Better in theory: Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Loaf

After the success of my last loaf of bread, I decided to mix it up a bit. You know what I love? Blueberries. You know what else I love? Lemons. So I decided to follow Simply So Good's lead and change her Orange zest/Cranberry bread to Lemon zest/Blueberry. It came out perfectly edible, but there are a few things I would do differently if I make it again.

Do differently:

1- Use dried blueberries. Y'all, my baking dish is a MESS. Usually this bread recipe pops out of the baking dish and you can barely tell anything was made in it. I may have, on occasion, not washed it between loafs.

2- Omit the lemon zest. You can't even taste it, and I got a little overzealous in my zesting and cut my thumb on the grater. Not worth it.

3- Add some sugar to the dough. It wasn't bad, but it could have used a little extra sweetness.

4- Less flour on the counter. I ended up with too much flour stuck to the outside of the dough and that raw flour taste doesn't help the finished product.

Do again:

1- Activate the yeast. I've been using active dry yeast, because it's what my local market had, but in the past I've been too lazy to activate it. This time I added the yeast to some warm water and then mixed it in with the rest of the wet ingredients, and I definitely think the dough rose better this time around.

2- Mix in the morning. In the past I've mixed it up in the evening and then baked it in the morning, but I actually think that might be too long. The recipe says to let it rest for 12-18 hours, but I baked this loaf at 10 hours and the texture was great. I mixed it up before I left for work, checked on it at lunch time, and then baked it that evening. Worked great.

So, while I didn't love the finished product as much as I thought I would, it was still a valuable learning experience.