My sweet little sister made me this bread while she was visiting this weekend. It's a recipe she acquired from a cooking class in college and I've been meaning to share it with you for some time now. But I still haven't gotten back into my groove in the kitchen. So thank you, Katelyn, for this one. (She baked it, and I photographed and ate it. We should make this a permanent arrangement.) This recipe is unique in that the sticky dough completes a quick rise in a warm oven and then finishes cooking while the oven heats up. I don't know how or why it works. But it does. And it works well. This orange-infused loaf is moist and nutty and sweet. (And made with healthy whole wheat!)
INGREDIENTS
juice 1 large fresh orange + hot water to equal 1 1/4 cups
1/2 Tbsp. active dry yeast
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. freshly grated orange rind
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
DIRECTIONS
1. Zest the orange peel. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, juice the orange and add hot tap water to equal 1 ¼ cups, dissolve yeast in this mixture.
2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
3. Add oil, honey, orange rind, salt, and half of flour to yeast and water. Mix with flat beater attachment in electric mixer.
4. Add enough of remaining flour to make a thick, sticky batter. Yes, the dough is really sticky.
5. Knead well (at least 5 minutes in your KitchenAid mixer).
6. Place dough in a well-greased loaf pan. Put pan in warm oven. TURN OVEN OFF.
7. Let loaf sit in warm oven for 20 minutes.
8. With loaves still in oven, turn oven to 350 degrees.
9. Set timer for 30 minutes. Remove bread from oven when timer goes off. If loaves aren’t nicely browned, bake for an additional 3-5 minutes.
10. Brush with butter and remove from pan to cool. Slice and serve. (This bread freezes well.)
Makes 1 loaf.
(Adapted from For the First Thyme)
Orange juice & rind sounds like a perfect addition to a sweet & moist wheat bread! Thanks for the great idea!
ReplyDeleteI bet this would make the best french toast!
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