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Preheat your oven to 350 F and lightly grease (if yours isn't non-stick) a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
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In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and poppy seeds; mix well.
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Into another large bowl, squeeze the lemon juice and remove any seeds that may fall in. Over this same bowl, add the lemon zest, buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract and sugar. Mix well using an electric mixer (a stand mixer if you have one).
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Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the liquid mixture.
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When the batter has just come together, stop mixing it. You don't want to see any dry flour but you also want to stop mixing as soon as you see there isn't anymore raw flour. This will keep your loaf from becoming tough.
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Pour the batter into the loaf pan and put it into the oven on the centre rack. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the cake tester (toothpick) is inserted in the centre and comes out clean.
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Notes:
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1. Poppy seeds are found in the spice aisle of your grocery store.
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2. Starbucks' lemon loaf is light and crumbly, mine is more on the spongy side.
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3. In case you're wondering, you can have two and 7/8's of the Starbuck's loaf or you can eat my entire loaf!
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4. I bake with whole wheat flour only. My cakes do not turn out light and fluffy. I can get away with it here because the lemony flavour is insane and also the whole wheat adds a nutty flavour to the loaf. I say this fully acknowledging that most of the world is not a whole wheat freak like me! So with that said, feel free to combine some white all purpose flour in place of some of the whole wheat, the rest of the ingredients remain the same.
