I’ve made quick bread from Simply Delicious before (17-51: Three Palms Quick Bread) and it turned out well–this recipe is no exception. 17-43: Orange Date Quick Bread is part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.
I chose to include this recipe in my holiday gifts this year because I wanted to include some different textures, flavors, and shapes, as well as reflecting the abundance of citrus fruit during winter in California. 🍊
This is really similar to any other kind of quick bread (e.g., banana), and it makes a great breakfast bread. If you don’t want slices, you can totally do it as muffins too–in fact, I did half of the recipe (I doubled all of my holiday gift recipes) as muffins and half as loaves of bread.
Ingredients. This recipe stands as the one that FINALLY finished the massive container of Hadley dates we’ve had in our fridge for what seems like forever.
Creaming the butter and sugar.
Microplanes will make your zesting life much easier, but will instill fear in your fingertips and knuckles.
I usually always beat eggs in glass measuring cups. No good reason besides the fact that my mom always did it that way.
A very orangey mixture. 🍊🍊🍊
Sifting the dry ingredients together. I have one of these types of sifters, but I never end up using it.
Mixing the dry and wet together–don’t forget to switch from whisk to paddle if you’re using a mixer!
I’m too lazy to chop up the nuts and dates by hand–I’ll let the food processor handle it.
Much more even and consistent than I would have been able to do by hand anyway.
Double batch was enough to fill two loaf pans (not as high as normal though) and one mini-muffin pan.
Here’s the muffins out of the oven–those look pretty nice.
Here’s one of the two loaves. It could have been a bit taller (more batter) and a little less dark on the outsides, but overall it turned out pretty well.
I sliced the loaves normally, but I still felt like I was going to come up short on having enough for all of my gift boxes (even with the mini muffins).
I ended up halving all of the slices and wrapping them individually that way. Each box then got 2-3 half-slices, which made them easier to share/snack on.
Here’s a close-up of what ended up in each box. Just enough for a taste–I ended up not including the muffins because I thought it might be confusing/inconsistent. After all of that.
Here’s this recipe, 17-43: Orange Date Quick Bread along with the other recipes I made for my holiday gifts this year:
- 17-31: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
- 17-37: Holiday Cookies
- 17-52: Apricot Macaroons
- 17-61: Vanilla Chip Cookies
- 17-67: Coconut Crescents
This was a yummy quick bread, and made a nice alternative to the more traditional cookies that I included in my gifts. Give it a try, especially if you have a lot of oranges around right now.
Grade: A
