Light, soft, and irresistibly moist, this super easy vegan lemon bread is sure to be a hit with friends and family!
Frosted Vegan Lemon Loaf
This delicious recipe is perfect for breakfast or brunch.
If you are a fan of the popular classic lemon cake from Starbucks, hopefully you will love this one too!
It calls for only basic ingredients, comes together without much fuss, and can be enjoyed all week long. Leftovers can also be frozen for later.
Also be sure to try these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
This iced lemon bread recipe has been a long time in the making.
It was inspired by reader feedback I received on a Healthy Lemon Cake I posted a few years ago. People loved the subtly tart and sweet flavor of that cake, but many of you were saying the same thing: that you wanted a lemon cake that was taller, with a much lighter and fluffier texture.
So here it finally is – a bigger, fatter, bolder vegan lemon loaf!
I thought about simply doubling the ingredients of the original to make a larger loaf. But with half a cup of lemon juice already in the recipe, I feared this might make things way too acidic.
So I played around and was even able to cut down the oil in the process.
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I made the recipe for a brunch last Sunday, because of course I did.
You know how much I love brunch!
(For the record, brunch is always lunch for me. No way I can go until after noon before eating any food.)
Our potluck brunch also included english muffins, frosted donuts, roasted potatoes, Vegan Mac And Cheese, and vegan lasagna soup… so, um, lots of carbs.
While I do love all of the Keto Dessert Recipes on the blog, we also really love carbs over here.
This secretly vegan lemon bread recipe can be soy free, gluten free, and oil free (although I personally prefer the version with oil).
Because so many readers ask about using almond flour in my recipes, I did go ahead and test it here. The results were delicious but not very attractive.
The recipe will also work as Vegan Lemon Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 F, and bake 17 minutes or until the cupcakes have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out mostly clean.
If you make the lemon bread, please feel free to leave a comment or share photos and let me know your thoughts.
When you guys make my recipes, it is my favorite part of what I do.
Watch the vegan lemon bread recipe video above
Vegan Lemon Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour (For flourless, make this Keto Lemon Bread)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup sugar, or xylitol for sugar free
- 3/4 cup milk of choice
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt, such as almondmilk yogurt
- 1/4 cup oil, or sub applesauce for fat free
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- zest of 1 large or 2 small lemons (1 tbsp total – don’t omit)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- The recipe works with spelt, white, or oat flour. It technically works with almond flour (and tastes delicious) but won’t rise or look pretty. Gluten free all purpose flour can work but will be much denser. I prefer the oil version’s flavor and texture, but if you’re used to the texture of oil free baked goods it’s fine to sub applesauce.Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Whisk liquid ingredients in a separate bowl, combine wet and dry, then stir until just evenly mixed. Spread into the pan. Bake 50-55 minutes, or until loaf has risen and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If desired, frost with either melted Coconut Butter or 1/2 cup powdered sugar combined with 1 tbsp milk of choice.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
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The recipe works wonderfully replacing the yogurt with applesauce, in case anyone was looking for a substitute.
Love this recipe so much!
I wanted a sugar-free and less sweet tasting bread so i could have it with butter with my coffee. I used Swerve granular and only 2/3c. Instead of yogurt, I used one single serve applesauce cup. I used olive oil for the oil. I used a Pullman 9×4 loaf pan to help with height. Cooked for 50 min and then turned off oven and left inside the oven another 10 min. Used parchment paper, so just lifted the loaf out easily. It was just what I wanted. Slightly sweet and soft and not dense. Hint of the lemon flavor thanks to the lemon juice and zest. Thanks Katie!
very epic recipe thanks queen! the yogurt is an awesome touch <3
I have made this recipe so many times and I just love it!!! I can’t get enough of it… But I was wondering if it’s possible to make this recipe using a cake pan instead of loaf pan…
Thank you very much for your wonderful recipes!!! Best wishes!
We haven’t tried so can’t advise on baking time, but we don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Or you can try this one: https://lett-trim.today/lemon-cake-homemade-one-bowl/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
My daughter is vegan and I’ve been trying to make different recipe when we get together for family functions. I wanted to make her a great birthday cake and found this recipe. OMG, this is fabulous. Please try this one, it was very easy and I’ve made this so many times now for everyone not just vegans. And yes my daughter loves this great bread. I used lemon juice from fresh lemons with the powdered sugar and it gave it the extra lemon flavor for the icing,which I love.
Amazingly moist and full of delicious lemon flavour.
These are so incredible! The texture is soft, and they’re not too sweet. I’ve made them also in little cupcake pans.
Thanks for this recipe. I made it with slight changes: 1/2 cup agave instead of 1 cup sugar (so 1/4 cup less milk [I used cashew milk]) and 1 3/4 cup spelt flour with 1/4 cup wheat germ. It came out light and delicious. Thanks again.
Had a last minute add-on dinner guest who is vegan. I only had to purchase almond yogurt as I fortunately had everything else on hand. I don’t make vegan dishes very often, but I enjoy the challenge! I made this hoping I would not mess it up! Substituted using Truvia. All of my dinner guests loved this!!! It’s really moist and the lemon flavor is spot on! I will make this often! Thank you!
Thank you so much for making it! 🙂
I made this using Namaste All Purpose Flour, using the exact amount as the flour called for in the recipe. I also used fresh lemon juice. I baked the bread for 55 minutes, at 350,
and it was lovely coming out of the oven. Tested clean with sharp knife down through the center. So, let it cool 20 minutes, took it out the pan, perfect……next thing I noticed it had compressed to half a loaf size. Had some this morning, and it is gooey, super heavy, and turns slimy when chewed. To make sure, I had another piece. Same thing.
Any ideas or help? Taste was good, though.
I see this is an older question, but had a thought that might be helpful to others looking to use the Namaste flour. Was it a gluten-free Namaste Flour? Their gluten-free flours are high in tapioca flour/starch, which can create a slimy texture when used as a thickener in liquids, so I’d blame that. I don’t have luck with their gluten-free baking mixes when I’m using egg-replacers or vegan recipes.
Excellent ! I made 4 mini loafs. Keep one, to taste test. This is so good, it didn’t need the icing. I baked them in Christmassy mini bread pans to give as gifts.
Thank you so much for making it (or them :))
Stuck to the pan though I sprayed it really well. Not a ton of flavor, made the icing with lemon juice and powdered sugar. Made it with Einkorn flour that I was given for Christmas. It looked nice when I took it out of the oven.
Hi, unfortunately einkorn flour isn’t listed as an option here. If a certain flour isn’t listed in a recipe as an option, it either means it won’t work or that we haven’t tried it so can’t say what the results might be with that substitution, because it could change the results considerably and there’s no way to know without experimenting.
It tasted fine. I used applesauce, some sugar a dip of good maple syrup and 4 trivia. It wasn’t too sweet, it was fine. However, the texture was somewhat rubbery, hardly what I would call fluffy. I used white flour. Any suggestions for next time? Gummy would definitely be the right word
Hi Judy, unfortunately subbing some of the sugar (a granulated sweetener) for maple syrup (a liquid) would be changing the texture completely. And you would lose needed bulk if subbing sugar for truvia. So either or both of those things could be what happened to your texture.
I wish I could say it works well as written with gluten free a/p flour. (bob’s red mill -baking 1:1) It’s too dense and rubbery. I had to add more milk as it was impossibly thick. Also had to increase the cooking time by a full 15 minutes and maybe still not done? I will keep looking for a gf vegan loaf, but it’s a good start to work from! Thank you!
Made this tonight with gluten free flour and it came out super dense and nearly inedible. Top half was almost cooked (but dense) and bottom half was almost completely uncooked. When I tested it with a toothpick at 55 minutes it came out clean and looked fluffy. Like another post, after a few minutes of cooling it deflated and became sticky. Great flavor, but this specific recipe doesn’t seem to be easily transition into a gluten free recipe. I’ve got to say, I’m pretty disappointed.
What gf flour did you use? Some do work well in this recipe, but of course not all blends have the same ingredients.
Hi! I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour. – Hannah
I would really love to give this another go because the flavor was great. Do you have a recommendation for a gluten-free flour that works well. I think that would be very helpful.
Oh no, that’s one of the ones we used and didn’t have an issue with, so I’m not sure if maybe they’ve changed their formula since we first made it, or perhaps climate plays a role, or maybe it’s just a matter of different tastes. Looking through the comments, I saw one other commenter who used Bob’s with success (aleksandra), but also a few who used unspecified gluten free flours and said it was dense as you said. Because we personally had success with the gf flour, we are hesitant to delete it as an option, but seeing multiple people unhappy is making us think that that’s the best course of action at this point, because more than anything we never want anyone to be unhappy with a recipe Katie posts. One other note, if you can do oat flour, I also saw a comment from a reader who enjoyed that version.
Katie crushed this recipe! Taste like lemon pound cake that I grew up with! Now I can have it GF and vegan :))) thank you Katie!!
This makes us so happy to read 🙂