This homemade blueberry loaf is moist, gooey and perfect for those summer blueberries. Just like a delicious blueberry muffin, but this batter goes from the bowl to the pan even faster to make this quick bread. Slice up a delicious piece of this blueberry bread for breakfast, a snack or served with whipped cream as a dessert!
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Sometimes you want a blueberry muffin, but you just want to throw it together faster. This juicy and delicious blueberry bread recipe is at it’s core, a giant sliceable blueberry muffin.
This recipe always saves the day. The prep itself is pretty fast, as you don’t have to spend the time to portion out the batter into muffin tins.
A loaf style bread like this one does take longer to bake then muffins, but you can’t beat a recipe like this for hands-off time!
What is Blueberry Bread?
Blueberry Bread is what’s called a quick bread. It’s made with baking soda as the leavening agent (What makes the loaf rise). You essentially can mix up the batter, add it to the loaf pan, and have a delicious blueberry bread without having to work with yeast.
The crumb on this blueberry bread is much more like a muffin or cake than yeast bread. Expect it to be buttery, slightly sweet, and full of great blueberry flavor.
Why Do I Need To Cream The Butter And Sugar?
Creaming softened butter into the sugar helps produce a silky cake-like texture for your bread. You want the butter to be softened on the counter for about 10 minutes.
How Do I Soften Butter Faster?
One trick for softening butter faster is to grate it on a cheese grater, and then add that butter to your sugar. Grating it softens it fast without melting it too much.
Don’t let the butter sit on the counter if you are trying to grate it, it may end up a gooey mess. Either be patient and let it soften on the counter or grate cold, rock hard butter!
Some people freeze their butter and then grate it as they need it. Grating frozen butter is even easier than grating cold butter.
If you like this recipe, you’ll love some of our great muffin recipes like our Banana Applesauce Chocolate Chip Muffins, One Bowl Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins and Mini Cornbread Muffins.
What Kind Of Pan Should I Use?
I use a metal 9×5 loaf pan when making this blueberry bread recipe.
If you choose to use a glass loaf pan, the bread may take a little longer to cook. Glass takes a little longer to heat up then a metal pan does. The edges of your load may also be a little softer in a glass pan.
How Can I Keep The Blueberry Loaf From Getting Stuck In The Pan?
Cutting a piece of parchment paper the size of your loaf pan makes it easy to lift your bread out of the pan. I cut mine so it covers both the bottom and two of the sides like a sling. The remaining two sides of the pan spritz with a little oil to help with easy release.
Their are some baking sprays that have flour already inside. I like the Wilton baking spray, it’s great for keeping all baked goods (muffins, cakes, etc.) from sticking.
If you don’t have parchment paper or baking spray, you can use the oil and flour method on your pan.
- Lightly and evenly coat all of the sides of the pan in oil.
- Add a few teaspoons of flour to your pan and cover in plastic wrap tightly.
- Gently shake your pan until all sides have a light dusting of flour.
- Add batter to your pan!
Try these Easy Blueberry Galettes (Pies!) with your fresh blueberries too! They are fast, and way easier then they look.
How Do I Keep The Blueberries From Sinking To The Bottom Of The Loaf?
This blueberry bread uses two techniques to keep the blueberries from sinking.
First adding a teaspoon of flour to the bowl of blueberries before adding them to the batter helps to dry off the outsides, which can help keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom.
Next only mix half the blueberries into the batter, then add the batter to the pan. The remaining half of the blueberries are sprinkled on top of the batter in the pan and swirled in.
This helps to make sure your blueberries are mixed evenly into the batter. I’ve always used both techniques and the few times I didn’t my blueberries sank to the bottom.
Can I Use Frozen Blueberries?
Yes, you can use fresh or frozen blueberries in this recipe, but a few things change. I find fresh blueberries tend to make a better-tasting loaf, but frozen berries can still work. Here is how to have success with frozen blueberries!
- Add 2-3 teaspoons of flour instead of just one to the berries, and add them to your batter completly frozen. The flour helps to soak up some of the moisture on the outside of the frozen berries.
- Only use blueberries that are frozen solid- Adding defrosted frozen blueberries to your bread makes them a little too gooey inside the bread.
- You also may need to cook your blueberry bread slightly longer if using frozen berries, they pack a little extra moisture. Expect the loaf will likely bake at least 5-10 minutes longer.
- The color of your bread may be different– Frozen blueberries tend to color the batter more and will likely be a slightly different color then fresh when baked.
Adding A Blueberry Jam Swirl (Optional)
For a gooier bread, you can swirl about 2 tablespoons of blueberry jam through your batter after it is in the pan. This adds a delicious surprise!
Don’t be afraid to try other flavors of jam if that’s what you have on hand. Raspberry or strawberry jam is delicious too but then your loaf will taste a little more like mixed berry.
What Do I Serve With Blueberry Bread?
Blueberry bread makes a great breakfast or snack, and even a nice dessert. Here are some ideas of ways to serve blueberry bread.
- Make as a side for scrambled eggs
- Place next to fresh fruit
- Add a small smear of butter or even jam
- Try a dollop of whipped cream on top
- Or add a small scoop of ice cream!
- You can also enjoy this blueberry loaf all by itself!
The kid plate pictured is from my friends at Kiddobloom, they make great stainless steel silverware, plates and bowls.
Blueberry Bread
Equipment
- Metal bread pan
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 6- Tbsp. Unsalted Butter softened
- 2- Eggs- lightly beaten
- 1- Cup Milk
- 2- tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1- Tbsp Baking Powder
- ½- tsp Salt
- 1 ½ Cup Blueberries
- 1-2 Tablespoons Course Sugar optional
Love Family Recipes?Follow @OnMyKidsPlate On Pinterest For MoreInstructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degress. Cut a piece of parchment paper the size of the pan so it lays over the pan from left to right. Lightly oil the other two sides of the pan not covered in parchment.
- Cream together the softened butter and the sugar until the sugar is fully mixed into the butter with spatula or electric mixer.
- Add beaten eggs, milk and vanilla to your bowl and mix well until combined.
- In a second bowl add flour, baking powder and salt and combine until mixed.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
- In a small bowl add blueberries and sprinkle with a teaspoon of flour, then stir the blueberries so the flour mixes evenly.
- Fold half of the blueberries into the batter, then add the batter to the pan. Add the remaining blueberries to the top of the batter and swirl with a spoon.
- (Optional) Sprinkle the top of the loaf with 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. A course sugar works best, see the notes for more details.
- Bake in the oven for 70-85 minutes or until completely cooked through. Check with a toothpick by inserting into your loaf ( I start checking at 60 minutes to be safe- ovens can sometimes vary), and making sure the toothpick doesn't have raw batter clinging to it. (It may have blueberry, that's ok!)
- Let the blueberry bread cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the pan. It slices a lot easier if you let the bread cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
- Creaming together the sugar and the softened butter, in the beginning, is an important step that will make your blueberry bread have more of a soft and silky cake-like texture.
- Overmixing the batter can cause this bread to be more crumbly and can affect the texture of your final bread. If you're using an electric mixer, it's especially important not to walk away from the dough with the machine on or it may overmix.
- Turbinado sugar works really well for sprinkling on top of your blueberry muffin loaf to give it that pro bakery feel. This thick, coarse sugar adds just a touch of sweetness to the top of baked goods and is often what the pros use.
Aneela says
Hi , can we make this blueberry bread with splenda too?
Kristy Richardson says
Hi Aneela,
I have not made this recipe with splenda before, so I can’t speak to the taste of the finished loaf. But I do know quick breads, like this blueberry bread, tend to be a little easier to substitute splenda for sugar. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
-Kristy
Aneela says
Hi,
In ingredients you said 1 tbsp baking powder but in method you are putting baking soda so which one is right?
On My Kids Plate says
Hi Aneela! I’m so sorry for the slip of the fingers. It’s baking powder for this recipe, I’ll fix that in the recipe. That does make a difference in recipe too, thanks for messaging me so I can fix it. I hope your loaf turns out delicious!
Katerina says
This looks and sounds absolutely delightful. Love the tips!
On My Kids Plate says
Thank you, hope you try the recipe!