Lemon Bread with Raspberry Cream Cheese Swirl
Published 5/3/2021 • Updated 8/30/2022
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Say hello to the most gorgeous lemon bread on the internet. It is swirled with raspberry jam and cream cheese, you are going to adore every bite.
I have truly become the biggest lemon fan over the years. Lemon Bars. Lemon Salmon. Lemon Energy Balls. Lemon Pancakes. If it has lemon, I’ll eat it!
This lemon bread recipe is so perfectly flavored, moist, and has a delicious raspberry cream cheese swirl. Bonus, it’s made with healthy swaps!
Why Make Lemon Bread?
Like most of our healthy muffin and bread recipes on Fit Foodie Finds, we make healthy swaps without sacrificing things like texture and flavor! This bread is…
- ultra moist
- lightened-up
- easy to freeze
- amazing with a hot cup of coffee 😀
CHeck it out!
6 Healthy Muffin Recipes – 1 Base Batter
Are you a muffin queen just like us? Here’s our favorite base recipe for healthy muffins + 6 different healthy muffin recipes you can make with it! Get all 6 healthy muffin recipes HERE!
How this Lemon Bread is Healthier
Because we know most of you will try and make these swaps anyways, we did it for you! Here’s the low down on how this bread is healthier than most other lemon bread recipes.
Flour: This is a 50/50 recipe made with both all-purpose flour and white whole wheat flour. In order to make sure it was fluffy as can be and not so dense, we kept some all-purpose in there. Feel free to try and use all white whole wheat!
Oil: Because we used an entire cup of applesauce, we were able to bring the oil content down to just 2 tablespoons. We also opted to use coconut oil, which is our favorite for baking. You can try and use another fruit puree such as pear sauce or even pumpkin!
Sugar: When it comes to muffins and loaves, there truly isn’t anything better than brown sugar, which is what we used. However, we are confident that coconut sugar will work just the same.
What You Need
The ingredient list for this lemon bread is a bit longer than most of our other loaf recipes, but it’s totally worth it. The fact that it’s naturally sweetened is clutch and combination of flavors are amazing.
- Applesauce
- Eggs
- Honey
- Lemon Juice
- Coconut Oil
- All-Purpose Flour
- White Whole Wheat Flour
- Brown Sugar
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Lemon Zest
Incredible Swirl
How could we not add a swirl to this bread? The main goal was to add something that complimented the lemon flavor and let me tell you, this cream cheese swirl is gold.
Cream cheese + raspberry jam is all you need! Don’t have raspberry jam? Use any flavor you have in your refrigerator such as blueberry, apricot, or strawberry!
Storage
Let your lemon bread cool completely. Then, store it in a cool, dark place for up to 3-5 days.
Can you freeze lemon bread?
This loaf is extremely easy to freeze. We do recommend, however, that if you are going to freeze it to refrain from adding the swirl. Sometimes dairy doesn’t do the best in the freezer!
How to freeze lemon bread: remove bread from the pan and let it cool completely. Once cooled, tightly wrap it with a piece of tin foil, removing as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Quick tip
You can also freeze slices of this bread instead of the entire loaf. Just cut the loaf Into slices and continue freezing as directed.
Delicious Lemon Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Wet
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
Dry
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
Swirl Topping
- 3 tablespoons raspberry preserves
- 3 ounces cream cheese, partially melted
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 350ºF and spray a standard-size loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Next, crack eggs into a large bowl and whisk. Then, add the rest of the wet ingredients to the bowl (minus the melted coconut oil) and mix.
- Add all of the dry ingredients to the wet and mix again.
- Finally, add melted coconut oil and mix one last time.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and give the pan a shake to make sure the batter is even in the pan.
- For the swirl topping, carefully plop the partially melted cream cheese and raspberry preserves evenly over the top of the loaf. Use a knife to gently swirl so that you spread the topping out. Make sure not to swirl it too much or things will mix together too much and if you swirl it too little, you risk the topping sinking to the bottom as it will be too heavy.
- Bake at 350ºF for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the loaf pan.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Erin from The Wooden Skillet.
Good flavor! But swirl fail… Unfortunately all the cream cheese and raspberry “swirl” settled to the middle of my loaf, making it difficult to get out of the pan and then leaving a crater in the middle . I’m thinking maybe I “partially melted” the cream cheese too much or I was too generous with my measuring of the cream cheese/raspberry preserves. If i make again i’ll use softened cream cheese. I also mixed the cream cheese and raspberry preserves, which I maybe shouldn’t have done? I had printed the recipe so I was just going off that and not the step-by-step pictures.
Ahh so sorry to hear you had a swirl fail! Yes, we definitely recommend partially melted cream cheese — it’s kind of a delicate balance of not having too big of chunks that will sink to the bottom and swirling it in enough to evenly distribute. Hopefully the 2nd time’s the charm 🙂
Thanks for sharing! It’s absolutely delicious and moist. Its super easy and cute, like a rustic cake baked by your grandmother. People who are less into sweet or are on diet can definitely cut on the sugar without missing the great flavor.
Are there any healthy cream cheese brands?
Cream cheese is cream cheese! But you can try to use a vegan one? We say go big or go home 😀
Hi! Is there a good replacement for the cream cheese that will swirl well? Not dairy free necessarily, just don’t have cream cheese on hand.
You can try Greek yogurt…or omit it!
How can I convert this to GF? Just use 1:1 gf flour? 1 1/2 cups.
I’d like to use part to almost all almond flour, but am out of my comfort zone in trying to convert recipes.
How perfect, I’ve got a ton of lemons just begging to be used this way. Thanks for sharing!
omg!! this sounds sooo good!! might make this tomorrow… or the strawberry banana one hehe
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Beijinhos Jessy