Last month Willa posted this scrumptious sounding recipe for Orange Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bread. Doesn’t that sound delightful?
Today was cold and rainy and so I was dying to bake. It seemed like just the thing.
I tweaked Willa’s recipe a bit. I used whole wheat flour and brown sugar, which yielded a much browner loaf. I substituted yogurt for the half and half, which meant I used 1/4 cup of plain, whole milk yogurt. I also added some orange zest to the topping and to the batter. And I used full sized chocolate chips rather than mini chips. The girls loved, loved, loved it.
But the recipe makes two loaves. So into the second loaf I tossed in a half a cup of chopped pecans and half a cup of dried cranberries. Oh super yum! The girls probably won’t eat the nuts. I know Dom won’t eat the cranberries. So that loaf is just for me and my sister. Mmmm decadent!
So to record my tweaks for posterity and to make it easier to make again:
Ingredients:
4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups orange juice
1/4 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips
orange zest
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Topping:
1/4 cup white sugar mixed with 1 tbsp orange juice (I just realized that I did 2 tbs, and it turned out fine.) and 1 tsp orange zest
Directions:
1. Combine softened butter, sugar and eggs. Then other wet ingredients.
2. Add dry ingredients. Mix in oatmeal and chocolate chips.
3. Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans. (I put half the batter into one of the loaf pans then added cranberries and nuts to the other half of the batter.)
4. Sprinkle sugar topping over the top. Cover and allow to sit for 20 minutes.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. (Note to self: In my oven and with my stoneware pans it required another 10 minutes before the loaves were cooked through.)
6. Remove from oven, let sit for five or ten minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Let cool, cut and serve. Or eat hot. Enjoy the nice crunch of that glazed crust, the delight of the sweet pockets of chocolate chips and cranberries. Mmm… I’ve eaten far too much of this already. I’m probably going to hear about excessive weight gain from my OB next week.
Sorry no pictures, my camera’s memory card has gone AWOL.