That wouldn't be my approach.

I soak dried fruit (golden raisins, currants and cranberries) in cognac and orange juice for a while before getting ready to bake. I can't stand candied fruit, but like that. You could use Grand Marnier for more orange flavor.

I have a European recipe I have not tried yet that calls for the sugar to be mixed with lemon zest and orange zest several days or weeks before baking and also uses lemon zest in the almond paste (if you add almond paste). You could try that -- or simply add orange zest to the dough (when you add the butter -- or mix it into the softened butter before adding. The oils in the zest will blend into the fat in the butter.

I will try the fruit soaked in something next time, thanks for the idea, and also the additional orange zest does sound good. The recipe actually called for mixed candied fruit but I really do not care for candied citron so just used the cherry/pineaple mix but something is just lacking in flavor. This recipe made 3 loaves so I was looking for a "quick fix" for the 2 that I haven't sliced into yet.
Thanks again!
Edie

How about a flavored butter spread on a toasted slice?

Tangy apricot spread

1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. apricot jam
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 T. lemon juice
=============
Orange Butter (Silver Palate)

1 stick butter
1/3 cup marmalade *
1/2 tsp pd sugar
grated rind of 1 orange **

Cream tog & pack in small crock.
Serve with apricot or raisin bread.

* or strawberry jam
** with 1/2 tsp lemon juice if using strawberry.
Serve with waffles or orange bread

While soaking the fruit in alcohol is optimal, I don't see why you couldn't brush the loaves with orange liqueur or even brandy or whiskey. Another option would be to make a powdered sugar glaze with orange extract or liqueur instead of the traditional plain powdered sugar. You could even do both.

Since I haven't glazed them yet, I think that's an excellent suggestion. (I even have a new unopened bottle of orange extract on the shelf that I bought and then couldn't think of what to use it for!!) Thanks so very much!
Edie

Glad to help, hope it turns out just the way you want it to. :o)

I was going to suggest glaze also. Can poke some holes in the bread with a toothpicks so glaze soaks in more. Yum.

Glazing worked beautifully - much better than the plain confectioners sugar I was going to dust them with at first. We had a delicious breakfast treat. Thank you all so much!!!
Merry Christmas
Edie

This is for next year:
If you can find 'A World of Breads' by Dolores Casella, the Stollen recipe on p. 247 is marvelous. I've made it several times and it has always been as good as a person can ask for. Some notes on the recipe: I make it with butter not margerine, have used grappa instead of the rum or brandy suggested (in other words, use a hard liquor, but you have a range of choice), used almonds for the nuts (recipe says almonds or walnuts), home-candied lemon and dried cherries for the fruits and peels, golden raisins (recipe says those or currants), and used the optional spices. A person could use the variants the recipe suggests (but always butter!) and the stollen would come out still great but different.
The large quantities of eggs and fat, dried fruits and nuts, the liqueur and spices, are all important; so is the stollen's being a yeast-raised bread (though there are baking powder stollens), sweet but not too sweet. It makes an excellent enduring breakfast bread, and is very good toasted. I don't ice mine.
One can take the principles of the stollen and create variations. I'm forced into experimentation by not being able to find a lot of ingredients here that are standard in U.S. supermarkets. Recently I made a holiday bread along lines similar to stollen. The base was milk, eggs, oil (sunflower seed), mixed whole wheat and white flours with a cup of chestnut flour (it has a slightly sweet, dark, smoky flavor) per loaf, sugar, salt in moderation. I made a yeast sponge, mainly because yeast is so expensive, then added the flours. I used raisins marinated in with Marsala with grated nutmeg and chopped almonds, then experimentally added some powdered ginger and cloves. The bread came out quite good.