Here’s a soft, moist lemon cream cheese bread with a light tang and bright citrus flavor — perfect for breakfast or dessert.
🍋 Lemon Cream Cheese Bread
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Layer
- 8 oz (225g) cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Lemon Bread Batter
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
1️⃣ Preheat
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease and line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with parchment.
2️⃣ Make Cream Cheese Filling
Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
Add egg and vanilla; mix until creamy. Set aside.
3️⃣ Make Lemon Batter
In one bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl, mix sugar, eggs, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, sour cream, and vanilla.
Stir dry ingredients into wet until just combined (don’t overmix).
4️⃣ Layer
- Spread half the batter in the pan.
- Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over it.
- Top with remaining batter.
- Optional: swirl gently with a knife.
5️⃣ Bake
Bake 50–60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the bread portion comes out clean (avoid the cream cheese layer when testing).
If browning too quickly, loosely tent with foil.
6️⃣ Cool
Cool in pan 15 minutes, then remove and cool completely before slicing.
Optional Lemon Glaze
Mix:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons lemon juice
Drizzle over cooled loaf.
If you’d like, I can also give you:
- A lighter version
- A pound-cake-style richer version
- Or a blueberry lemon cream cheese variation 🍋
