Comments (17)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, December 20, 2010 7:41 am

Hi There!  How was your weekend?  I managed to complete all my christmas shopping, wrap every gift, do a little baking, and I even threw a fun party on Friday night (you’ll hear more about that party next week ).

Orange Slice Candy Bread is one of my most favorite breads of all time!  I’m pretty sure its because orange slices are one of my favorite candies.  When I was little I swear I lived off of Brach’s Cinna-Bears & Orange Slices

My love for this bread started in elementary school.  One of my dears friends mothers would always put together a christmas goodie basket for my family.  Year after year she baked all of her signature cookies and breads.  Orange Slice Bread was a staple.  When the holidays would arrive I’d always ask if she would be baking her famous orange slice bread.

Its been decades since I’ve eaten this amazing bread, but for some reason its been stuck in my head all season.  After googling recipe after recipe and baking a couple of disaster breads, I finally got it

Ingredients:

• 2 10 oz bags orange slice candy
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roughly chop orange slices.  In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup flour with chopped orange slices.  The flour will keep the orange slices from clumping together.  Add pecans to the orange slice mixture.  Set bowl aside.

Combine remaining 3 cups of flour with baking soda.  Sift together and set aside.  In a mixer, cream butter & sugar together until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes).  Beat eggs in one at a time.  At low speed, slowly add in flour mixture little by little, alternating with buttermilk.  Finally, stir in orange slice/pecan mixture.  Mix just until combined.

Spray two loaf pans or five mini loaf pans with non stick cooking spray.  Cut a piece of wax paper to fit the bottom of each pan.  Place wax paper on bottom of pan.  If you’re making mini-loaves, bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean when inserted.  If your baking two large loaves, bake for at least one hour.  Test with toothpick for doneness.  If toothpick has batter on it when inserted, bake for addition 10 – 15 minutes.

Cool loaves on wire rack & enjoy

If you like orange slice candy you will LOVE this bread  My neighbors each got a mini-loaf for Christmas.  I hope they enjoy it as much as I do

Comments (19)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, April 30, 2010 9:52 am

I had every intention of blogging yesterday! I don’t know how it happened… but the day just got away from me.

Between juggling a baby who wouldn’t nap and accidentally dropping the coffee pot and watching it shatter all over the floor… it was a heck of a day!

Is it sad that my biggest concern was getting a new coffee pot before the next morning? I can handle a lot of things… but take my morning coffee away and I’m a mess!

I did manage to squeeze in a much needed trip to Trader Joe’s. I impulsively purchased a container of dark chocolate covered expresso beans, and then proceeded to eat a handful or two at eight o clock at night.

Why did I do that? Why?

Why did I ingest one of the most concentrated forms of caffeine, coated in more caffeine?

As you would guess, I ended up getting over caffinated, couldn’t go to sleep, and ended up baking strawberry bread muffins at 10:40 p.m.

The inspiration came from Sarena. She posted some gluten-free Strawberry Bread on her site… so naturally, I decided to make them into my most favorite food… muffins!

This was my first trial with this recipe creation. They came out good… but not awesome. I think I added too much applesauce for the amount of strawberries I used.

Here’s the recipe… but if you make these… cut the applesauce to 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons flax meal
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 cup applesauce (cut down to 1/2 cup when you make this)
• 3 cups fresh strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, canola oil, and applesauce. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients… stir until combined. Take two cups of strawberries. Chop them and then mash them. Use whatever you have to mash them. I used a potato masher.

Add mashed strawberries to batter and stir until combined. Take last cup of strawberries, roughly chop them, and then fold into batter.

Fill muffin cups with batter, 3/4 full.

Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Place muffin tin on cooling rack and allow muffins to cool until completely cooled.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!!!

If you’re in DC, the weather is suppose to be incredible!! Enjoy!

Comments (34)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, January 26, 2010 9:24 am

Can you think of a more perfect combo? Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Bananas.

I love chocolate and peanut butter. I love peanut butter and bananas. I love chocolate covered bananas.

Sometimes I stand in my kitchen and stick my spoon in the peanut butter jar, then dip my peanut butter spoon in a bag of chocolate chips…. do you every do that?

The combination of all three just makes sense.

My husband on the other hand… well, he loves peanut butter and chocolate, but peanut butter and banana, he doesn’t get. His exact words to me were “I just don’t get the whole peanut butter banana thing.” “What’s the big deal?” I looked at him like he was some sort of alien or broke a sacred vow.

Okay, back to this awesome bread…

If you’re familiar with my blog, you know that I have issues with bananas. I buy massive quantities of bananas, then the minute they go ripe, I throw them in the freezer… then buy more bananas. I now have massive quantities of bananas in my freezer. So instead baking the same old banana bread, I changed up the recipe and added peanut butter and bananas.

This bread is Gooood! Its dense, rich, and must be consume with a large ice cold glass of milk.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 over ripe bananas
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together then set aside.

Combine sugar, canola oil, and applesauce. Mix until well blended. Add peanut butter and vanilla to sugar mixture. Mix until peanut butter is blended through. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Mix just until combined. Gently mix in bananas, then fold in semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Spray an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon batter into pan. Bake for 55 – 65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool completely on cooling rack. Once bread is completely cooled, transfer loaf out of the pan.

Enjoy!

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Question of the Day?

What’s your favorite food combo? PB & Chocolate is my favorite