Orange Spice Bread is a dense, sweet bread with dried cranberries and candied orange pieces mixed into the dough. It is spiced with cloves and cinnamon and uses simple syrup infused with orange spice tea, and that's what makes this bread so unique and delicious!
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr
Rising Time9 hourshrs
Total Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Course: Sweet Bread
Cuisine: American
Servings: 24
Calories: 295kcal
Author: Louise
Ingredients
Candied Orange Slices
1largeOrangenaval
3cups sugardivided
3 ½cups waterdivided
Orange Spice infused simple Syrup
1cupsimple syrupuse the syrup you candied the oranges with
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in the Ninja Foodi using the Sear/Saute on high. Cut the naval orange in half and then cut into ¼" slices. Put into the boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Remove and drain. Discard the water.
Add 1 ½ cups of water and 1 ½ cups of sugar to the inner pot and put on the pressure lid. Set the valve to seal and turn the Ninja Foodi on high pressure and set the time for zero minutes. Allow to come up to pressure and then when it it says done, immediately release the pressure and turn on the sear/ saute function on high.
Pick out 14-18 slices that look good for the decorations and set them aside. Remove the flesh from the remaining orange slices and dice them up. You want about ½ cup of diced orange for the bread.
Add in the orange slices and the diced pieces. Let them sit in the simple syrup for about 2-3 minutes. While the orange slices are in the syrup, put 2 cups of sugar in a shallow dish.
Remove the orange slices and dredge each slice through the sugar and place the slices on a cooling rack.
Orange Spice Simple Syrup
Strain the Simple syrup to remove any orange pieces and place 2 orange tea bags and let steep for 5-10 minutes. This will also allow the simple syrup to cool down. It has to be less than 110° F before adding to the bread dough or it can kill the yeast.
Reserve 1 cup for the Orange Spice Bread. You can save the remaining simple syrup to sweeten tea if you like.
Orange Spice Bread
Combine ¼ cup warm water, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 2 ¼ teaspoon yeast into a small bowl and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to proof. The yeast mixture will become bubbly.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoon ground cloves. Mix to combine.
Add in proofed yeast and fold into the flour mixture. Add in ½ cup of melted (cooled to less than 110° F) and mix.
Add in 6 ounces of dried cranberries and ½ tablespoon salt. Mix to combine.
Add in 1 cup of the orange tea infused simple sugar (make sure it has cooled to less than 110°) and ½ cup diced candied orange. Mix to combine. Your dough will be very wet at this point.
Add in another cup of flour and mix until it combines and makes a dough ball.
Preheat the Ninja Foodi on bake/roast at 250° F. After 5 minutes, turn the Ninja Foodi off, but keep the lid closed.
Flour your kneading surface with about ¼ cup of flour and dump the dough ball out on top of the flour.
The dough will be very soft and a little sticky at this point. Add another ¼ cup of flour on top and knead the bread for a few minutes. If it is still sticky, add a bit more flour and knead a few more minutes.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a 6" or 8" cake pan or other oven safe dish. Form a disc with the dough cover in a small amount of olive oil to prevent it from drying out. Put the dough in the cake pan or dish. Place the dish on the rack in the low position and place it in the NInja Foodi (keep the Foodi off) for 30 minutes
Remove the rack and turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. The dough will not rise that much, so don't worry about that.
Form the dough into a round circle the size of your ring mold or bunt pan. Put your thumb and finger into the middle to form a circle big enough to fit over the center part of your pan. See video and post for details.
Place the dough into the pan and cover with a damp towel and put in a draft free space overnight. If you use the oven, you can turn the oven light on to provide a bit of heat.
Preheat the Ninja Foodi on bake/roast at 325° F. for 10 minutes. To make a design in the top of your bread, cut ½-1" slits around the bread about every inch. Twist each one of the sections. See post and video for details.
**Optional step: Pour ½ cup of melted butter around the edges of the bread just before baking.
Bake at 325° F for 20 minutes. Cover top and reduce the heat to 300° F. and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let the bread sit in the Ninja Foodi with the lid closed for 10 minutes.
Allow the bread to cool 30 minutes before cutting or 2 hours if using the glaze.
Remove the rack and turn the bread out onto a cooling rack. If you want the bottom and sides to be a bit more brown, then return to the NInja Foodi on 300° for about 10 minutes.
Place the candied orange slices on top by tucking them into the grooves made by the slits we made before baking. Glaze with the orange chocolate glaze if using. See post for details.
Orange Chocolate Glaze
In the bottom of the inner pot, heat ½ cup heavy cream on high saute. Turn the Ninja Foodi off and add the zest from 1 orange and white chocolate chips. Stir to combine and allow the heat from the heavy cream to melt the chocolate. Remove from the inner pot and allow to cool in a small bowl. When cool, drizzle over the bread.