Zesty Lemon Blueberry Banana Bread

This Zesty Lemon Blueberry Banana Bread has a citrusy lemon zest, plump juicy blueberries and bananas. Add a dollop of butter on it and you’re all set!

This recipe was originally published in March of 2018, updated again in March 2019, and now I updated it with fresh photos and tweaked the recipe slightly to add more lemon flavor. Enjoy!

Spring has sprung! Ok, kinda. Maybe Spring will one day make its appearance around here.  You can never really tell with North Carolina weather. One moment it’s sunny and 75 degrees, next you’re bundled up in a coat with your boots on.

But for today, I wanted to say goodbye to winter citrus (love you forever, lemon!) and HELLO to spring flavors by combining the two – hence the zesty lemon blueberry banana bread.

I love it when I have ripe bananas. The logical side of me thinks: You should freeze those for smoothies! But my heart tells me: You should make banana bread and then spread butter all over it and drink it with a huge cup of coffee with cream. And I always end up choosing the latter. It’s just who I am as a person, ya know?

Why You’ll Love This Bread: 

It’s just WONDERFUL!

 It’s not overly sweet because most of the sweetness comes naturally from the super ripe bananas. 

The bread itself has a delicious crumb and remains soft and moist on the inside with a perfect crunchy topping thanks to a little bit of turbinado sugar. 

It’s LOADED with blueberries – I swear, you’ll have one in each bite which adds such a juiciness to the bread. By the way, I used frozen blueberries in this recipe which means you can make it YEAR ROUND! Yay for not having to wait until they are in season! 

And of course, you can’t forget the real MVP of this bread – the LEMON! I’ve tweaked this recipe to make sure you have both lemon juice AND zest in the bread. And then of course, for both flavor and beauty at the end – you zest more lemon on top. 

It’s so good, fresh, and just the absolute perfect bread to slice for an afternoon snack or for breakfast in in the morning! 

Ingredients You Need:

• All purpose flour + Baking Soda – the base of your dry ingredients. 
• Light brown sugar – I love the taste of light brown sugar but I have also used maple sugar for an unrefined sugar version and it was delicious.
• Egg – this helps bind it all together!
• Ripe bananas – the riper and sweeter the better!
• Frozen blueberries – As I said above, I used frozen blueberries for this recipe to make sure they were at peak ripeness. However, if it’s blueberry season where you are, use fresh! 
• Salted Butter – My go to for baking!
• Vanilla extract – This is to add yummy flavor! 
• Lemon Juice + Zest – a must for adding so much flavor to this bread! Use fresh lemons. 

How to Make Bread in 5 Simple Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350! In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until they’re pretty much fully mushed. To that bowl, add your melted butter, egg, brown sugar and vanilla extract and lemon juice. Mix until fully combined.
2. Add in the flour and baking soda directly to the bowl and using a wooden spoon, stir in gently. Do not overmix! Just mix enough until everything is fully incorporated. To this bowl, add in your frozen blueberries and lemon zest. Fold in gently until incorporated.
3. Butter/grease a 9×5 loaf tin, add parchment paper if desired, and pour the batter into the pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean!
4. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes or so and then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. 
5. Slice, add butter and enjoy!

Best Tips for Success:

Be sure that your loaf tin is greased well or that you use parchment paper. I actually used BOTH to make sure that the loaf wouldn’t stick because that would be a real tragedy. 

Be sure that your bananas are truly ripe! This will mean that they are pretty easily mashed down with a fork. To mash them even more intensely, I used my potato masher! You want to make sure they are mushy and don’t have too many large lumps/chunks of banana in the batter. 

I used salted butter – I really enjoy the added flavor plus that means you don’t have to add salt to the batter itself! 

The baking time for this recipe is 55-65 minutes – mine was done at about 65 minutes. I started to check mine at 55 minutes to make sure! To check, insert a toothpick into the middle of the loaf. If there is still batter on the toothpick, place it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Check again with the toothpick until there is no wet batter remaining on the toothpick. 

If desired, make a glaze to top this bread! Combine powdered sugar, a splash of milk and a splash of lemon juice and mix until a glaze consistency forms. Once the bread has fully cooled, generously drizzle the glaze on top. 

Storing Leftovers: 

Store your leftover bread in a tightly sealed tupperware container at room temperature for up to 3 days. 

Here’s a few musts for consuming this recipe:

• Cut a big thick slice of it.
• Eat it warm.
• Schmear some type of butter/coconut oil/creamy deliciousness on it to elevate it even higher.
• Eat while relaxing, reading your favorite book, watching your favorite show etc.
• Enjoy with a hot beverage of your choice.
• Cut another slice and repeat.

This bread is good as breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch dessert, an afternoon snack, dinner dessert; it’s really perfect for any time. Enjoy, my friends! Cheers to Spring!

Did you enjoy this recipe? Here are a few more you might like:

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread 

Good Morning Blueberry Breakfast Cookies

Vegan Orange Spice Muffins

Brown Butter Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Thank you so much for following along here, friends! Want to see more? Be sure to follow ourbalancedbowl on Instagram and tag me with your photo if you end up making a recipe! You can also post a photo of your recipe to the Our Balanced Bowl Facebook page! Like a recipe that you saw? Follow me on Pinterest here! I always love to see your re-creations! If you do make a recipe, it would make my whole day if you were to rate and comment so I can get your feedback! Lots of love! – Haylie