That wasn't in the recipe...

[rsc]

Every year sometime in the late fall we make a batch (three loaves) of cranberry-orange bread. We decided to do this year's today because John has to bring something to a potluck tomorrow.

The recipe calls for "the juice and rind of one orange" (we use two because we double the recipe), with an explanatory note saying "cut up minus pips and blend". So the first step is generally to take out the blender.

The second step is not supposed to be to have the container portion of the blender fall off and land on the floor, shattering into many tiny pieces.

After the also-unplanned sweeping-up step, there came the question of how to actually proceed. Well, we have a food processor (actually, we have a blender/food-processor combo, except that the blender portion has just been rendered unusable), so we tried that, but it really doesn't handle orange rind very well, and it got all clogged up with pieces of rind that were still too big to put in the batter. So I grated all the zest from the second orange, in the hopes that the remainder would go through the processor OK, but it didn't, although we were able to extract all the juice.

Apart from using rather more bowls and utensils than usual (because we usually put the eggs, sugar, butter and oil through the blender as well), things went sort of Ok from there, although we had to add some bottled apple juice to get the batter to the appropriate consistency. Oh,and then about five minutes after we put the loaves in the oven I noticed that the timer still said 30 minutes, which is what I'd set it to initially.

We're going to find out shortly how it came out. Meanwhile, a new blender jar has been ordered.

Comments

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

This sounbds really interesting. Is it an easy recipe and are you willing to share?

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's pretty easy (if you don't break the blender). This is the single recipe, but since it fills about 1½ of our loaf pans, we always double it.

2 tablespoons butter (or 1 each butter & oil)
1 cup sugar (mix brown & white)
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1½ cups cranberries
juice and rind of one orange

Cut the orange into chunks and remove the seeds; liquefy in blender, adding sugar, butter/oil, and eggs. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, add walnuts and cranberries, and stir in orange mixture until flour is all moistened. The batter will be fairly stiff, but if it's really dry add some fruit juice. Spoon into well-greased loaf pans and bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).

Note 1: The recipe says to halve the cranberries, but this is a lot of work, and we discovered long ago by experiment that it's entirely unnecessary (although the wheel-like cross-sections are kind of pretty).

Note 2: This recipe comes from John's ex-wife, and when he copied it he wrote in the margin "Why no wheat germ?" So sometimes we add a little wheat germ.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

It turned out fine. I think the texture is a little smoother than usual, and maybe there's a little less orange flavor (or maybe I just think so because I know there's a little less orange than there's supposed to be).

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

My blender container is stainless steel, but I did recently smash a glass cake pedestal all over the floor by bumping it off the counter behind me with the mop handle while I was mopping. :-(

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll try this.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Rind, really? not just zest?

(I'd probably try this if I hadn't given up wheat!)

qwrrty broke our blender jar recently, too, and I'm trying to decide how soon we need to replace it :)

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Well, if I had to guess, the original recipe (wherever it came from) may have intended just the zest, but somebody discovered that if you just put the whole thing in the blender you got an acceptable result.