Orange Yogurt Bread

Tis' a transitional time of year for food.  Most of us have to  ease ourselves out of sweaters and stew, and into capri pants and spring salads. 
I love spring.
With it's puddles, pussy willows, and dog crap unearthed from under the year's worth of snow, it's pretty much a stellar time of year all around. I have been doing a lot of baking in my down time this past week, and came up with a few gems that I am excited to share with you all. As I am finishing up school this next two months, my excitement level is through the roof, and I have great difficulty sitting still for any extra amounts of time because of my abundance of joy and readiness to be done with this endeavor called education...


 Orange is a flavor I usually avoid, mostly because of a traumatic instance as a child involving those cartoon-ish pale peach circus peanuts that are supposed to be orange flavored, but really taste like plastic death with a hint of New Car scent air freshener. But, I do love  real life oranges, so in this recipe I was able to block out that painful experience and make this delightful Orange Yogurt Bread.

Orange Yogurt Bread

-1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 cup sugar

-3 T. orange zest

-1 t. baking powder

-1/2 t. baking soda

1 egg, beaten

-8 o.z. of orange juice

-1 8 o.z. container of yogurt ( recipe called for orange yogurt but I used vanilla)

-1/3 cup canola oil

-1 t. vanilla

Directions: Grease a 9 inch loaf pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in dry mixture, set aside. Combine egg, yogurt, oil and vanilla, whisking lightly to combine, then add to dry mixture and fold gently to combine. Spoon into loaf pan, bake for 35-40 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. These can be made in muffin tins also. 

 Here it is in it's unadulterated state, before it was defiled by an amazing slathering of butter... 

Moist and crumb-y, covered with a bit of butter, this bread has the rich and tangy taste of both the oranges and the yogurt. Freakin' yum.

I had a piece with every meal yesterday. I could not be stopped, and anyone who tried to stop me would have not gotten to share my awesome bread.  I think I'd like to try this with some different fruit flavorings eventually, I'd  bet lemon and apricot would be great... 

Stay tuned!=)