Almond flour (previous post on that topic here) found its way into a light, eggy, lemon-scented breakfast loaf, thanks to King Arthur Flour’s wonderful online recipe compendium.  KA’s recipes are keyword searchable, so it’s easy to find a recipe to use up odd ingredients.  Just a half-cup of almond flour goes into their lemon sour cream bread, but the relatively restrained amount provides a rich, substantial backbone to a bread made almost feathery by three eggs.

The loaf sliced & toasted beautifully, and the nutty qualities make it a great partner for cherry, strawberry, or raspberry preserves.  I’ve enjoyed it alongside my morning coffee every day this week.  (Doesn’t that sound bucolic, as though I sat on the screen porch while breakfasting?  Translation:  I scarfed down a piece, wrapped in a napkin, in the car while commuting).

Baking this bread reminded me of the subtle seasonal differences in yeast baking.  The loaf rose amazingly high in just an hour, thanks to 75-degree air in my kitchen.   Just a few weeks ago, a yeast loaf needed 2 to 2.5 hours to complete a decent first rise, but summer’s creeping into the air, day by day.  The loaf rose so quickly, I was afraid it would collapse in the oven–but it only got bigger, making a lofty mushroom top over the sides of a loaf pan.  A second loaf, risen and baked without a pan, delivered a more even shape (pictured above).

Thanks to warmer weather, I’ll have to shift my baking back to the early-morning hours…