dispersants to ensure the EOs don’t irritate your mouth. You never want to ingest any essential oil neat!
Healthy Bread Ingredients 101
My Lemon Abundance Tea Bread is full of delicious ingredients. Eating a slice is sheer bliss! Here’s what you need.
Cooking Spray: It’s important to avoid vegetable and canola oil, even if you’re just using it to grease a pan! Cooking spray is a kitchen must, so we recommend using unrefined (no propellant) coconut oil or olive oil cooking spray. If you want to ditch the can altogether, you can purchase a mister and fill it with olive oil.
Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: A high-quality gluten-free flour makes this bread light and fluffy. I recommend using a cup-for-cup blend because it’s specially formulated for baked goods. Some brands require you to add an additional ingredient that you might not be comfortable with, so be sure to check your label!
Coconut Flour: Coconut flour is an alternative flour that adds great texture to baked goods. A little goes a long way! I always love to add just a little to every recipe! This ingredient is available at most grocery stores.
Liquid Stevia or Coconut Sugar: White sugar isn’t on our ingredients list because it raises blood sugar and isn’t waist-line friendly. Liquid stevia is an excellent alternative to sugar, and using a liquid form eliminates bitterness and any aftertaste. Coconut sugar is also an excellent alternative for those who want an occasional treat. You can also use my Christmas Cookie Blend, a mixture of several healthy sweeteners.
Unsweetened Coconut Milk: This ingredient adds moisture to the tea bread. Coconut milk is full of MCTs that help boost metabolism. When shopping, look for the unsweetened, full-fat kind. The “lite” variety won’t add as much moisture.
Lemon: This recipe wastes nothing! We use the lemon juice to add a burst of lemon flavor and the zest to add a unique flavor without additional bitterness. Bonus: Lemon zest is a fantastic decorating tool.
Lemon Essential Oil: We don’t do much without essential oils around here! This frugal essential oil is a must for your kitchen! Lemon EO shines in this recipe and really brings out the flavor of the citrus.
Natural Confectioners’ Sugar: This is my alternative to traditional powdered sugar. It’s made with coconut sugar or Christmas Cookie Blend and organic non-GMO cornstarch. It works great in drizzles, and the deep flavor of the sugar complements the lemon perfectly.
How to Make Lemon Tea Bread
I like to get the kids involved in decorating! This recipe is fancy but easy to make. Your children who get messy easily will love helping.
- Unrefined (no propellant) olive-oil or coconut-oil cooking spray
- 1 ¼ cupsgluten-free all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
- ½ cup (1 stick) grass-fed butter, at room temperature, orraw coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon plain liquid stevia, or 1 cupcoconut sugar
- 2 large pasture-raised organic eggs
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 1 teaspoonaluminum-free baking powder
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pink Himalayan salt or sea salt
- ½ cup canned full-fat unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 to 6 drops lemon essential oil (can add 1-2 more if you want a more intense lemon flavor)
- 1 rounded cup Natural Confectioners' Sugar
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 drops lemon essential oil
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 1 ½ teaspoons to 1 tablespoonraw organic honey
- Supplies:
- Loaf pan or muffin tin
- Large mixing bowl
- Medium mixing bowl
- Serving plate
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mist an 8x4-inch loaf pan, 2 smaller loaf pans, or 12-muffin cup pans with cooking spray and dust with flour. If using muffin papers, do not mist or flour.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy.
- Gradually add the stevia, beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and Himalayan salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the coconut milk, beating at low speed just until blended, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
- Stir in the lemon zest, the lemon juice, and 3 to 6 drops of the lemon essential oil, depending upon how intense you want the lemon flavor.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake the larger loaf pan for about 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Halve the time for the smaller loaf pans, but check them at 20 minutes; mini muffins take 15 to 20 minutes.)
- Let the tea bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
- Place the Christmas Cookie Blend or powdered coconut sugar Natural Confectioners’ Sugar and in a food processor. Add 1 ½ teaspoons of lemon juice and the essential oil. Pulse until smooth.
- Add up to another 1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice, as needed, but don't make the mixture too runny.
- Place the cooled bread on a serving plate. Spoon the mixture evenly over the top, letting any excess drip down the sides.
- Stir together the lemon zest and honey to taste; sprinkle on top of the loaf, and serve.
Almond pairs wonderfully with the tart flavor of lemon! To create a lemon-almond tea bread, follow the above recipe, but stir ½ teaspoon pure almond extract into the batter and bake as above.
Step One: Prepare Your Pans
Preheat the oven to 350°F. To prepare your pans, mist them with cooking spray and dust lightly with flour. Don’t mist or flour if you’re using a muffin pan and paper.
Step Two: Cream the Butter and Sweetener
In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. I prefer using a stand mixer to do this. Add in the sweetener and continue mixing. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well combined.
Step Three: Mix the Dry Ingredients and Add to Bowl
In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with coconut milk, beating at a low speed until just blended. Be sure to begin and end with the flour mixture.
Step Four: Add Essential Oils
Stir in the lemon zest and essential oil. Add 3-4 drops if you want a hint of lemon, and add 5-6 drops if you want a more intense burst of lemon.
Step Five: Bake the Lemon Bread
Spoon the batter into your prepared pan and bake. I like drawing a line down the center of each loaf. It makes it look prettier! If you used a large pan, bake for about 1 hour.
Smaller loaf pans need half the time (check them at 20 minutes!), and mini muffins are usually ready within 15-20 minutes. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Step Six: Make the Drizzle
Place the Christmas Cookie Blend or powdered coconut sugar Natural Confectioners’ Sugar and in a food processor. Add 1 ½ teaspoons of lemon juice and the essential oil. Pulse until smooth. If the drizzle is too thick, you can add up to 1 ½ teaspoons of lemon juice, but don’t make it too runny! If you’d like a lighter-colored drizzle, add a dash of almond milk.
Step Seven: Decorate and Serve
Place the cooled bread on a serving plate. Spoon the drizzle evenly over the top, letting any excess run down the sides. Stir together the honey and lemon zest to taste.
Sprinkle the zest mixture over the top and serve!
