Orange Quick Bread
Second Breakfast, Anyone?
Orange Bread | Dara O’Brien
By Dara O’Brien
Creative Director, Lake Isle Press
My friend, Elizabeth, has been off sugar for the past eight months. I gave a small dinner party the other night and she was one of my guests. I made sure there were interesting sugar-free/alcohol-free drink options for her, and there was no sugar in anything on the menu except for dessert, where we had fresh fruit for her as an alternative.
She seemed pretty happy with everything, and I found myself wondering what it would be like to give up sugar, or if I even could.
Then I made a breakfast cake.
The cake I made was an orange quick bread, using a recipe from “The New African-American Kitchen” by Angela Shelf Medearis, published by Lake Isle Press. Quick breads are cakes, not breads, but they are indeed quick. This recipe uses few ingredients and is ready in short order (the only thing that takes any time is zesting and juicing the oranges), and it bakes in half an hour. I added an orange marmalade glaze to it because, why not. Before you know it: cake.
There was something so rewarding about whipping up this little cake. You don’t need a stand or even a hand mixer to make it, and you don’t have to plan ahead for the butter to soften. It’s nice as it is, or warmed and served with a pat of butter, or topped with marmalade glaze as I made it. I enjoyed it as a mid-morning second breakfast. Any way you slice it, it was a treat.
But I thought it could be even more fruity and flavorful. So I made it again, placing a pan of boiling water to the oven to up the moisture and doubling the orange zest to two heaping tablespoons (perhaps with fresh local produce this would be overkill, but late winter on the East Coast was not delivering the orange joy I wanted). I also employed a step inspired by baking guru Dorie Greenspan and mixed the zest and sugar together to create a fragrant wet-sand-like concoction before stirring it to the other ingredients. The second try indeed had more orange flavor.
I shared the first cake with one friend, and the second with another, and there are still small portions squirreled away in my freezer for a rainy day when a little spot of sunshine would be welcome.
Which leads to the question: would something without refined sugar—a few dates or figs, dried apricots, sugar-free dark chocolate, or perhaps a no—added-sugar ice cream or sorbet—deliver the same sweet satisfaction?
I‘ve made great strides since the days when sugar defined my basic food group. I now say no to sugared sodas and eschew things like nonfat yogurts for their sugar content. As I write this in the beginning of March I still have some of last year’s Halloween candy sitting in my fridge. But that doesn’t mean I don’t also stash a pint of Talenti Roman Raspberry Sorbetto in my freezer from time to time. Although I can demote sugar, I’m not ready to dismiss it altogether.
Orange Bread
This citrus-flavored bread is superb sliced, toasted, and buttered.
Yield: one 9 x 5-inch loaf
Click here for printable recipe.
INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup orange juice
PREPARATION
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and orange zest.
Combine the egg with the orange juice and butter and stir slowly into the flour. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
From “The New African-American Kitchen” by Angela Shelf Medearis, Lake Isle Press, 2008
Orange Bread Recipe
from “The New African-American Kitchen”
by Angela Shelf Medearis (The Kitchen Diva!)
Lake Isle Press, 2008
Chef, author, and culinary historian Angela Shelf Medearis, also known as the Kitchen Diva, presents a compilation of over 200 traditional recipes with African-American roots. These authentic recipes originated in slave quarters, plantations, church suppers, and inter-generational family kitchens. With dishes from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, The New African-American Kitchen presents each recipe with its cultural context, and includes incisive overviews of the African kitchen and the roots of soul cooking, Caribbean culinary history, and the contributions to America’s culinary heritage made by slave cooks. Published in 2008, The New African-American Kitchen deepens our understanding of the rich Black culinary traditions that continue to shape American and global cuisine.
ALSO FROM “THE NEW AFRICAN-AMERICAN KITCHEN”
Caribbean Chicken Stir-Fry
East African Sweet Potato Pudding
Baked Macaroni and Cheese