Marmalade Bread

 Adapted from Bread Machine Magic.

*YAWN* Hey guys! It's a sleepy day here in AZ for me. We've been insanely busy recently, which has kept me away from my blog world more than I would like, what can I say?!? I enjoy sharing these stories from my crazy life and my recipes with y'all! But this particular day reminds me of another day just like this a few weeks ago...

It was still chilly here, and it was a dark cloudy day, and all I wanted to do was sleep and drink coffee (seriously... Somebody should just hook an IV up to me with coffee flowing through it.). Of course being a Mom, the sleeping all day thing never happens, so I was coffee'd up all day (I think by dinner I was on my 5th 16oz. cup... haha! And would you believe I had no problem sleeping that night?) and of course what goes better with coffee than a delicious homemade bread? Ok yes I know, cinnamon rolls or donuts would've been my first choice too, but work with me here, remember I was being lazy. So I got out my trusty Bread Machine Magic cookbook, and flipped through it. Decided what to make about 4 different times, each time changing my mind, til finally I landed on this bread, and it did not disappoint! I was seriously surprised at how great it smelled while baking, and just how light and fresh it tasted. Even my little sous chef ate an entire slice with his eggs and bacon, which for him is pretty unusual, he's not big on breads (Yes I am aware of the fact that he is weird... How can you not like bread?!?). And of course the winner for me is this bread is low in calories and fat, at only 162 calories and 1.9 grams of fat per slice, I was a very very happy eater! As always I changed it up just slightly by adding in the dried cranberries, you know me and my cranberries, my addiction to them is almost as bad as my addiction to coffee... (And don't worry guys, I also drink loads of water a day) 

Now though my personal drink preference is coffee, I remember how fun it was having tea parties as a little girl. In fact, when I was really little, my dad was the one home with me during the day and I remember making him have tea parties with me all the time. And one of our favorite things to do was to get a big slice of bread and put butter on it, and have it as our tea party snack! This bread brings back all those sweet memories of serving "tea" to my dad, as he sat on the floor in my bedroom while I buzzed around my play kitchen (yup, was obsessed with cooking even at the age or 4), and complained about my imaginary friends and family. haha! Why am I bringing this up you ask? Well Foodbuzz and Electrolux are partnering to host a Top 9 Tea Party Takeover on Friday, March 25th. In a Top 9 Takeover, Foodbuzz asks all Featured Publishers to construct a post around a theme and then, for one day only, all Top 9 posts reflect that theme.We're doing this in support of Ovarian Cancer Research, you can check out the website for Kelly's Confidential for more information and to support this wonderful cause! And for your next tea party, I hope you'll enjoy this bread, and for you Mom's of little girls, or even Dad's, I hope you will treasure each and every tea party you share with your little girl, as much as I treasured the ones I had with my Dad!

Ingredients: this is for a 1.5 lbs. Loaf. If you'd like the recipe for the 1lbs or the 2 lbs loaf let me know!4

2/3 cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1 1/4 cups Milk (I used 1%)

2/3 cup Orange Marmalade

1 1/2 Tablespoons of Butter or Margarine, cut into small cubes

1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

3 cups Bread Flour

3-4 Tablespoons Dried Cranberries

2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast

Directions:

Place all ingredients in the loaf pan, in order listed or according to your manufacturer. Bake on a standard cycle, for a 1.5 lbs. loaf on a medium crust setting. Once it's done baking, remove the bread from the pan, and allow to cool slightly before slicing. Serve warm, we liked ours topped with more marmalade.

Review:

Don't you just love easy bread recipes? I know I do. Now if your machine has an "addition timer" where it beeps partway through the kneading process to add in raisins or nuts, you can add in the cranberries then and they won't get so broken up, which is what I did. But that is optional. As I said, if you want the recipe for the other loaf sizes message me, or get a copy of the book at my Amazon Store! 4.5 Stars.