This Orange Glazed Poppyseed Quick Bread will shock you, especially when you see that it is made with whole wheat flour. How can something made with whole wheat be so moist? Ahh, let me tell you athe secrets.
First, I believe a huge factor in making this bread delicious while baking with whole grain is that I use freshly ground soft white wheat. There is a big difference in wheat flour ground from hard red berries (which makes heavy, dark whole wheat flour), wheat flour ground from hard white berries (which makes lighter whole wheat flour), and wheat flour ground from soft white berries (which becomes a light pastry flour – still whole wheat!).
Read more details about these varieties of wheat here. I use hard and soft white wheat berries, depending on what I’m baking. (Hard wheat must be used in recipes that call for yeast.) For recipes like this Orange Glazed Poppyseed Quick Bread, I use soft wheat berries. The pastry flour this makes is so light it seems like I’m using all-purpose white flour. But it’s whole grain – and full of nutrients!
Beyond the kind of flour used in this recipe, I believe the Orange Glaze is what gives this bread an extra measure of moistness! Mix a little orange juice with honey, add almond and vanilla extract, and this glaze is incredible!
And speaking of almond extract, I’m going to make this ingredient the MVP of this Poppyseed Bread recipe. Wow, does the almond extra take this bread from a one-star to a five! This, from a girl who loves vanilla extract. Sorry, vanilla. It’s almond that wins the prize this time. :)
Orange Glazed Poppyseed Quick Bread
- 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- ¾ cup sucanat, brown sugar, or raw sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup melted butter or coconut oil
- 1 ½ Tablespoons poppy seeds
- ORANGE GLAZE:
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- Mix flour, sucanat or sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, extracts, oil, and poppy seeds.
- Mix well.
- Pour batter into 2 well-buttered loaf pans (or six small loaf pans).
- Bake 45-60 minutes at 350°.
- FOR GLAZE:
- Whisk ingredients together until smooth.
- Pour mixture over loaves of poppyseed bread about 3 minutes after they have been removed from the oven, but before removing the loaves from the baking pans.
I guess it’s clear that while this is a Poppyseed Quick Bread recipe, poppy seeds aren’t the ingredient that gets my attention. Those are important too, but whole wheat pastry flour, orange glaze, and almond extract are the key to making this recipe absolutely amazing!!
- Read more about grinding flour in a grain mill here.
- Not able to grind your own flour right now? You can buy Whole Wheat Pastry Flour like this.
- Want to make your own Vanilla Extract? Here’s how.
- Need Almond Extract for this recipe? Here’s my favorite brand.
- Not sure where to buy poppy seeds? I either buy them in bulk from Azure Standard, or I find them at Amazon.
By the way, I love doubling this recipe and freezing extra loaves to pull out and serve another time. This bread doesn’t get dry in the freezer and thaws to be a perfect convenience food!
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