Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  This week we have a guest post from my friend Ginny, who has a super-tasty orange bread to share.  Here she is!

One evening, I was looking for something to make for dessert to have after dinner and I was thinking of sweetbreads “Pumpkin?  Banana?  No, we do those all the time.  Apple?  No.  Pineapple?  Hmm.  Orange?  Orange Juice?!”  And with such a bizarre idea, I knew I had to find out if it was even possible.  One quick Google search later, I had a recipe to modify and was getting started.  The recipe needed very little tweaking to get it gluten free.  Basically just subbing in dough mix for the all-purpose flour and then figuring out exactly how much xanthan gum and guar gum was needed.

The glaze is fairly optional.  The first time I made the bread, I left it out and some very picky eaters gave it universally rave reviews.  Then the next time I added the glaze and, while the bread itself was still praised just as highly, the taste-testers were about evenly split on the glaze with the opinions either being that it was too sweet or that the juices in the glaze added another great citrus-y punch to it.  Fortunately, it is somewhat modifiable.  Personally, I prefer the glaze with only 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon more of the lemon juice.

Orange Dessert Bread

Yield:  13x9x2 pan of quickbread.

Ingredients:

For the batter:

• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 1 1/4 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 c dough mix
• 1/4 t xanthan gum
• 1/8 t guar gum
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 c orange juice
• 1/4 c milk

Directions:

For the batter:

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Cream together the butter and sugar in the stand mixer on high speed.  You’ll want to make sure the butter is soft beforehand, but other than that, it’s straightforward.

3.  Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add to the creamed butter and sugar.  I have tried both ways: beating the eggs separately, then adding them and just cracking the eggs right into the mixer and letting the mixer do the work for you.  And beating them in a separate bowl really does seem to make a difference.  The end result is a little smoother and more evenly distributed.

4.  Sift the dough mix, guar gum, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt together, just to make sure everything is evenly mixed.

5.  Mix the orange juice and milk together.  The acidity in the orange juice might cause the milk to start to separate.  This is perfectly fine.

6.  Add the dry mix and the wet mix to the running stand mixer alternately until everything is mixed in, allowing the batter to mix thoroughly between each addition.  It doesn’t have to be a strict alternation, what’s important is to make sure it all gets incorporated before the next thing is added.

7.  Grease a 13x9x2 glass pan, and pour in the batter. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until bread springs back lightly when pressed.  While the bread bakes, you can work on the glaze.

For the glaze:

1.  Combine the lemon juice, orange juice and sugar in a small saucepan.

2.  Heat over medium-low until the sugar is dissolved.  I found it very easy to overcook this, so err on the side of caution here.  The sweet spot (no pun intended) is just when sugar crystals are no longer visible.

3.  Brush or drizzle the glaze over the warm bread.

4.  Allow the bread to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then serve warm!