Can I fix this quick bread? Copycat Version of Starbuck's Lemon Bread

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I really liked its height and most of the flavor, but there is a cloying-ness that stays on my tongue. I'm 90% sure it's the addition of the "cook & serve" lemon pudding (corn starch, sugar, dextrose, modified tapioca starch, fumaric acid and a bunch of other chemically derived ingredients that I'm trying hard not to think about) that's the culprit, but I don't know what I can use to replace that. The bread came out with a good crust (it needed an additional 15 minutes after the hour), I skipped the icing and swirled 1/2 C of my own lemon curd into the batter before baking.

A comment on the recipe says they used "instant lemon pudding" (sugar, modified corn starch and a bunch of other chemically derived ingredients that I'm trying hard not to think about) and that it worked, so if the issue is the dextrose and tapioca starch, then instant pudding may be the way to go. I wish I could have read other comments on this bread to see if anyone else ran into this issue.

But I'd rather not waste ingredients baking another loaf of bread before asking advice.

Thanks.

 
I'd sure think it was the corn starch, just gooing in there and making everything gunky. What is special about the flavour that you could not just use lemon juice and lots and lots of zest? I can't see how much baking powder went into the recipe to try to counter the cs.

Or maybe I can....is there really no BP in it? Or even some soda?

There was a recipe out decades ago called the Harvey Wallbanger cake that used cake mix and some pudding. I'll see if I can find it. https://www.thespruceeats.com/harvey-wallbanger-cake-1806253

Yes, basically the same but no sour cream. If you try it again, I'll bet some baking soda would help with the sour cream.

 
You mention the word "cloying".
Perhaps the recipe needs an acid kick. The easiest thing would be to add lemon juice. I 'd try doubling the lemon juice, to 6 tablespoons. If you try this, hold out a couple of tablespoons of the sour cream and see what that batter looks like. That way you can add it in should the batter be too thick.

Make sure you get a lemon that has green ends and it pretty hard as one like this will be more acidic (a bit under-ripe) than one that is softer and more yellow.

Or try adding 1/2 teaspoon powdered citric acid, mix in well with the dry ingredients. Or you could try some cream of tartar, perhaps 1/2 teaspoon again.

Some of those flavoring ingredients can be overpowering. I think sometimes the people testing must really not be able to discern between flavors very well. I have tasted a lot of lemon bars and such. The cloying part comes in when there is only lemon zest and/or extract used to flavor the sweet. Once more acid is added, for me the cloying goes away. Of course, YMMV!

 
Charley2, it's not the additives...I believe it's the tapioca thickening agent that's the problem. I've made many box cake mixes and none had this particular cloyingness and I've made loads of pudding with cornstarch with no issue. I've also made the Harvey Wallbanger with cake mix & pudding, but that had booze in it which probably masked the issue.

 
Yep, I realize that there are the agents meant to deal with the volumes of the cake mix, but then there is all that other................sour cream, lemon juice, eggs, oil, milk. Even for a pound cake, that's a lot of heavy liquids.

If I pass by SB tomorrow, I'll check in and see if that is on the menu.

I remember the HWr cake being like a pound cake but surprisingly vanilla in flavour. Not bad, but a little ho hum. The recipe I noted does have similar ingredients but perhaps not so much liquid.

 
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