By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

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Reader’s request for ’60s
orange bread recipe found

It never hurts to ask. I imagine this went through Jane Nauman's mind when she wrote asking for the recipe for orange bread served at Stewart's pharmacy on Kalakaua Avenue in the 1960s.

It seemed like a long shot -- finding a recipe from so far out of Waikiki's culinary past, so last week I offered a couple of other recipes for orange bread in this space. But, you know, it never hurts to ask, so I put out the question: Did anyone, by some miracle, have that old recipe?

And a half-dozen people dug into their files and came up with it.

Turns out the recipe was printed on coasters and distributed free. Nancy Morris even sent a color photocopy of the actual coaster. "I hope this makes me a kamaaina," she wrote.

It's a quick bread, and the recipe is distinctive because it incorporates a syrup made from orange peel and sugar.

Jean Grippin says she and her family were faithful customers at Stewart's Waikiki Restaurant, often ordering Orange Bread Toast and coffee. "We thought that a part of our life had been wiped out when they decided to close the pharmacy/restaurant," Grippin says. "Ah, such sweet memories."

She does have the recipe as a reminder of those times. "This is a good recipe and I've made it many times over the 47 years I've lived in Hawaii."

The recipe follows, pretty much as printed on the coaster, with a suggestions from Grippin that flesh out the instructions.

Thanks also to all the others who wrote, called or e-mailed with the recipe.

Orange Bread

1 cup orange peel, white pith removed, cut into very thin strips about 1 inch long
1 cup sugar
4 cups flour
6 level teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk

Put orange peel into a saucepan, add water to cover and boil until peel is tender. Add 1 cup sugar; boil to make a medium-weight syrup. Cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans with butter.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Cream butter, eggs and remaining 3/4 cup sugar.

Add milk and sifted dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed, 4 minutes. Add cooled orange peel with syrup. Finish beating by hand with spoon for another minute. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 40 to 50 minutes.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.