Orange Chocolate Ricotta Breakfast Bread

I read a lot of food blogs. I occasionally check out lucullian because it has amazing photos and I'm a little jealous of her lifestyle, I mean, the woman lives in Tuscany...but I've never been tempted to make any of her recipes. They always seem a little off/strange. Well, last week she ran an orange, chocolate ricotta breakfast bread recipe which really appealed to me. We made it last night.

Here's the deal:
It was very easy to make. You melt the butter so you don't have to remember to soften it, that speeds things up. The ricotta was easy to mix in and you sift the flour right into the bowl with the wet ingredients. She recommended 350 degrees for the oven temp and 25-30 minutes cooking time. I knew that was wrong. No bread is that fast. It actually took 55 minutes. We used really good quality dark chocolate and didn't fine chop it, rather, we left it chunky and it was amazing hot of the oven. Mona had her's with vanilla ice cream while I had mine plain.
We had it again for breakfast this morning. I toasted it in the broiler and it was wonderful. The whole kitchen smelled of orange and chocolate...good combination.
Enjoy!

ORANGE, CHOCOLATE AND RICOTTA CAKE

Pre-heated oven to 350°
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
4.4 oz fresh ricotta
3 oz butter
1.5 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 oranges
3 oz dark quality chocolate, chopped

Whisk egg and sugar until light yellow in a bowl.
Grate the zest of the oranges and then squeeze them for juice.
Melt the butter in a small pan and add the orange zest and the juice.
Mash the ricotta and incorporate it with the eggs and sugar.
Add butter and mix it.
Sift flour and baking powder into the bowl and stir until it's smooth.
Add the chopped chocolate and mix well.
Pour the the whole into a greased cake tin and bake for about 55 minutes.
Check it with a toothpick.
Recipe from this food/lifestyle blog: Lucullian