Orange Sponge Shortbread

Here is a new variety for you all in my pastries page,for many days I was thinking to post something with orange, but couldn’t get a rite pastry recipe, after long trials, got this one from my baking class book, which I did during my college days. though I couldn’t able to recognize the taste, i tried it on my own, and got the real taste of the shortbread, you can bake this as a cake or even a shortbread as I did. This is a very simple one, easy to bake and tasty to have as well.

All you need is the common ingredients of making a cake and frehly squeezed orange juice and the orange zest(the outer skin of the orange,as it in the below pic), you may wonder why every time I use the outer skin of a lemon/orange in many of my pastries, the reason being it gives a very good flavors of the fruit and tempts you to have more. Make sure to wash your oranges thoroughly before grating and while grating do not grate the white pith underneath, as it adds a bitter taste to the shortbread. After you squeeze the oranges, pour the juice through a fine mesh strainer to remove any seeds or pulp if any.
 

Initial Specification:

• Temperature:325 Degrees F(170 Degree C)
• Time:50-60 Minutes
• Pan Used: a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan(Butter it and keep it for a while)

Ingredients:

• Eggs- 5 (Separated yellow and white)
• All Purpose flour- 1 ½ Cup
• Sugar- 1 Cup
• 2 Large Orange squeezed juice.
• Oil(Any)- ½ Cp
• Vanilla Extract- 1 Tspn
• Baking Powder- 1 Tspn
• Orange Zest- 1 Tspn
• Cream of tartar(optional)- ¼ Tspn
• Salt-1/4 Tspn

Method:

• Mix all the dry ingredients well I,e flour,sugar,orange zest and baking powder(Step 1)
• Add the oil, orange juice,egg yolks and the vanilla extract to the flour and beat highly for about 2 minutes.
• In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites in a very high speed until it becomes like foam at high speed for about 4 minutes.
• Add the egg whites to the batter (Step 2) and mix with a ladle(do not beat)
• Pour the mixture to the loaf pan(Step 3) without any lumps.
• Bake it for the said time and transfer to the wire rack and set it until it becomes cold.

Before serving, you can dust the bread with the icing sugar however its purely optional.