One Bowl Blueberry Citrus Bread

When the holidays get hectic and your house is full of family, friends and overnight guests, here's a little home baked recipe that will help you save some time and piece of mind. If you're NOT an Innkeeper, then I would recommend baking this fabulous bread before your weekend guests arrive. Then after a day of play, set your coffee pot timer on auto-brew, display the bread in a lovely covered cake stand with some fancy paper napkins ... and then sleep-in and get some much needed holiday R & R as your weekend guests help themselves in your kitchen the next morning. If you ARE an Innkeeper ... still make the following recipe the night before, but you better set your alarm and join your guests in the morning!!! -- Rachelle

One Bowl Blueberry Citrus Bread
by Chef Jim, Mount Dora Historic Inn

I love to bake, however, I do not love to wash dishes; so, in an effort to do as little clean up as possible and be a little lazy, I evolved my cooking methods to creatively become more efficient.

This is just one, of my many time saving (lazy) techniques; although, I do try to find ways to reduce the time I spend washing dishes, I never skimp on the quality of ingredients or the freshness of my dishes.


Ingredients

· 8 ounces of cream cheese—softened
· 1, stick of butter
· 1, cup of sugar
· 3, tsp of Vanilla extract
· 2, Hen’s Eggs (Chicken eggs will not work ... Just kidding. Kitchen joke.)
· 1/3 to ½ cup of orange juice
· 2 ¼, cups of all purpose flour
· 1 tbsp of toasted orange zest—you may also use grated orange peel, which you can find at your local grocery store
· 1 tsp baking powder
· ½ tsp baking soda
· ¼ tsp salt
· 1, cup of fresh Blueberries—you may use frozen if Blueberries are out of season

Technique

· Use a hand whisk, preferably a ½ whisk, to do all your blending (Do not use an electric blender).

· By layering in the ingredients as directed below (cream mix, dry, then eggs and juice), you will only need one bowl for the mixing process. (If, however, you are unsure of this technique, blend dry ingredients first in a separate bowl, then progress as directed.)

· Folding is a process by which you bring ingredients from the bottom of a bowl and gently combine or mash together, and repeating until just blended. This technique will prevents you from over mixing, which causes bread to become tough. (If you are folding fruit or nuts into a mixture, then you do not mash. If you are folding a wet or cream mixture with a dry mix (like flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder) then you mash to combine evenly—if using this process, give a final three or four quick and vigorous rotations with your whisk to completely blend.)


Technique For Toasting Zest

· Preheat oven to 325
· Zest two oranges—as this is a process, do extra and store in fridge
· Place on lightly greased cookie sheet—Baker’s Secret are my favorite for baking
· Bake for about 10 minutes (every oven is different)

Preparation

· Preheat oven to 350 degrees

· Use a non-stick cooking spray and coat a loaf pan; or, five mini-loaf pans

· In a large mixing bowl (non-reactive, glass, plastic, or stainless) combine cream cheese, melted butter, vanilla and sugar and mix together—mix until consistency of frosting.

· Add dry ingredients on top without combining with cream mixture

· Blend dry ingredients above the cream mix with a dry whisk—do not combine with cream mixture yet—Dry ingredients must be well blended before combining with anything wet (if this process is not followed your bread will either, cave or balloon)

· Add eggs, and juice on top of flour mixture and fold together. Repeat the folding process until mostly blended

· Now, whisk briskly until total mixture is just blended (about three to four full rotations with whisk) and blend until just wet—Do Not over mix, or your bread will be tough

· Gently fold in Blueberries until well dispersed in to the batter

· Pour batter into well greased loaf pan

· Cook for approximately 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes if you are using a regular loaf pan—cooking times vary from oven to oven—the bread is finished when a cake tester or toothpick is inserted in to the center of the bread and comes out clean, allow to cool for two to three hours before slicing; otherwise the bread will crumble. (If you are using five (5) mini-loaf pans, then cook for approximately 45 to 50 minutes.)

· It is important to let bread cool before slicing or bread will crumble. Allow bread to cool on wire rack for:

Large single loaf – 1 ½ hours
5, mini-loaves of bread –1 hour