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Orange Bread
3 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans 1 egg 1 cup milk 3/4 cup chopped candied orange peel Sift dry ingredients, add nuts and orange peel. After mixing thoroughly, add milk, then well--beaten egg, and pour into 2 well greased bread pans. Let stand 10 minutes, then bake in moderate (350 degrees) oven for 45 minutes. When partially cooled, glaze the top of loaves with sugar--water frosting. Other breads for sandwich making are white, whole wheat, graham, bran, Boston Brown and potato bread. These are raised breads, recipes for which follow here:
A plain quick bread, closer to a sweetened soda bread than to a modern butter-rich loaf. The batter is stiff and mixes in seconds, so have the pans greased before you start.
- No fat at allThere is no butter, oil or shortening in the list, which suits a bread meant for slicing thin and spreading with a filling, though the recipe does not say so. It also means the loaf stales quickly; eat it the day it is baked or wrap it tightly once cool.
- Mixing orderThe instruction to add the milk before the beaten egg is worth following, since the dry mixture is heavily loaded with nuts and peel and needs the liquid to loosen it. Stir only until no dry flour remains; the baking powder starts working immediately.
- The ten-minute restLetting the filled pans stand hydrates the flour and gives a slightly finer crumb. It is not a rise in the yeast sense, so do not extend it much past ten minutes or the leavening will be spent before the loaf sets.
- Oven and pansModerate is given here as 350F, which is right. Divided between two pans this makes small loaves; use two 8 x 4-inch pans rather than 9 x 5, and check at 35 minutes with a skewer, since shallow loaves in a modern oven often finish early.
- Candied orange peelThree-quarters of a cup is a generous amount, and quality shows. Supermarket mixed peel is often dry and bitter; whole candied peel cut up yourself, or good imported peel, gives the flavour the recipe is built on.
- Toasting the pecansToast them dry in the oven for eight to ten minutes before chopping and let them cool. Warm nuts folded into the flour will not hurt the batter, but they lose the crispness that is the point of toasting.
- Sugar-water frostingNo proportions are given. About a cup of confectioners' sugar with two to three teaspoons of water or orange juice makes a thin glaze that sets; brush it on while the loaves are still slightly warm so it soaks the crust rather than sitting on top.
- YieldTwo small loaves, roughly twelve thin slices each. For the sandwich use intended, chill the loaves thoroughly before slicing or they crumble at the peel.