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Today we’re sharing a recipe that has been one of my personal favorites for a long time – a delicious and moist Lemon Iced Tea Loaf! It’s now one of my family’s favorites (even my picky six-year-old loves it), and we think you and your family will love it too!
As you can probably tell by the name, this recipe has a not-so-secret ingredient – iced tea – in the batter which adds a unique twist to the more traditional glazed lemon loaf bread recipes that are so popular.
The iced tea flavor is very subtle, but noticeable, and it’s a perfect complement to the moist, buttery loaf and its sweet-tart lemon icing.
I’ve made this lemon iced tea loaf many times over the years since clipping this recipe out of the Boston Globe newspaper. While the original recipe calls for presweetened, lemon-flavored iced tea, I’ve also experimented with different flavors of teas (French vanilla tea is a great alternative) just for some variety. Simply brew a cup of your favorite tea (using two tea bags), sweeten it a bit, and then let it cool before adding the tea of your choice to the recipe.
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Lemon Iced Tea Loaf
Ingredients
For the loaf
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup double-strength, presweetened iced tea flavored with lemon
For the glaze
- 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- Lemon zest for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly spray an 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
To make the loaf
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and blend.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the iced tea, until all of the dry ingredients and the ice tea have been incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and let cool – removing the loaf from the pan after about 10 minutes to finish cooling.
To make the glaze
- When the loaf is cooled, prepare the glaze by whisking together the confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl.
- Drizzle the glaze over the loaf. The iced tea loaf may be refrigerated if desired to set the icing more quickly.
- Garnish with lemon zest if desired. Slice and serve.
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Can you explain the double strength iced tea. What makes it double strength.
Sure Pat! If you were making a cup of tea and typically put in 1 tea bag to brew – to brew double strength, put in two tea bags. For the powdered ice tea mix – same idea. When I mix up the instant iced tea, I am usually mixing up a 2 quart container. So I fill it half-way (1 quart of water) but put in the full amount of instant powder to make 2 quarts. Mix it up (double strength now) and pour out what I need for this recipe, and then fill it up the rest of the way to make the full 2 quarts at the correct strength. Hope that makes sense! Thanks for writing to us today!
YUM! I just made a batch, as 6 jumbo muffins and they turned out great! I also used brewed early gray tea, which was perhaps not strong enough because I don’t really taste the tea. I just scarfed one down before even getting the icing on! I’d love to up the lemony-ness next time, but it was a great light muffin that I will definitely make again!
Thanks Abby! What a great idea! I never thought to make these as muffins…Sounds great!
Thanks for the suggestion on sweetness! It was spot on. The Earl Grey was fantastic, it compliments lemon really well. The only issue I had was that my loaf fell flat while cooling. :-/ I don’t normally have that issue, so I’m not sure what went wrong. Still tasted fantastic, just came out very dense it seems.
Hi Samantha – I’m sorry you had that problem! Maybe you could try increasing the baking powder by a little bit if you try the recipe again? I’m excited to try this now with Early Grey…thanks for letting us know how it came out! Martha
I’m thinking of using a black tea, probably earl gray. How much sugar would you suggest sweetening the tea with? I usually like my earl gray pretty sweet, but I don’t want the loaf to be too sweet since it has sugar in the recipe to begin with.
Hi Samantha – For the 1/2 cup of brewed tea you’ll need for the recipe, I’d suggest maybe 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of sugar. It’s not a super sweet recipe to start with so even doing the full teaspoon shouldn’t make it too sweet. I’ve never tried Earl Grey for this recipe – let us know how it comes out! Thanks for writing – Martha
I could really eat a giant slice of this right now. I’m interested to know how the Iced Tea would taste in it but I guess I can just go make it myself and find out. Hehe. Thanks for sharing.
Hope you like it Tia! Thanks for stopping by! Martha
Oh Yum! I’m pinning this right now – it looks incredible!
Thanks Meghan!