Monday, May 3, 2010

Orange Bread

The original for this recipe was published in some magazine my mother read in the late 30s or early 40s. (Hazel Dell) There were some techniques that I did not understand perfectly and it took 5 tries until I could bake a product that matched my 50 year old memories.

This bread is a quick bread. There are 2 distinct parts to assembling the mix; the orange mixture and the batter.

Orange Zest Mixture

Peelings from 3 medium oranges: 4 – 4.5 oz. or 2 heaping cups
(This is the zest from the oranges and is the hardest part of making the bread. You can make this the previous night if you want.)


 (I have tried several methods for getting the zest off the orange. Using a zester is the best.)

Wash the peelings well and chop. (pieces between 0.5 in and .75 in.)

Place the peelings in a pan and just cover with water.


Add 1 Tsp of baking soda.

Heat this to boiling and then boil for 5 minutes. (This froths a lot watch out for boil overs)


At the end of 5 minutes, remove from the heat and rinse in running hot water and drain.

Place the drained peelings back in the pan, add 1 cup sugar and enough water to cover the zest, and then “cook until syrupy”. ( I found this difficult to judge but an acceptable product was obtained when the liquid was the consistency of thin corn syrup.)

Before preparing the batter, take a 9 in loaf pan and line it with wax paper.

Batter

1 Cup Sugar
3.75 Cups all purpose flour
2 Eggs
4 Tbsp Canola Oil
1 Cup Milk
.25 Tsp Salt
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Chopped Nuts


Place the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and mix.
Place the eggs in a mixing bowl and beat the eggs well. Continue beating while adding the sugar and the oil. While this is mixing add the dry ingredients alternatively with the milk to produce a heavy dough, that is still liquid. Add the Orange Mixture to the batter and mix. Add the nuts to the batter and mix.

Pour the dough into the pan and cook at 300 degrees for 2 hours or until a skewer inserted in the loaf comes out clean or until the center of the loaf is between 190 – 195 F.

Cool the loaf (very important). Then store in a wrapper for as long as you can stand it then slice and eat.

Here is what it looks like:




Here is what a piece looks like:

9 comments:

  1. That looks absolutely delicious. Can't wait to try it!

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  2. What a great looking bread! And quick too. :)

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  3. What temperature do you have the oven set for when you bake the bread. Two hours seems a long time if you have the bread at a higher temperature. I am guessing to cook it that long you are talking 325 F?

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  4. oh wow love the idea of orange bread

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  5. What a beautiful loaf. It reminds me of marmalade bread. The color is so pretty.

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  6. That looks great and something a bit different as well.

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  7. Temperature is supposed to be 300 degrees. I have modified my recipe. Good catch!

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  8. I made a half quantity in an 8x4 tin. Its very nice and I cant wait to make another of your recipes Stiles :)

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  9. Your bread looks great. Thanks for all the recipes. I'm going to have to make that orange bread.

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