Orange-Blueberry Breakfast Bread: A Delicious Way to Start Your Day

Coffee and tea drinkers look forward to the first cup of the day, the fragrant, steaming brew that gets them up, gets them thinking, and gets them on their way. Home-baked goods are also eye-openers for many of us. This Orange-Blueberry Breakfast Bread smells marvelous when it's baking and, thanks to the citrus tang, tastes as good as it smells.

Before you start baking look over the blueberries carefully. Remove any stems and leaves that you find. Discard berries that are starting to "turn" because they won't withstand the baking time. Rinse the blueberries and dry them well. This recipe is based on a recipe that has been around for years. To make the recipe healthier I added wheat flour, used Splenda for sweetness, and substituted unsweetened applesauce for the shortening.

Breakfast Pizza

After the bread comes out of the oven let it cool (in the pan) on a rack for 20 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan and let it cool completely. Use a serrated knife to slice the bread. One loaf yields about 16 slices. This bread has so much flavor you don't even need butter. Now on to the star of the show, Orange-Blueberry Breakfast Bread.

DRY INGREDIENTS

1 cup white and wheat flour blend

1 1/2 cups presifted white flour

1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend for Baking

1/2 cup Splenda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

WET INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup fresh orange juice

1 tablespoon pure orange extract

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 tablespoons canola oil

METHOD

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a loaf pan with baking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl combine dry ingredients with a whisk. Sprinkle the blueberries over the flour mixture and fold in gently with a rubber scraper. Make sure all of the berries are coated with flour.

In a small bowl beat the eggs with a fork. Add the orange juice, orange extract, applesauce, and canola oil and combine well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing with a rubber scraper just until the batter is moistened. Turn into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until the bread starts to pull away from the pan. This bread freezes well.

Copyright 2006 by Harriet Hodgson

Orange-Blueberry Breakfast Bread: A Delicious Way to Start Your Day

http://www.harriethodgson.com http://www.healthwriter.blogspot.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for the fomer "Rochester Magazine," in her hometown of Rochester, MN. Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com. A five-star review of the book is posted on Amazon. You will find another review on the American Hospice Foundation website under the "School Corner" heading.

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