Blueberry Bread

This easy blueberry bread recipe combines brown sugar, yogurt, and lots of blueberries for a tall, rich, tender loaf. The glossy yogurt icing is optional, but highly recommended!

We love baking with blueberries (see our popular blueberry muffins and blueberry scones as proof). Our readers love our blueberry muffins so much that we always get requests for a blueberry bread recipe. So it was time to share one!

This blueberry loaf is rich, tender, moist, and dotted with blueberries. Unlike our muffins, which call for plain sugar and oil, this loaf requires oil and butter, along with two sugars: plain and brown. This combination, plus yogurt (or sour cream), truly makes a tender, rich loaf that reminds me of the slices sold in the best coffee shops and bakeries. The icing on top is optional, but highly recommended! To add lemon, see this lemon blueberry bread recipe.

Key Ingredients

• Blueberries: Fresh or frozen blueberries work here. In either case, toss them with a tablespoon of flour before stirring them into the batter (this helps them stay in place rather than sink to the bottom of the loaf). If you do use frozen berries, keep them in the freezer until you are ready to add them to your batter. Otherwise, they will begin to thaw on the counter, adding a purple tint to your batter.
• Flour: We stick with all-purpose flour for this blueberry loaf. When measuring, take note of our tips for spooning and leveling your measuring cups so you do not add too much flour (see below the recipe).
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda: This bread has a heavy, thick batter, so we need both leaveners (baking powder and baking soda) to help it properly rise in the oven.
• Butter and Oil: Melted butter adds flavor, while oil keeps this loaf moist for multiple days after baking. Unsalted butter is perfect (or use salted and reduce the salt by 1/8 teaspoon), and any neutral oil works well (like safflower or vegetable oil).
• Yogurt or Sour Cream: Whole plain yogurt is the secret to the best blueberry bread! Use a thicker yogurt, such as Greek or Icelandic. Sour cream is a lovely substitute and makes the bread ever-so-slightly richer. Whole milk yogurt or sour cream is best.
• Sugar: Not only does sugar sweeten the bread, but it also adds tenderness, flavor, and moisture. We call for both granulated sugar and brown sugar in our recipe below. For the most flavorful bread, use dark brown sugar (though light brown sugar is fine).
• Eggs: Just like our pumpkin bread, we call for 3 whole eggs in this loaf. They help the bread rise tall in the loaf pan. Room temperature is best, but check the tips for bringing eggs to room temperature quickly (see below the recipe).
• Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Salt: These make the loaf taste incredible. We only call for 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, so you barely taste it. It’s there more for adding a little warmth.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Blueberry Bread

Tip 1: Use a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Our recipe makes a large loaf, so make sure that your pan has enough room for it to rise. Then, before adding your batter, lightly grease the pan and line it with parchment paper so the loaf is easy to remove later on.

Tip 2: Whisk the dry and wet ingredients separately. You’ll need two bowls to make this batter. In the first bowl, whisk the dry ingredients well to ensure the baking powder and baking soda are evenly distributed throughout the flour. Then, in the second bowl, you’ll whisk the wet ingredients (butter, oil, sugars, and yogurt).

Tip 3: Stir (or fold) the dry and wet ingredients. To make the batter, grab a flexible spatula and gently stir (or fold) the wet ingredients into the dry. You aren’t beating the two mixtures together. Instead, gently combine them until you no longer see any flour clumps or streaks.

Tip 4: Flour the blueberries and add extra on top. When we were testing this batter, we had the problem of all the blueberries sinking to the bottom. The solution is to flour your berries in a tablespoon of extra flour before stirring them into the batter. This helps them stay in place. Some will still sink, but not as many. I also love adding about 10 extra blueberries (unfloured) to the top before baking.

Tip 5: How to tell the loaf is done. Blueberry bread takes a while to bake (like banana bread or apple bread). Expect somewhere from 55 to 70 minutes in the oven. To tell the bread is ready to come out of the oven, look for these cues:

1. The top has risen, is golden brown, and you no longer see wet batter.
2. When you lightly press the loaf, it bounces back instead of jiggling or leaving an indent.
3. A toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

Tip 6: Add a yogurt icing to the top. This loaf is lovely without any icing, but, per our son’s request, we always add a simple icing to the top once it’s cooled. To make it, you’ll stir together confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), vanilla extract, yogurt, and milk until it drizzles in a thick ribbon. Once your bread is cooled, pour and spread it over the loaf and let it set.

More Blueberry Recipes

• Blueberry Pie
• Lemon Blueberry Cake
• Blueberry Crumble
• Blueberry Pancakes
• Lemon Blueberry Muffins
• or, see all of our blueberry recipes!