This recipe caught my eye because I can’t say I’ve ever really thought about the combination peanuts and oranges and when I googled the bread, nothing came up. Did Louise Arnold come up with this recipe herself? Who knows! I was also intrigued because the bread didn’t call or butter or oil, just peanut butter.
I felt like there were a couple tweaks that needed to be made to put the orange into “peanut orange bread”, zest alone is not enough so I replaced a quarter of the milk with fresh orange juice. A drop of orange extract might be good too but I ended up with a ton of zest from that orange and the batter was very fragrant with oranges so I didn’t bother. I added some vanilla for extra depth.
I liked it a lot! I don’t think it needs butter or anything spread on it, it is quite flavorful. It formed a fairly thick, crunchy crust which was a nice texture contrast to the soft bread but was a little crumbly. Make sure you use a serrated bread knife for this one! It is a fairly savory bread as quick breads go, there is not a lot of added sugar. Most of the sweetness came from the orange and the peanut butter.
Peanut Butter Orange Bread
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup flour
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
- ⅓ c. sugar
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup milk
- ¼ cup fresh orange juice I used a Cara Cara orange
- zest of one orange I used a Cara Cara orange
- ¼ cup coarsely chopped honey roasted peanuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter a standard 9 x 5 loaf pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Use a mixer to mix in the peanut butter, then beat in the egg, vanilla, milk, juice and zest until it forms a thick, sticky batter.
- Fold in the peanuts and scrape into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean or with just one or two dry crumbs.
- Cool in pan on a wire rack then remove from the pan and cool completely on the rack.
adapted from Louise Arnold’s Peanut Orange Bread recipe appearing in Cooking Favorites: Recipes From Employees and Friends of Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site (undated)
