More Citrus Recipes

Our little orange/tangerine/mandarin tree took this year off from making fruit.

It's trying to have some flowers, in spite of wind, rain, and snow.

But I still have needs! And one of those needs is for a Tangerine Chess Pie, so the Piemaker bought a whole big bag of clementines for $2.99. (We know there’s a difference between tangerines and mandarins, but we don’t care. We use them interchangeably.)

 

He made the pie, and we ate the pie, but we were still left with most of the bag of fruit. I snack on them everyday, but I can’t resist baking with them, too. So I started going through my recipe books for interesting recipes to adapt.

 

Here’s one I came up with the assistance of Grandmother’s Pies and Cakes, by Jane Fallon. 

 

Usually you find this type of bread with walnuts and cranberries, but I happened to have raisins and almonds on hand, so I used those instead.

 

Mandarin Orange Bread

Makes one 9-inch loaf

Ingredients ½ cup butter 1 cup sugar 4 tsp grated rind (this is 1 - 2 oranges or 4 clementines) ½ cup orange/tangerine juice 2 large eggs 1 ¾ cups flour 2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt Options: ½ cup dried fruit ½ cup chopped nuts

Directions ·       Preheat oven to 350 . ·       Grease and flour a 9-inch loaf pan. ·       Beat butter, sugar, rind, juice, and eggs on medium speed for 4 minutes. ·       Sift dry ingredients together. ·       Add dry mixture to orange mixture and mix with spoon. ·       Mix in fruit and nuts ·       Spoon into loaf pan (batter will be very thick) and bake for 60-70 minutes.

 

And I found another inspiration in Better Homes and Gardens’ Cookies and Candies, copyright 1969.

 This was my very first cookbook!

The original recipe was called “Apple-Orange Brownies”, but in addition to taking liberties with the recipe, I’ve also renamed it. The word “brownie” connotes chocolate to me.

 

Mandarin Bars

Makes 24 squares (approx. 2 ½ x 2 ½ inch)

Ingredients 6 Tbsp butter 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup applesauce 4 tsp grated rind (this is 1 - 2 oranges or 4 clementines) 1 large egg 1 tsp vanilla 1 ¼ cups flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp baking soda ¾ cup chopped walnuts

Directions ·       Preheat oven to 350 . ·       Grease 15 x 11 x 1 inch pan. ·       Mix first six ingredients together. ·       Sift dry ingredients together. ·       Add dry mixture to orange mixture, stir. ·       Mix in nuts. ·       Spread evenly in pan. There will only be a thin layer of batter over the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 minutes.   Make an icing with: 1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar and 2 tablespoons orange juice. Drizzle over the bars while still warm.   Or sprinkle with “orange sugar”: 1 part coarse-grained sugar (like Demerera or turbinado) mixed with 2 parts finely grated orange zest.

 

 

And we still have a lot of fruit left!

Katrina