ORANGE BLUEBERRY BANANA BREAD
A great summertime banana bread with blueberries that is lightly flavored with fresh orange
Yes, here I am to revisit banana bread once again. I know I’ve made several already, but this time there will be a new element added: blueberries! I have a surplus of both bananas and blueberries, so why not? It only made sense to me.
But I have a bunch of oranges too… should I really put ALL of those flavors together in one banana bread recipe? I know that lemon is a great complement to blueberries, but what about orange? I don’t know if that would be too much, but I wanted to find out. Okay, I will commit to it: bananas, oranges, and blueberries. I had better stop looking in my fridge because I don’t think this recipe can handle anything else.
I felt I didn’t need to go crazy and try to stray from a standard banana bread recipe base, as I was already straying with the addition of both orange and blueberry. So, this is a pretty straight forward banana bread recipe, utilizing all the standard ingredients: flour, leaveners, sugar, butter, egg, vanilla, and bananas (of course).
The real test will be tasting it…
Okay, so there is no lacking of moistness or flavor in this banana bread.
But how did the orange flavor pair with the banana and blueberry? The orange really complements the banana and blueberry in this bread! The orange flavor and scent is quite subtle, unlike lemon which is generally pretty fragrant and pronounced.
I must admit that I imagined the orange flavor to be stronger, but I am happy that it didn’t turn out that way, because I think this banana bread is delicious as is. Blueberries have always been a great match for banana bread (at least in MY opinion), so there was no surprise there.
If you wait until the next day, this banana blueberry orange bread gets even better.
The bread itself is moist and soft. It would probably be great if heated up as well.
Try this recipe for a new refreshing twist on blueberry banana bread !
Recipe:
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Ingredients Section:
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2TBS light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup mashed bananas (about 2 medium)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (from one small navel orange)
- 1 TBS orange zest (from one small navel orange
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream both sugars and butter until light and fluffy.
- Add mashed banana, eggs, vanilla and orange juice, beating until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the orange zest with a rubber spatula.
- Fold in flour mixture, along with blueberries, just until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, spreading evenly.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or close to clean).
- Allow the bread to cool for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes about this recipe:
- Make sure to measure the banana after they are mashed; I used two medium bananas that added up to 3/4 cup. But when in doubt, measure it. I’m sure more or less mashed banana could still turn out delicious, but the baking time and final product would most likely be different.
- Make sure the blueberries are washed and dried prior to adding to the batter.
- Mixing the blueberries with the flour coats the blueberries and helps suspend them in the batter, thus not sinking to the bottom.
- Make sure the orange has been scrubbed clean and dried thoroughly prior to zesting.
- I got 1 tablespoon of zest and a 1/4 cup of orange juice from one small navel orange, but please be aware the amount could vary from one orange to the next.
- There shouldn’t be seeds in a navel orange, but in the rare case that seeds appear (or the orange ends up being a valencia), please make sure that any seeds that have fallen when juicing the orange are removed prior to adding to the batter.
- You can experiment using store-bought orange juice if you have that and do not have fresh oranges. I do not know how it would affect the end result, as I only tested this recipe with a fresh orange.
