A sweet orange bread with festive chocolate morsels!
After a frustrating day in the kitchen yesterday (which involved overfilling a pan with cake batter, battling a small oven fire, and wasting two beautiful cake batters) I needed to shake it off and try something very simple today. These sweet little slices of orange bread are very easy to make, and perfect for entertaining. Don’t expect a cake-like texture; it’s more of a moist, dense bread. The batter is jazzed up a little with Tuaca – a vanilla and orange liqueur, and colored chocolate morsels. You can make this bread ahead and freeze (just thaw and slice) for convenience.
For this recipe I used two vertical star pans (also known as canapé bread tubes) which were about half filled. Whatever you do, don’t fill the pan more than half full! If you only have one pan, the remaining batter can be baked in cupcake tins. If you don’t own one of these fun pans, this bread can also be baked in a loaf pan for about an hour.
Expect some oozing. The pan fits into a round cap, which I lined with parchment. It still blurped out of there a little. I love crunchy stuff, so the crispy pieces were a bonus for me! I didn’t put a cap on the top of the pans; just covered them with a loose piece of foil. You will need something long to poke in the pan to test the bread. I use a wooden skewer, but a piece of a straw broom (does anyone use those anymore?) would work too. Lacking either of those options, if you’ve baked them for 50 minutes and the tops are brown, it’s a pretty safe bet that the bread is done!
Baked and cooling.
| Orange Tuaca Bread | Print |
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup orange juice
- 1 tablespoon orange zest (or ½ teaspoon orange extract)
- ¼ cup Tuaca (a liqueur flavored with vanilla and orange)
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- ½ cups chocolate chips (or nuts, raisins, or berries)
- Heat the oven to 350 F.
- Prepare two vertical tube pans by spraying with a flour/oil mixture like Baker's Joy. Put a piece of parchment or foil between the bottom of the pans and their round caps. Stand both pans up in a cake pan in case batter leaks from the bottom.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, orange juice, orange zest (or extract), Tuaca, and oil. If you prefer not to use Tuaca, put one teaspoon of vanilla and ½ teaspoon of orange extract in a ¼ cup measuring cup and fill it with water.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring just until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. This is a very thick batter.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the two pans, and tap the bottoms on the counter to settle the dough.
- Bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the bread.
- Remove from the oven and allow the pans to cool for at least a half hour. Remove the bottom of the pan and gently press to push the bread out of the pan.
- When completely cool, slice thinly. It may be easier to slice if you chill it briefly.
Filling the tube pans with batter.
Orange Tuaca Stars
Now, I’m pretty sure you could use more orange liqueur and less orange juice (just sayin’) without a problem, but I haven’t tested that yet. Grand Marnier and a dash of vanilla would work beautifully. Of course, if my budget allowed Grand Marnier, I’d be gently warming a little in a snifter and sipping appreciatively, not mixing it into a bread batter! Did you hear that, Santa? I’ve been VERY good this year. Bwahahaha.
I saw these colored chips at the store today and wondered what I could do with them. Now I have to go back and buy some! Boy this sounds good.
btw my local quick-stop store has miniature bottles of all sorts of liqueurs; no Tuaca, but I’ve splurged on Grand Marnier in the past. Pricey, but for a little special sip or two, quite worth it!