I am constantly finding new recipes to try. I see them in books, magazines, on Pinterest … more recipes than I could ever make in a lifetime. But I can still try!

My latest attempt was from a Taste of the South magazine, and the recipe was for Orange Marmalade Twist Bread. I had never eaten marmalade, despite being enamored with Paddington Bear and his sticky adventures. But I do love citrus notes in desserts. So one afternoon I pulled out the recipe and studied on it. The thing is, I can’t just make a recipe. I always think how I would change it, just a teensy little bit. Sometimes this yields fabulous results, other times a real flop. I think this time I have a keeper. You can find the original recipe here, and below I will tell you how I changed it, I think for the better.

The dough is a basic sweet yeast bread. I was concerned that it would fall short in the way that so many cinnamon roll recipes do; the dough would be bland and tasteless and the filling would be the only lovely bit. So I decided that if this was going to be an orange bread then, by golly, it was going to have orange in the dough. I had a big beautiful orange hanging about, and so I zested it into the flour. Zest contains the essential oils in the rind of the fruit and gives a wonderful citrus taste and fragrance to whatever you put it into. Then I juiced the orange and substituted the juice for the amount of water that was in the original recipe. The recipe called for hot water, so I simply put it in the pan with the butter when I melted it.

The magazine called for a stand mixer for combining the dough. I have never owned one, but I do have a bread machine. I put all the dough ingredients in the pan of my bread maker and let it go for about 15 minutes on the basic setting. This accomplished the mixing of the ingredients, a rest, and then a kneading time. If you have a stand mixer feel free to use it; otherwise, a bread machine does the trick.

From there I continued on, following their instructions to the letter, including lining the pan with parchment paper. I will NOT do that again. Parchment is used to keep something from sticking, but when the marmalade cooled it became like an orange tar (a deadly delicious tar!) that clung tenaciously to the paper. The next time I make this I will simply grease and flour my pan as usual and then turn out the bread immediately out onto a platter to cool. That way all the melted marmalade that you use to glaze it will simply pool around it and you can sweep it up with chunks of the bread … yum!

Also, the instructions were very vague on how to cut the dough so that it makes the lovely twist. I accidentally cut mine in half instead of longways down the roll. (I suggest checking out this cinnamon twist bread recipe with photos that show exactly how its done.)

I didn’t know if I would even like marmalade, after all the work I went through to make this. But I was much reassured by the gorgeous shreds of peel that I saw in the Smuckers brand that I purchased. I don’t know if they are all like that, but the chewy bits of orange in the jam were a real winner for me.

The dough was also a pleasant surprise. I expected it to be close to a cinnamon roll type, but this seemed more tender and light. And with the addition of my orange zest and juice the dough was delicious and perfumed with the scent of fruit even without the jam. This turned out to be a recipe that I will definitely make again, with my revisions. It is heavy and chewy enough to be satisfying, but the sweet, sticky citrus gives it an air of springtime. It won’t be long before this is on my table again!

Orange Twist Bread

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 ¼ tsp (or 1 package) instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup sour cream
• ⅓ cup unsalted butter
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 2 large eggs

Filling:

• ⅔ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• ⅔ cup orange marmalade (I used Smuckers brand and it was perfect!)

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup marmalade

Instructions

For Dough:

If using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place flour, sugar, yeast, orange zest, and salt in the bowl of the mixer. Melt the butter with the ¼ cup orange juice. Add this along with the sour cream and eggs. Beat at low speed until a soft dough forms. Switch to the dough hook attachment; beat for 8 minutes. Cover bowl with a clean cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.

If using a bread machine, melt the butter with the ¼ cup orange juice. Pour into the bread pan long with the sour cream and the lightly beaten eggs. Add the flour, sugar, orange zest, and salt. Make a well and add the yeast. Allow the mixer to run through a mixing mode, rest, and knead. On my machine this was about 15 minutes of the basic bread setting. Take out the dough and knead lightly by hand if they dough is rough, until a smooth ball. Cover with a cloth and rest 10 minutes.

Assembly & Baking:

1. Grease and flour a 9 or 10-inch round cake pan
2. To make the filling, combine brown sugar and marmalade in a small bowl.
3. On a heavily floured surface, roll dough into an 18×10-inch rectangle. Spread with filling, leaving a 1-inch border on long sides of dough. Starting with one long side, tightly roll up dough, jelly-roll style, and press edge to seal. Using a serrated knife, cut roll in half lengthwise. Carefully twist dough pieces around each other, and form into a circle. Place in prepared pan. Cover and let rise in a warm (75°), draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake until lightly browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Turn out onto platter. Put the 1/2 cup of marmalade in the saucepan you melted the butter in and add about 1 Tbsp water. Heat over low until thin enough to easily brush on with a pastry brush.

 

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