Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Lemons and poppy seeds together are such a winning combination. Especially when baked into this gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Bread! This dairy-free loaf is tender, moist, and just sweet enough. Top it with a heavenly lemon glaze and it will be the hit of your brunches and lunches all summer long.

Gluten-Free Lemon Bread

Weekend brunch should always have some kind of brunch treat, and this loaf takes the cake. Combining the meant-to-be combo of lemon and poppy seeds, this quick bread is bright, tangy and so delicious. And, this gluten-free lemon bread recipe will be loved by everyone, whether you need to be gluten-free or not. It’s just sweet enough, moist and so tender! It’s also easily made all in one bowl and ready in just about an hour. Add it to your baking list, now!

Ingredients Needed

This recipe marks the first time we’ve used a combination of almond, coconut, and tapioca flour together for a baking recipe. We try to limit the number of gluten-free flours we call for in any given recipe, but for this loaf we really wanted it to resemble the density and moistness of traditional lemon bread. This combination of flours gave as that magical result, so we think it’s worth it.

• Fresh Lemon Juice + Zest
• Almond Flour
• Coconut Flour
• Tapioca Flour
• Poppy Seeds
• Eggs
• Dairy-free Unsweetened Greek Yogurt
• Maple Syrup
• Coconut Oil
• Lemon Extract (optional)
• Vanilla Extract
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Sea Salt

Substitutions

Gluten-free flour substitutions: This bread took a lot of testing time to get just the right texture. We don’t recommend swapping or leaving out any of the almond, coconut or tapioca flour that is called for.

Sweetener: You can swap out the maple syrup for honey, but it will leave the bread darker in color due to the browning of the honey in the oven.

Greek Yogurt: It’s totally fine to use regular dairy Greek yogurt in this recipe. We tested it with both dairy-free and traditional greek yogurt and it worked the same. Our favorite kind of dairy-free greek yogurt to use was the almond milk-based one.

Oil: You can use a different oil if you want, such as avocado oil, or even melted butter!

Eggs: We haven’t tested this without eggs and do not think it would work without them.

Baking Tips

Measure out your flour correctly! Gluten-free flours can be tricky to measure as it can be easily compacted, even straight from the bag. So we’ve included the weight in grams here and recommend you weigh it, if possible. Any electronic kitchen scale can switch between grams and ounces, and grams are more precise so we’re offering that. If you don’t have a scale, spooning the almond flour into the cup measurement gets you as close to the correct measurement as possible. For coconut and tapioca flour scoop and then level it off.

Don’t skip the zest. We had to limit the amount of lemon juice added to the recipe as it was causing issues with the leveners (ever seen sunken lemon loaf?), so we upped the amount of lemon zest to really get that bright lemon flavor.

Bake it correctly. Bake it until the bread springs back lightly and there are no wet crumbs on a toothpick when it’s inserted into the middle of the bread. If you have an instant-read thermometer it should read about 200 degrees when measured from the middle of the bread.

Let the bread cool slightly before cutting. Like any quick bread, cutting the bread too soon after taking it out of the oven with result in a bread that tastes too moist at first, and then later, one that is dry as all the steam has escaped from the bread when it was hot. Let it cool until the bread is no longer warm to the touch, about 3-5 hours.

To Glaze or Not to Glaze

We opted to put a quick lemon glaze on this bread, but you can skip it if you want to keep it a little lighter! This glaze uses organic powdered sugar. If you prefer to use a glaze without any refined sugars, check out the glaze we use on our Cinnamon Roll Overnight French Toast Bake! Add some lemon zest and juice to it and it will be a great refined sugar-free alternative to glaze this loaf.

How to Store Gluten Free Lemon Bread

Store this lemon bread covered at room temperature for up to 2 days. For longer storage, place in the refrigerator, though it’s best consumed at room temperature. You can also freeze this loaf, without the glaze, for up to two months! Defrost at room temperature.

Watch the video here:

If you like this lemon recipe, check out these others:

• Paleo Lemon Blueberry Muffins
• Gluten Free Lemon Bars
• Lemon Poppy Seed Overnight Oats
• Lemon Curd and Blueberry Compote Breakfast Parfaits

If you like this bread recipe, check out these others:

• Gluten Free Banana Bread
• Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
• Easy Gluten Free Cornbread

Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Print Recipe

Lemons and poppy seeds together are such a winning combination. Especially when baked together in this gluten-free Lemon Poppy Seed Bread! This dairy-free loaf is tender, moist, and just sweet enough. Top it with a heavenly lemon glaze will be the hit of your brunches, lunches, and treats all summer long.

• Author: Lexi
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 8 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup dairy-free unsweetened greek yogurt
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups (200g) almond flour
• ¼ cup (28 grams) coconut flour
• ¼ cup (30 grams) tapioca flour
• 1 tablespoon poppyseeds
• 1–1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
• pinch fine sea salt

For glaze:

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1–2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease an 8″ x 5″ loaf pan and line with a parchment paper sling.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, greek yogurt, maple syrup, coconut oil, lemon juice and zest, lemon extract (optional), and vanilla extract until well combined. Add in almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk until fully combined.
3. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth over the top.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. Let cool the loaf cool completely.
6. To make the optional glaze: Whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice together. If the glaze is too thick you can add a tablespoon more lemon juice at a time until it has reached the desired consistency.

Notes

Looking for a glaze made without refined sugar? Check out the glaze used in this recipe.

It’s fine to swap in traditional dairy greek yogurt.

Love poppy seeds? You can add up to 1 tablespoon more in the recipe.

This recipe was originally published in 2016, but republished with a completely updated recipe and photos in 2020.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/8 loaf
• Calories: 200
• Sugar: 9g
• Sodium: 65mg
• Fat: 13g
• Saturated Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 17g
• Fiber: 2g
• Protein: 4g
• Cholesterol: 46mg