Lemon Ricotta Bread - GF

Lemon Ricotta Bread is light, lemony, and luscious.

This bread makes your whole house smell like lemons while it's baking.

Bread:

1-1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs room temperature
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups 1:1 gluten free flour
2 tbs lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Icing:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 drop of yellow food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F and brush oil on all interior sides of pan and line with parchment paper. I oil the  parchment paper as well. With hand held mixer or standing mixer cream butter, then add sugar and cream well. Add one egg at a time mixing till blended. Stir in vanilla and ricotta cheese till just blended. In another bowl mix flour, lemon zest, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 of flour mixture and stir till blended then add 1/4 cup of lemon juice, blend by hand. Continue till all flour and lemon juice are added. Batter should be smooth. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake 70 to 75 minutes till toothpick comes out clean. Cover with aluminum foil shiny side out if bread starts to brown too much.

Cool on a rack in pan for 20 minutes then remove from pan with parchment paper and let cool on a rack. When cool remove parchment paper and transfer loaf to dish. Now make your icing and if too thick add a dab of water. Drizzle bread with icing encouraging it to run off the sides. One of these days I think I need to make a serving dish a good size for loaf breads.

Slice a piece or two and enjoy!