Healthy Lemon Blueberry Bread is moist, fluffy and bursting with lemony flavor and blueberries in every bite. Made with whole wheat flour, yogurt and no refined sugar, this healthy blueberry bread is a must try!
Love lemon and blueberries? Be sure to try my blueberry lemon muffins and healthy lemon blueberry muffins.
Table of Contents
Healthy lemon blueberry bread recipe is one of my favorite quick bread recipes. It is moist and fluffy, and a loaf never lasts long in my house!
This healthy blueberry bread recipe combines bright zesty lemon with juicy blueberries and wholesome ingredients like whole wheat flour or spelt flour, yogurt and maple syrup for natural sweetness.
What Makes This a Healthier Recipe?
This healthy lemon blueberry bread is loaded with good stuff and below are just a few of the highlights:
- Yogurt: Provides protein and reduces amount of oil in the recipe.
- Spelt flour: A whole grain flour that is far less processed than white flour.
- Avocado oil: An unsaturated fat that is said to lower bad cholesterol.
- Maple syrup: Unrefined sugar that’s loaded with antioxidants and vitamins.
Ingredients for Healthy Blueberry Bread
Grab the following simple ingredients and let’s make some healthy blueberry bread!
- Large eggs
- Regular or Greek yogurt
- Maple syrup or honey
- Avocado oil
- Lemon zest and lemon juice
- Pure vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder & baking soda
- Salt
- Spelt flour or whole wheat flour
- Blueberries, fresh or frozen
- Cooking spray
How to Make Healthy Blueberry Lemon Bread
Making healthy lemon blueberry bread recipe has never been easier when using just one bowl!
Whisk together the eggs, yogurt, maple syrup, oil, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
To avoid pockets of unblended baking soda or powder, you want to make sure you whisk it well. That’s how we keep this recipe one-bowl.
Use fresh lemon juice whenever possible, but bottled lemon juice is a suitable replacement.
Gently fold in the flour being careful not to overmix. Mix a few times until few patches of flour left and allow the batter to sit and flour to absorb liquids. Then stir again.
Handling batter gently will ensure your blueberry bread turns out fluffy!
In a small bowl, toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom during baking process.
Toss in the flour covered blueberries and give that a few stirs until the blueberries are well dispersed throughout the batter.
Pour the batter into a prepared 9×5 loaf pan and gently level it out with a spatula.
If you have a few extra blueberries you want to add to the top so you can see them once it’s baked, do that!
Bake for 60-70 minutes in a preheated 350 degrees F oven until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool before slicing!
Substitutions and Variations
You can substitute many ingredients in this healthy lemon blueberry bread recipe depending what you have in your fridge and pantry.
As long as you keep dry to wet ingredients ratio the same. See FAQs below about flours.
- Eggs: A chia egg or flax egg can be used as an egg replacer. If you want vegan blueberry bread, then I think dairy-free yogurt will work.
- Oil: You can use any neutral tasting oil like avocado oil, light olive oil, grapeseed oil or melted coconut oil.
- Liquid sweetener: You want to keep the dry to wet ratio intact, so whatever sweetener you decide to use make sure it’s liquid. Sugar-free syrup will work.
- Lemon: Swap the citrus flavor like I do in these almond flour blueberry muffins, and use orange zest and juice instead. You can also omit it entirely.
- Berries: Substitute any type of berry like raspberries, strawberries, huckleberries, blackberries, Saskatoon berries etc.
- Mini loaf or muffins: Make healthy lemon blueberry muffins or a few mini loaves using this recipe and adjust the baking time to 20 minutes, more if necessary.
- Glaze: I like adding the glaze I use on my healthy lemon poppyseed bread from time to time for a little extra flair!
More FAQs
Yes, you can. Do not thaw them.
Follow the recipe as written and toss them in 1 tbsp of flour before stirring into the bread batter. Whether they are fresh or frozen.
I am almost positive this recipe will work with 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour and gluten-free flour blend but I haven’t tried. Please let me know if you try.
White whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour more likely will work 1:1 ratio.
Coconut flour will not work as it is very “thirsty”. Almond flour will not work either in this recipe but you can turn almond flour blueberry muffins into a loaf.
I think oat flour will not work as it will make bread gummy and dense. But one of the readers tried successfully 50% whole wheat flour and 50% oat flour in similar healthy zucchini bread.
How To Store Healthy Blueberry Bread
Store: No need to refrigerate this healthy lemon blueberry loaf! Keep it stored in an airtight container in a cool dry area for up to 4 days.
Freeze: Once the blueberry bread has cooled completely place it in a freezer friendly container with a lid or a resealable plastic bag. Keep it frozen for up to 3 months.
More Lemon and Blueberry Recipes
- Healthy blueberry muffins
- Blueberry crumble bars
- Healthy blueberry breakfast cake
- Healthy blueberry pancakes
- Lemon zucchini muffins
- Lemon zucchini bread
More Healthy Bread Recipes to Try
- Healthy lemon zucchini bread
- Healthy banana bread
- Almond flour zucchini bread
- Healthy zucchini banana bread
- Healthy apple bread
Healthy Lemon Blueberry Bread
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup regular or Greek yogurt 2%+ fat
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 1/3 cup any mild tasting oil I used avocado oil
- 1 large lemon zest of
- 1/4 cup lemon juice from 1 lemon
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour + 1 tbsp for coating berries
- 2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen (unthawed)
- Cooking spray I use Misto
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray ceramic non-stick 9 x 5 loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, yogurt, maple syrup, oil, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk well to combine, making sure baking powder and soda have dissolved. Add flour and stir gently to mix. Do not over mix.
- In a small bowl, toss blueberries with 1 tbsp flour, add to the batter and give a few stirs.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and level gently with spatula. You can also add a few blueberries on top. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool off more. Cut into 10 slices with serrated bread knife and enjoy!
Notes
- Store: Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 3 – 4 days.
- Freeze: Bake and cool bread completely. Place in a resealable plastic bag or any container with a lid. Freeze for up to 3 months.
- Gluten-free? Unfortunately only flours that will work in this recipe are the ones listed.
- Bottled lemon juice will work but fresh is best.
- Do not overmix batter: Stir a few times, let batter sit and stir again. A few dry flour patches are fine.
- Egg free: Learn how to make a flax egg or chia seed egg.
What can I use instead of baking powder?
As per Google: Substitute each teaspoon (5 grams) of baking powder in the recipe with 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 grams) vinegar. Summary: Each teaspoon (5 grams) of baking powder can be replaced with a 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) baking soda and a 1/2 teaspoon vinegar.
Hi Olena, I just wanted to thank you for this incredible website with absolutely delicious recipes that are also very healthy. I made this lemon cake yesterday for my family, and although I didn’t have any berries to add, this cake turned out so good that we honestly finished three quarters of it. All your recipes so far have turned out to be our favourite. The apple muffins were amazing, even cookies, tomorrow I’m trying the pumpkin bread and savoury white chicken chilli dish. Thank you and keep up the incredible work! I’ve bookmarked your website, it’s my go-to for everything now!
Thanks for the kind words! So glad you are enjoying the recipes!
This is so delicious. I only used half of the maple syrup. Added couple tblsp unsweetened applesauce. Was still sweet enough. My hubby loved it !!!!
So glad you enjoyed it, thanks for letting us know how you made it!
If summer had a bread it would be this! So light and delicious, used fresh blueberries from the farm up the road. Perfect!
Yes! So glad you enjoyed.