Orange Nut Bread

The Yellow Tin Box contains multiple versions of quite a few different recipes, so I thought it would be fun to do an occasional taste test to find out which versions are the best. I was in a very baking mood over the weekend, and decided to compare the "Orange Pecan Bread" with the "Orange Nut Bread." It worked out nicely, since I was able to use the juice and part of the zest of the oranges for the Pecan Bread, and then use the rest of the orange peel for the Nut Bread. To me, the taste test winner was clear (see below), but my 13-year-old daughter disagrees, so you'll have to make them both and judge for yourself!

From the look of the typewritten and whited-out piece of paper, I'm imagining a time, decades ago, when a pleasant group of church ladies spent each Tuesday afternoon playing bridge while their husbands worked and their children were at school.

With the happy homemakers in mind, I love this recipe for all the assumptions it makes about the reader's understanding of kitchen basics: 

1. "peel of 3 oranges"  This is an arbitrary amount, depending on the size of the orange. I assume that at the time this recipe was written, it referred to navel oranges, which are smaller than the Valencia oranges I used. Regardless, the recipe later calls for a mere 1/4 cup of the orange peel for the bread batter, which is much less than the yield of three oranges of any size. So why call for three, when two or even one large orange would suffice?
2. "cook slowly until tender"  I know a potato is tender when I can easily pierce it with a fork. What's the standard for a tender orange peel? And can you give me a general idea of how long I will need to "cook slowly" (which I assume means simmering on low or medium-low heat) to achieve the desired tenderness? Five minutes? Thirty?
3. "small bits"  How small are these bits? Chopped? Finely chopped? Minced?
4. "cook 'til threads"  Okay, this one I figured out by referring to the candy section of The Joy of Cooking. But still... if I hadn't had my reference book, I wouldn't have known what this meant.
5. "Let stand 20 minutes. Bake 45 min. at 350"  Assuming the bread is to be baked in a loaf pan, does it matter what size pan? Should I grease the pan first? Do I let the batter stand in the bowl before pouring it in the pan, or do I pour it in the pan first and then let it stand 20 minutes? Does it matter?

Preparation Notes:

The first part of the recipe was kind of a pain in the butt. I started with three large organic Valencia oranges, but ended up using the peel from only two of them in the syrup. I'm still confounded as to why the recipe calls for three oranges in the beginning, but then only 1/4 cup of the peel for the batter. In any case, preparing the orange peel and then cooking up the syrup was rather long, tedious, and messy.

Sarah, my trusty sidekick, peeled the oranges for me, and then I simmered the peels in a small pot of water for probably 30 minutes. I was really uncertain about that part. I was afraid of losing the orange flavor in the simmering water, and I wasn't at all sure what degree of tenderness I was going for with the peels. Also, the purpose of cooking the peels was not evident - would using raw peel in the syrup be different than using cooked peel, or was it purely to make it easier to remove the white membrane? Because let me tell you, cutting that membrane off the cooked peel was a slow, slippery task. Even with Sarah doing half the work, my fingers were still cramped and sore the next day. In any case, here's what we ended up with:

I had just begun the next step of cutting the peel "in small bits" when I paused to take this photo. There was just a very thin layer of the white membrane left on the peel.

After consulting The Joy of Cooking, I put the water and sugar in a very small saucepan and stirred with a wooden spoon over medium-low heat, and then stopped stirring when it began to boil about 10 minutes later. Despite the cookbook's instructions, I didn't have a natural-bristle pastry brush to wash the splatters from the sides of the pan; nor did I have a candy thermometer to check the temperature. Instead, I ignored the splatters, and about once a minute, I used the wooden spoon to check the consistency of the syrup. I suppose I should have paid more attention to the time, but it took probably 10-15 minutes of boiling before the syrup finally began to pour off the spoon in a "thread," as the recipe indicates:

I then added the "small bits" of orange peel to the syrup, and even though I used only two of the three peels, I had to squash the bits down into the pan with the wooden spoon in order to fit them all into the syrup. I didn't adjust the heat, and just let it all cook like that for five minutes. It looked very pretty:

At the end of the five minutes, I removed the pan from the heat and let the orange-syrup cool in the pan while I began preparing the batter.

The rest of the recipe was really a cinch to put together. I used my fingers to blend the shortening into the flour, and that took several minutes, but I enjoy that kind of thing. My only problem was when it came time to add the orange peel, because the person who typed this recipe modified it to say that she used all of the peel and syrup rather than 1/4 cup... but she didn't give any indication of how much that was. I ended up with about 1 cup of peel and syrup, but it seemed like SO much more than the original recipe called for, I was afraid to add it all. I started with the 1/4 cup:

... and look how much is still left in the pan!

I compromised between the two recipe suggestions and stirred a generous 1/2 cup into the batter, which was twice the amount called for, but only half the amount I had. As it turned out, I actually do think that it would have been fine - and even better - if I had added the entire amount of peel and syrup (about 1 cup). 1/4 cup would have been all but unnoticeable, and I think the bread could have stood a little more sweetness and orange flavor.

[As a side note, the candied orange peel was delicious on its own! I put the remaining 1/2 cup in the fridge, and am considering other possible uses for it. The first thing that comes to mind is to stir it into melted dark chocolate.... Yum!]

I let the batter stand in the bowl for 20 minutes, then spread it into my stoneware loaf pan, which I greased lightly, just to be sure it didn't stick. I took the bread out after exactly 45 minutes, and it looked really awesome:

As it turned out, I should have checked it for doneness. There was a small amount of undercooked batter in the very center of the loaf - I think another five minutes in the oven would have taken care of it. Oh, well.

The Taste Test:

So... after all this effort, I have to say I was disappointed with the end result of the Orange Nut Bread. Despite the similarities, it is really very different from the Orange Pecan Bread. The look, feel, and taste of it is more like a regular loaf of bread than the sweet breads I like. Just look how different they are:

However, when I had my daughter try both breads, she unquestionably preferred the Nut Bread! Why? "Because it tastes more bread-y." So there you go. Evidently, they are both good, and it's just a matter of preference. This Nut Bread has a much more subtle flavor than the Pecan Bread, to the point that I think it's bland (especially in a side-by-side taste test). It isn't terrible, by any means; it just doesn't do much for me. As I mentioned earlier, I think adding all of the orange peel and syrup would have improved the flavor.

But then I had a thought: what about serving it up as a dainty little tea sandwich? The bread is fairly sturdy, so I cut two thin slices from the loaf, mixed a little honey into a little cream cheese, and made a little sandwich to go with a cup of tea.

You know what? It was really delicious. I liked it so much, I made another sandwich, this time with orange marmalade instead of honey. Equally delicious.

Between the two, the Orange Pecan Bread is still my favorite, but this Orange Nut Bread isn't so bad - it just needs a little boost.
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Ingredients
for the orange-syrup:
   3 oranges
   1/2 cup sugar
   1/4 cup water
for the batter:
   3-1/4 cup flour
   1/2 tsp salt
   4 tsp baking powder
   1/2 cup sugar
   1/2 cup shortening
   2 eggs
   1 cup milk
   1 cup nuts
   1/4 cup orange peel [or up to all of the orange peel and syrup, depending on your preference]

Directions
Cover peel of 3 oranges with cold water, cook slowly until tender. Remove white membrane, cut in small bits. Syrup: 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. water, cook 'til threads. Add rind and cook 5 minutes.

3-1/4 c. flour, 1/2 t. salt, 4 t. baking pwd, 1/2 c. sugar. Mix and cut in 1/2 c. shortening. Add 2 eggs, 1 c. milk, 1 c. nuts, 1/4 c. orange peel. (I add all of orange peel and syrup)

Let stand 20 minutes. Bake 45 min. at 350
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