I can’t believe it’s April 1st?!
These next few months are going to speed by and then we will be into summer. . the change of weather here in Madison has everyone in good spirits and actually doing activities outside because even though it’s still in the 40’s (and sometimes even hitting 60!), it’s a huge improvement from the weather that we endured this winter.
A lot of my friends asked me how I survived my first Midwest winter and frankly, it was this blog. Writing, cooking, baking, keeping busy and seeing my family happy. Being holed up in a house is not my idea of fun. I need to get out. But when I can’t, I simply must bake.
I love my Twelve Loaves baking group . . this group has kept me sane, challenged and active. I love that we are presented with a new challenge or theme every month and if it weren’t for Twelve Loaves, I probably never would have attempted these breads: my Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart bread, my Greek Easter bread (I loved this one), my French Baguettes, my brioche and more.
Now, I can get down with yeast. I know what to do. I’m no expert but I know what to do, what to look for. Now, of course, there’s always room for improvement and I love learning and attending classes and such. I’m so excited I get to attend a Bake For Good weekend with King Arthur Flour this weekend in Minneapolis! We’re going to be learning about yeast breads and pies and more! I’ll also be meeting some of my favorite baker bloggers so I am beyond excited. I can’t wait to see what tips and tricks they teach us!
This month for Twelve Loaves we’re celebrating oranges! Now, there’s something so easy and light with a quick bread. You’re not messing with any yeast so it’s faster and you can enjoy your baked bread within about an hour and half max.
And because we are celebrating oranges, not only did I add orange zest into the bread but I had to make a candied orange marmalade for you. I actually should have cooked my oranges for a bit longer but ran out of time and the sun was going to leave me. The last time I made this marmalade, I ate the oranges, rind and all with my cake. Everything was so cooked down and soft, it was delicious. This time, we just ate the oranges and discarded the rind but the marmalade was delicious!
And I also added the fresh strawberry jam that I made last month into this quick bread. . I really love the strawberry + orange combination. If you’ve never tried these together, you simply must!
Today is my wedding anniversary. . yes, we got married on April 1st. (haha) No, we really did. And although this Strawberry and Orange quick bread is all gone, you can bet that I will be cooking and baking something fabulous for my husband today.
Cheers and I hope you enjoy!
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- zest from one navel orange
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened or at room temp
- ½ cup strawberry jam
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 navel oranges
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- sprinkle of turbinado sugar if desired
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a standard sized loaf pan with parchment paper and grease or spray the parchment paper with non-stick baking spray and set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and orange zest in a large mixing bowl. In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, jam and vanilla until smooth and well combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together until well combined. Spread the mixture evenly into your prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10-15 minutes and then remove your quick bread from the baking pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
- Once your bread is in the oven, you can start on the marmalade: wash and dry the oranges and cut off the tops and bottoms on ONE. Slice ONE orange as thinly a possible while still keeping their shape, about ⅛ to ¼ inch thick, discarding any seeds as they appear. Place the orange slices in a small pot with a heavy bottom. Juice the remaining 2 oranges (you should end up with about a cup of juice) and pour the juice over the sliced oranges. Let sit for 20 minutes.
- Cook over medium-high heat until the liquid comes to a boil. Decrease the heat slightly and simmer until the orange peels are soft, for about 20 minutes. Don’t stir, which will destroy the pretty round shape of the citrus. Add the sugar evenly over the top and continue cooking until the sugar is dissolved. Cook until thickened and the juice has gelled slightly and is syrupy, for about 20 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
- Arrange the candied orange slices over the top of the quick bread, slightly overlapping them if you wish. Drizzle some of the marmalade syrup over the slices and allow it to drip down the sides of the strawberry and orange bread. Sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on top if desired and enjoy!
Quick Bread recipe adapted from Renee’s Strawberry Almond Quick Bread
This month for #TwelveLoaves, we’re celebrating Oranges!! Choose a recipe including oranges. Your bread of choice recipe must include orange in the recipe: oranges, orange marmalade, orange zest. In addition to being in the dough, it can also be added to a glaze. Whatever you bake, (yeasted, quick bread, crackers, muffins, braids, flatbreads, etc) have fun and let’s have a delicious month of bread with ORANGES.
Check out what the rest of the Twelve Loaves baking group baked up today! Take a look at each one, pin and save for later!
- Blueberry Dreamsicle Orange Lower-Fat Quick Bread from Shockingly Delicious
- Brith with candied orange from Ma che ti sei mangiato
- It’s Thyme for Orange Dinner Rolls from Cookistry
- Orange Biscuits from Magnolia Days
- Orange-Fennel Cake Doughnuts from girlichef
- Orange Marmalade Filled Sweet Rolls from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Orange Marmalade Scones from A Baker’s House
- Orange Pull-Apart Bread from All That’s Left Are The Crumbs
- Orange Pull Apart Bread with Orange Cream Cheese Glaze from Bakingyummies
- Orange Rolls from Basic N Delicious
- Orange Rosemary Boule from Food Lust People Love
- Orange You Delicious Honey Crescent Rolls from Kudos Kitchen By Renee
- Pizza di Pasqua from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Rye and fennel seeds snails with blood oranges and red onion chutney from Rise of the sourdough preacher
- Sicilian Orange Sweet Bread from Cake Duchess
If you’d like to add your bread to the collection with the Linky Tool this month, here’s what you need to do:
1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
3. Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this April, 2014, and posted on your blog by April 30, 2014.
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess. #TwelveLoaves runs so smoothly thanks to the help of the lovely Renee from Magnolia Days and Heather from GirliChef.
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That bread looks and sounds incredibly delicious Alice! It’s so beautiful with the orange slices on top. I also love the addition of the strawberry jam…I can just imagine the amazing sweet flavor this bread has. I’m super envious of your King Arthur baking class too…that sounds like it will be a blast!!
That is a stunning loaf Alice. I love the glistening oranges on the top…. so moist, too. I am glad that there’s finally a break in the freezing cold for you! We’re the opposite over here, it’s been raining for the past two days and I wore a jumper last night… probably for the first evening in months! Enjoy the fruit, sunshine, vegetables and flowers as you slowly transition into the beauty of springtime xxx
Happy anniversary, Alice! Your quick bread with those orange on top is absolutely stunning and I love the addition of the strawberry jam inside. I’m so jealous of your King Arthur weekend! I followed the link and read that you will also be cooking a meal for the homeless in your city. How great is that?! I can’t wait to hear all about it!
Stacy,
That is what I am most excited about. . I love that King Arthur Flour is doing this! and thank you so much!!! you are too sweet!
This bread is STUNNING! Can’t wait to see you this weekend, yay! Maybe it will be above 40 can we can wear flip flops 😉
Thank you, Erin! Haha, I was thinking the same thing but just checked the weather and it’s supposed to snow on Friday in Minneapolis! 🙂
First of all – happy anniversary! And second – oh man, this was your first Midwest winter? You sure picked a doozy ;). Third – YUM! This sounds amazing, I love the flavor combo and the syrup drench…drool.
YES! We moved here in November so I had 2 weeks of nice weather before the first snow fall!!! 🙂
Mmmmm….I love this strawberry orange combo, Alice!!! And your homemade marmalade sounds amazing! I’d love to give it a shot 🙂 Have a blast in Minneapolis this weekend…sounds like fun!
Happy Anniversary! beautiful loaf, love the flavor of orange and all things citrus.
This looks divine!
Happy Anniversary Alice! What a treat for your husband to be able to enjoy this bread too. It’s so l tasty looking that my mouth was watering just looking at the photos.
A very Happy Anniversary Alice! I love the flavor combination that you’ve used. Wish I could enjoy a slice or two.
Yum. I’d love a small slice with my morning coffee. Love strawberries and oranges.
Spring is beautiful. Glad to hear that you are seeing signs of spring there. I know that spring will roll by too fast, but I’m going to try to enjoy it as long as I can since I really don’t look forward to socali summer heat waves! How are the summers there? Summer is the one weather I really hate. And working in a stuffy no AC kitchen does not help!
I’ll have to check out Twelve Loaves. That sounds like an awesome group. Is it a virtual community or do you guys get together in person (local thing)? I guess I will find out when I check out the page.
Have fun at your upcoming event!
Happy anniversary to you and Paul, dearest Alice! You are going to have such an amazing weekend. I’ve been seeing other blogger’s photos of their fun times with King Arthur Flour and I totally wish I could go too! I love all of your Twelve Loaves posts. Your photos are beautiful (I love the bright pops of orange from the slices on top of the cake) and whoa, does the inside of your cake ever look fabulously moist?! Love this!
Just gorgeous, beautifully photographed, and delicious looking Alice. I am so jealous about the King Arthur Flour event you are attending!
Wishing you both a very Happy Anniversary! I am loving your quick bread and those beautiful candied orange slices that are sitting on top.
Strawberries and oranges, love this combination!
I would have never thought of matching those fruits with cinnamon but it must be very nice!
Very well done, this month’s theme has been one of my favourite so far, such a variety!
yes, you must try it!! Thank you Lou!
Gah…that bread looks GREAT! I took the quick bread route, too (great minds!), but we love those for breakfast with whipped cream cheese spread on. Hope you had a happy anniversary (“Do you, Alice, take Paul, as your lawfully wedded husband? Ha, JK, APRIL FOOL!”). Stay warm!
What a beautiful presentation with those candied orange slices on top. It’s so, so pretty and your bread looks moist and perfect!
Alice, CONGRATULATIONS!!! April 1st is kind of the best wedding date ever 🙂 I used to be so afraid to bake with yeast but once I started there was no going back. It is just so amazing how a few meager ingredients can create such beautiful things–like this gorgeous, gorgeous cake! And I love that you don’t have to wait for it to rise. Quick breads for the win!
My favorite is orange marmalade! I could eat it straight out of a jar and I want to taste your marmalade! Gorgeous loaf, Alice. It’s so moist and so lovely. I can’t wait to hear about your baking weekend with KAF-cool! And Happy Anniversary!!! xx
Hope you had a lovely anniversary! April 1st is my parents’ anniversary too. They were both teachers and in the year they got married April 1st was the start of Spring Break for them so the date worked for a wedding! This is a beautiful bread and the topping is a show-stopper! Wow!
Oh Alice your pictures always make me drool.. Its that bad? Well i guess no, because this quick bread looks amazing.
That’s like the best comment ever. Thank you, Kathia! 🙂
Happy anniversary, Alice, and I hope you have fun in Minneapolis. You are my bread guru, I wish I could bake beautiful loaves like you do. I should take lessons from you, lol! Love the candied orange + strawberry jam in this one 😀
My Mouth is watering!
I think i will make this recipe for my children this Easter weekend, Im loving it !