Blueberry-Lemon Bread

Fresh berries are one of my favorite parts of summer. I bought a pint of blueberries last weekend and excitedly made myself a bowl of hot cereal for breakfast, topped it with the blueberries and some nuts and maple syrup, took a nice big bite and... nothing. I took another bite. Squishy like blueberries, but completely void of flavor. How did I manage to get flavorless blueberries in July?? It was a tragedy for sure. They've been sitting in my fridge ever since as I tried to find a use for them. I had study group at my house this morning, and was thinking about making cranberry-orange bread from Veganomicon since I had cranberries in my freezer, and an orange or two, but decided instead to try it with lemon and the blueberries, since cooking them should theoretically concentrate their flavor a bit. After I rinsed the blueberries I tossed them with a bit of powdered sugar to sweeten them up, and the bread came out DELICIOUS! It's really zippy and lemony without being sour, and you can actually taste the blueberries! It would be so much MORE delicious with really yummy blueberries to start with, but this was a good solution and yielded great results! And so, another recipe altered from Veganomicon (though I do also recommend the original!)

Blueberry Lemon Bread
1/2 cup rice milk
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons, depending on size and juiciness)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

1. Mix together the milk, juice, oil and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Stir in the dry ingredients until just mixed.

3. Fold in the zest and blueberries.

4. Pour the batter into a greased 9X5 inch loaf pan.

5. Bake for one hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.