Orange bread

Orange bread is a dessert famous for being prepared with a whole blended orange. Here is the original Sicilian recipe.

Orange bread is a typical dessert of Sicilian cuisine and it couldn't be otherwise: it is in this region in fact that oranges find fertile ground for cultivation, producing juicy and very sweet fruits. What we are offering you today, however, is not a simple orange cake: its particularity lies in the fact that it is prepared by blending the whole orange, including the peel .

The result is something that goes far beyond expectations. In fact, you cannot imagine how intense the flavor of this citrus fruit will be. Before moving on to the recipe, however, it is worth making a clarification: pastry shops actually do not use the whole blended fruit but orange paste , i.e. blended candied oranges. However, the homemade version of orange bread is the best prepared of all.

How to prepare the orange bread recipe

1. First, wash the orange well and cut it into pieces, including the peel. Transfer it to a blender together with the milk and blend until you obtain a smooth mixture.
2. Then add the eggs , oil and sugar and blend again briefly so that a cream is created.
3. Now all that remains is to add the sifted flour with the yeast . If your blender is too small, you can blend the orange and milk and then mix the ingredients placed in a bowl in the same order.
4. Pour the mixture into a plumcake mold lined with baking paper and bake at 180°C for 45-50 minutes or until it comes out dry when tested with a toothpick.
5. Let it cool completely before serving, decorating as desired with icing sugar.

We also leave you a short video with all the steps. As for the mould , you can use whatever you prefer between cake, donut or plumcake but traditionally it should be rectangular and hemispherical.

The cake is already good as it is but there is a further step you can take. Basically you have to prepare a syrup with 100 g of sugar, 100 g of water and the grated zest of half an orange (or 100 g of orange juice). Then prick the surface of the cake, while it is still in the mold, and pour it delicately over the entire surface, waiting for it to absorb. Alternatively you can spread a thin layer of orange marmalade over the cake.

As often happens with traditional recipes, even in this case it is difficult to identify the original. The proportions between the various ingredients can in fact change but what really cannot be missing is the orange. We recommend using Tarocco or Sicilian reds .

Conservation

The orange cake can be kept for 2-3 days under a cake container.

Origin and history

The origin of the orange pan cake (this is the correct name since orange refers to the plant) is shrouded in mystery. The fruit seems to have arrived in Sicily in the 14th century at the hands of Portuguese traders (this explains why there are still those who call oranges Portugal), however this is not the only hypothesis. According to some sources, in fact, it was the Arabs who brought them to the island, long before.

And what about the cake? Orange bread seems to have been created by the nuns of the Benedictine convent in Catania, which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1693 and immediately rebuilt. Originally the dough included a part of almond flour, another ingredient whose cultivation found fertile ground in Sicily.

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