Friday, December 16, 2011

Carrot Bread + Emile Henry Giveaway!


I am so excited about this post and this giveaway!  First, the recipe.  Carrot bread?  I know, I know... you've heard of carrot cake and you may or may not like it.  Well, this is kind of like carrot cake, but not as sweet and it has a perfectly smooth texture, not a chunky or stringy texture that you find in some carrot cakes.  Does that make sense?  Think pumpkin bread and you're in the ballpark on this one.  Hesitant to give it a try?  It's worth the extra effort.  My coworkers devoured this bread both times I brought it to the office.  People have been begging for the recipe.  Here it is.

Before you click away and assume that this recipe is way too non-conventional to be good (and easy), let me tell you that if you like the warm, fall-spiced and moist taste of Sweet Potato Pie or Pumpkin Bread, this recipe is right up your alley.

First, you need to puree some carrots.  It's the most annoying part of this recipe and you may want to do it the day before you bake the bread because it will take a full hour of cook time, mashing, etc.  But, I promise, it's worth it.

You take a 1 pound bag of baby carrots (or 2 bags if you're making 2 or more loaves... you'll want to double this recipe).  Put the carrots in a big pot with about 1 1/2 cups of water and simmer on medium/high for 45 minutes or until softened.  Then, you need to whip those carrots into a smooth puree.  I used an immersion blender.  Maybe you have a blender of a food processor that can do the job.


 At this point you have some beautiful, orange, smooth puree that you can store in the fridge until you need it (up to 3 days or so).


 When it's time to make the bread, you'll be using 1 1/2 cups of puree per loaf.  You should be able to get a little more than 1 1/2 cups of puree from one pound of carrots.

I add plenty of wintery spices to this bread and I also use half whole wheat flour.  This bread is hearty, not too sweet, and pretty healthy.  Make sure you sift your dry ingredients (yes, the wheat flour may separate during sifting, just mix it back in).  You don't want any big chunks of baking powder in your bread.


 Then you mix together your wet ingredients (butter, sugar, puree, vanilla).  Introduce the wet to the dry...


 Stir until just combined.  Then, the best part... the raisins!  I know there are some raisin haters out there, but I love me some raisins, especially golden raisins.  If you're a raisin hater you could add some nuts... or if you love both, add both!  I like to toss my raisins in a tablespoon of flour before stirring them into the batter.  I think it keeps the raisins from sinking to the bottom of your loaf of bread... or at least that's what they say on television.


After the loaf takes a trip to the oven, you get this goodness...


This bread makes me very happy at 7:00 am on a 35 degree morning in traffic on I-95.  Oh yeah, it's the good stuff.

Now, you're probably thinking, "Keeley, this bread looks so good, but I don't have a loaf pan!"  My dear readers, I have your back.  Since it's almost Christmas and all, I have a giveaway.  I picked up this lovely Emile Henry Loaf Pan last weekend and I'm going to give it away to one lucky reader:

Sorry for the mediocre photo... it's late!
The rules?

  • Contest is open today (Friday, December 16, 2011) and ends at 11:59 on Monday, December 19th, 2011
  • To enter, please leave a comment telling me your favorite type of bread.
  • I'm only shipping this prize to the U.S., so please keep this in mind as you enter.
  • This giveaway is not sponsored by Emile Henry, it's just me showing love to my readers. Thanks for reading!
  • I'll announce the winner on Tuesday.  Please email me directly to claim your prize and arrange shipment.
This contest ended.  A winner was selected for this giveaway on 12/20/11.

Okay, here's the recipe:

Carrot Bread
a Keeley original
yield 1 loaf

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups carrot puree (instructions in this blog post for making puree)
1 T. vanilla flavoring
3/4 c. raisins tossed in 1 T. flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until well mixed. Stir in eggs and carrot puree until well mixed.
Make a well in the dry ingredients (flour mixture) and stir in the wet ingredients (carrot mixture). Do not overmix. Gently stir in raisins and pour into prepared loaf pan (batter will be thick). Wrap pan on the counter a few times to even out the mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 75 minutes. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove bread from pan immediately after baking and place on a cooling rack.

13 comments:

  1. If I had to pick just one, I suppose I'd say sourdough. With butter. Dipped into hot yummy soup.

    But my SIL's parents give us Irish Sweet Bread every year and it's good with mascarpone cheese on it.

    And my mom makes a beer bread mix with cream soda and white chocolate chips instead of beer. Not particularly healthy but MMMMMMM is it good!

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  2. My favorite kind of bread is bake and fry bake. It is a type of bread from Trinidad. I'm going to ask my mom to teach my sister and I how to make it during the holidays. I'm going to try a few more new dishes. I figured I'd challenge myself for 2012.

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  3. my fave type of bread is banana bread with nuts... love it! (and also love pumpkin bread and zucchini bread!)

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  4. i would like to think that my fav type of bread would be the bread i'd want to try to make from a mango cake recipe (with this lovely loaf pan). i think its delicious as a cake, but sometimes too sweet w/icing, so i'd imagine making this into a cake, puree the mango like you did your carrots, have hints of cinnamon maybe even a bit of lemon. i feel more comfortable experimenting w/baked goods than cooking!

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  5. I love pumpkin bread, so carrot bread sounds right up my alley!

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  6. I love love banana bread, it's so moist!!!

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  7. I love love banana bread, it's so moist!!!

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  8. Cranberry Orange bread. I've been craving some lately so I guess I should just give in and go buy the ingredients!

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  9. I make a lot of whole wheat honey bread but I love this almish friendship bread that gets passed around the neighborhood as a starter.

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  10. My favorite bread is homemade banana nut bread :o)
    Hard to find a good banana nut bread and too lazy to make it. So if you decide to make and sell I would definitely buy from you.

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  11. I've never had carrot bread, but I bet it would an instant favorite of mine. I would totally swap out the raisins for toasted walnuts. As I'm trying to think of my favorite bread, I don't really have one, because I've ever been offered is banana bread, and I hate bananas! Now give me some savory foccacia with rosemary and olive oil and I'm all over it!

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  12. This bread looks fantastic! We make a carrot bread that is yeast-based ... we love it, but this one looks like something different.

    I'd like to invite you to our countdown to 2012 next week. Each day stop by and come link up your favorite recipes from 2011 - there will be a new linky and theme (e.g., breakfast, breads, soups & stews) each day!

    Have a blessed & Merry Christmas!

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