Sara's Best ever, no fail, essence-of-orange cinnamon bread

Not only is this week's bread easily the best-named one we've had on the Bread Blog, but clocking in at over 1700 miles by the most direct route across the Earth's surface it has leaped to the front of the "recipe with the farthest distance traveled" competition. I'm excited!

So, to get this project started combine in a big bowl the following: 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 beaten egg, 1/2 of a cup of sugar, 3/4 of a cup of orange juice, and 1 cup of warmed milk. Take one large orange and grate the peel into the bowl as well, (perhaps I should have put a disclaimer on this recipe in case anyone is getting queasy just thinking about oranges...) and then stir in 2 cups of whole wheat flour until everything is well mixed together. Add to this 2 3/4 teaspoons of yeast proofed in 1/4 of a cup of warm water.

Slowly stir in 4 cups of all-purpose flour, and get to kneading. Much like the Norwegian whole wheat, this dough isn't so difficult to work with in terms of its toughness so much as the shear volume of it. That and, I suspect, the fact that my arms hurt from a particularly taxing rock-climbing session earlier in the week. Anyway, after 12 or so minutes the dough should have a nice elastic but not-too-overworked texture to it, so put it in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for the

First rising (1 hour and 20 minutes)
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So, this post is going up a day late because I just got back from a weekend trip to Chicago. It was really quite a good time, including a nicely eclectic mix of activities, from the symphony orchestra to a science museum to a matinee show of The Second City. Which was absolutely hilarious. No offense to Combo Za or anything, but that was by far the best improv/sketch comedy I've ever seen.

Anyway, mostly it was just nice to get out of town for a few days, seeing as I really didn't manage to do that much at all this summer. A very refreshing trip, and a good sort of mental endpoint to the summer... I feel like now I can really just settle in to the more regular routine of the semester: classes, problem sets, research, and all that jazz.
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Punch the dough down (be warned: quite surprisingly for a dough that was so soft to begin with, this dough punches back!) and divide it in two. Gently work the dough with your hands into two rectangles. This would be a good time to run a little experiment on final loaf states vs. rectangle sizes, so make one rectangle about 8x10 inches, and the other closer to 10x16 (but starting from roughly the same initial volume of dough, the difference being entirely in the thickness). Spread each rectangle very lightly with olive oil, and then coat evenly with a cinnamon-and-sugar mix (1 tablespoon of cinnamon to a little more than 1/4 of a cup of sugar). Roll up each rectangle, put the smaller one in an 8x4 bread tin, the larger in a 9x5, re-cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for the

Second rising (4o minutes)
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Just one more quick comment about that Chicago trip, specifically the symphony. Musically, it was great (minus one french horn player who just couldn't seem to end sustained notes gracefully). It was also nice to go to a concert where, except for an opening Rossini overture, I had never heard the pieces before (Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony)...I feel like recently most of the music I've heard live has been pieces I was already quite familiar with.

Also, the performing space in Symphony Center is pretty fantastic. I did think the row of seats above and behind the orchestra was a little weird though. It kept reminding me of professors lecturing about nobles sitting on the stage for performances of Elizabethan-era theater. Which may have distracted me slightly from the actual performance.
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Set the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes.


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Aesthetic verdict: Well, the interior is fine, but the exterior leaves something to be desired... Gigantor (the one on the right, from the 8x4 bread pan) clearly was rolled too tightly, whereas Mr. Eyes-and-a-nose was plainly rolled so tightly that he ripped himself apart in the baking.

Tasting verdict: Delicious! A bit too sweet to be a regular lunch loaf for sandwiches (although, let's be honest, that's what I'm using it for anyway), but absolutely fantastic as toast for breakfast. It has a good density, a soft crust, and a strong but not overpowering flavor of orange. And a whole lot of cinnamon-y tastiness.