Easy Orange Bread

I adore easy orange bread for breakfast. Slice it up, toast it, and top it with butter and honey. Pure heaven in every bite!

Course Bread Machine Recipes

Cuisine American

Keyword milk bread, orange, orange bread

Servings slices per two-pound loaf of bread

Calories 173kcal

Author Marsha Perry

Equipment

Ingredients

1 ½ cups milk
4 cups bread flour
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 ½ Tablespoons oil optional
1 ¾ teaspoons active dry yeast
3 1/2 teaspoons Orange Zest this should be about the amount you'll get from zesting 1 medium orange

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Note that this is for a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with medium crust.
Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the bread machine first.
Make sure you check on the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. Just pop the top of the bread machine and see how the dough is doing. It should be a smooth, round ball. If it’s too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks OK. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks OK.

Notes

This is a recipe for a two-pound machine. You’ll be using the basic or white cycle with medium crust.

If time is short, you can make this recipe with the quick cycle of your bread machine substitute the active dry yeast with three teaspoons of fast-rising (rapid rise) yeast.

Try this with sour milk for a tangy taste. Don’t have sour milk, but want that tangy taste? To make sour milk add one tablespoon of vinegar to one cup of room-temperature milk. (Adjust amounts as needed for each recipe.) Stir and wait about 5 minutes. But remember, if you’re adding 1.5 tablespoons of vinegar, make sure to reduce the initial milk amount by the same 1.5 tablespoons to keep the balance just right.

High Altitude Instructions: Note that this recipe was tested and developed at sea level. If you're above 3,000 feet you'll need to make adjustments. I have a page that gives general information about using your bread machine at high elevations.

I have tested this recipe at about 4,800 feet. I found that making these changes turn out a great loaf of bread at my altitude:

Lower the amount of yeast to 1 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
I had better results using the light crust setting instead of the medium crust setting
Always check the dough after it’s been kneading for a few minutes! About half the time I need to add a little more flour.

Metric Measurements: This recipe was developed and tested using US customary measurements. Metric measurements are calculated automatically.

Nutrition