Orange Sticks: marydukecooks.com

This recipe is from my friend and mentor, Mary Wood. In college, Dorothy Bedor and I would come home from school in the spring to hike. We walked the trails of Roan Mountain looking for wildflowers. Mary would spoil us with her fabulous snacks and desserts. My favorite snack was orange toast; an orange flavor toasted bread.

Many years later when Doc and I had children of our own, our kids renamed the snack orange sticks because each slice of toast was cut into 5 strips that looked like sticks. The name stuck and now I share this recipe, as Mary did with me, writing “With Love” on the recipe title. Hopefully your children will enjoy these orange sticks as much as my children did!

Orange Sticks “With love”

Zest of 1 orange
½ cup softened unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
12-14 slices Pepperidge Farm thin sliced bread

Preheat oven to 250ºF. Add orange zest to a small bowl. Stir in sugar then add butter. Mix until smooth. Spread thinly on bread slices. Cut each slice of bread into 5 strips.

Bake on rimmed baking sheets for 45 minutes. Watch carefully so that they don’t get too brown. (You want them to be pale, not golden brown.) Cool. Store in airtight container. Makes 100 sticks

Published in The News and Neighbor on February 22, 2017