A yummy family heirloom recipe of sweet orange bread and chopped pecans.
I love family recipes – I mean that is the purpose of this whole food blog thing in the first place. Aimee wanted us to share our favorite recipes with each other and Like Mother, Like Daughter made that easier instead of a quick phone call of “MOM – how do I make this?” because sometimes we just couldn’t get a hold of each other and then we would forget for the next time around. And now it is even better because Aimee makes so many amazing treats and shares such great recipes that I would have never thought of – getting me out of the Tuesday is always tacos, Friday is always pizza (but Friday pizza is probably worth keeping). AND we get to share them with you too!
But back to my love of family recipes – I got this Orange Pecan Bread recipe from Craig’s Aunt Lenon. Lenon will be turning 90 this year, she is super sweet, and we have the privileged of living only 5 minutes from her. On our last visit, I borrowed one of three recipe boxes from her and started to copy some of the favorite family recipes like “Apple Dumplings” and “Rocky Road Cookies” and “Chewy Raisin Squares” and “Orange Bread”. That’s the one that this orange pecan bread came from.
Sometimes though it is a bit of a challenge using favorites because well…… there might have been some incomplete ingredients – like use 1/2 cup flour (I needed to use 1 1/2 cups in the orange bread), or cryptic directions for example – bake in a medium oven (I guessed 350 was medium), and I wondered what is underneath that smudge – the smudge ones were the well used favorites. But I solved all the mysteries and now you and I will have another favorite family recipe to enjoy.
Orange Pecan Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups white flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup candied orange peel
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1 TBS butter
- Plus additional butter for buttering loaf pan
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
- In a sauce pan, warm milk to slightly above lukewarm (do not bring to a boil) on medium low heat on your stove top
- Remove sauce pan from stovetop and add butter to melt, let milk cool
- Butter 1 loaf pan
- Chop pecans
- Whisk egg
- In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar
- Make a well in the dry mixture
- Pour milk, orange juice, and butter in with dry mixture; stir to combine
- Stir in chopped pecans and candied orange peel
- Pour mixture into butter loaf pan and let rest while oven is preheating
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place loaf pan in oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean
I can’t wait to share more with you. What is one of your treasured recipes that has been passed down from generation to generation?
Sarah says
This turned out well—moist bread with a bit of chewy and crunchy texture from the candied oranges and pecans. I made 2 sizes of bread: ~5×8 inches and 3 mini loaves (3×5.75) at the same time after doubling the ingredients. For the small loaves, I left in the over for 35 minutes. I took them out and let the bigger loaf bake another 5 minutes–no need to put back in the oven.
Also, I like sprinkling Sugar in the Raw on the top of the batter before baking for a slightly crunchy topping, and that worked well with this recipe too.
Ellen says
That sounds yummy. So glad you liked it. Thank you for the review.