A Frugal Ima Frugal Recipe: Orange Bread

Good Morning frugal home managers!  Is the cold weather getting you down?!!?!  Short span of daylight perhaps leaving you a bit depressed?!!?!  Undiagnosed malady yuckying up your general existence???!?!  Perhaps even causing you to use an embarrassing amount of exclamation points in order to get yourself excited?!?!?   No?!?!?  Just me?!?!

Well, that was embarrassing.  But, it's true.  Even my fat compost heap squirrel friend is only garnering half a smile around here.


Yes, indeed, I do suffer from some slight Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is unfortunate considering I've also been known to be an Emotional Eater.  A very earnest part of me believes that a good baking day can do almost as much good as a therapist. So, you can imagine the state of my kitchen and my waistline the past couple of months.  But, I digress.

I've been finding that any kind of fat, and white flour, aggravate the tummy issues about which I've spent two consecutive Sundays kvetching.  No fabulous chocolate cookies for me!  I went in search of some recipe for warm yeasty goodness that didn't disagree with me ("Just lay off the baked goods," you say?  Clearly you don't know me.)

I thumbed through my bread machine cookbook and came across a little gem of a recipe.  What about this particular recipe made me smile?  Two oranges' worth of zest.  Little bits of sunshine tucked inside a low-fat, whole-grain, aromatic, comfort-food loaf?  Yes, please.  (The zest is what makes this recipe "Frugal" instead of "Super-Frugal."  So worth it.) 


 I tweaked it to make it pareve, a bit whole-grainier, and a bit lower fat, and here you have it.

Here's what you'll need:

Zest of 2 oranges, grated or cut into very thin strips.
1 2/3 c water
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp honey

3 c whole wheat flour
1 1/4 c white flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp yeast


(As an aside: Please ignore all this mise en place nonsense that I seem to be evangelizing through my recipe pictures.  The number of times you see all my ingredients laid out is the same as the number of times I've bothered to take pictures of stuff for the blog.  It is for the sake of economy of photos, and that is all.  More often than not I'm tearing open a bag of flour with my teeth while wiping snot with one hand and breaking up a toddler fight with the other.  Unless you're coming to our house for Shabbos, in which case all the food is completely sterile and not at all gross.)

My little helper thought it needed a few desiccated Cheerios too.  So, once again, mind your helpers.


Knead until smooth, allow a first rise, punch down, form into loaves, allow a second rise, oven at 350 for 30-ish minutes. You know the drill.

  OR, if your S.A.D/your general home management duties have you otherwise occupied, chuck all of it in a bread machine and take it out four hours later.  Guess which one I picked!


Is this bread related to my brand-new obsession with marmalade?  Probably!  Am I loving it?  Yesssss.


Don't you feel sunshiny-er already??!?!??!

See you Sunday. :)