After making so many rich and gooey things this week, I thought I’d switch gears and make something kind of wholesome and useful. This recipe is based on an old recipe from a 1984 Southern Living annual, so it’s (at least) 24 years old. Doesn’t it seem strange that 1984 was 24 whole years ago? 1984 seems like yesterday. I hated the ’80s but I sort miss them still.
Anyway. This bread, unlike the eighties, is not defined by excess. It has a low but reasonable amount of oil and all kinds of healthy (’60s!) ingredients like whole wheat flour, carrots and nuts.
Carrot-Pecan Bread
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup boiling water
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped, toasted pecans (or walnuts)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5 inch metal loaf pan with flour-added cooking spray or grease and flour.
Combine carrots, boiling water, brown sugar, oil and orange zest in a medium bowl. Let cool for about 10 minutes.
Stir together both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in center of mixture.
Stir eggs and vanilla into carrot mixture, then pour carrot mixture into the well you made in the center of the flour mixture. Add pecans, then stir until well mixed (do not beat with a mixer).
Pour mixture into pan and bake on center rack for 1 hour. Cool on a wire rack. Flip from pan and cut into slices.
Makes 1 loaf
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks yummy, and you’re right, after all the ooey, gooey stuff, I’m thinking healthy. I’m about to make a healthy whole grain type muffin. Instead of quick breads, I always make them in mini muffin tins. My kids will eat a muffin, but not a slice of bread!
Thanks for this recipe, it looks great!
Printing this out now… I’m cleaning out my pantry this weekend – I’m sure I’ll find all kinds of stuff that I didn’t even know I had to bake with…
Just today I bought a big bag of organic carrots to make baby food and was thinking I needed to search for something else to make with the leftovers…Anna to the rescue! Thanks for the timely post.
Hope you like it!
FYI. I weighed my flour and used a total of about 10 1/4 oz — 6 oz all purpose, 4 1/4 oz whole wheat.
This isn’t nearly as rich and moist as carrot cake. It’s definitely more of a quick bread — lower in fat, but not rubbery.
“This bread, unlike the eighties, is not defined by excess.” Anna, you always manage to bring a smile to my face with your fun metaphors, haha – love it! And that bread sounds wonderful – carrot & pecan is a delectable combination!
Great – a recipe to use some KA whole wheat flour that’s been waiting. Perfect timing as usual. BTW – my hubby loved the PB & Nutella Brownies. He’d never had Nutella and they came out just pefectly.
What I still can’t believe is that I graduated high school in 1984. Where does the time go?
Have you ever made the carrot bread from Mimi’s restaurant? I used to love that stuff.
Looks right up my alley – I love the carrot bundt cake with applesauce in it that you posted some time back. This looks like a good everyday type loaf.
I’ve been missing the 80s lately, too. I think that shows how bad things are right now. Depressing!
Mimi’s is one of our favorite restaurants and I LOVE the carrot bread. Is there a recipe out there for it? We are now an hour away from the closest one and don’t get there as often. Sigh.
I was not alive in 1984 (sorry!), but I’m glad you shared the recipe. Sounds like good breakfast for the next week or so.
Anna – have you seen the Kraft Foods cheesecake customizer? Here’s the link:
http://www.kraftfoods.com/philly/customizer
you enter your pan size, type of crust, and other options and it generates a recipe for you. Kinda fun.
It looks delish and I think it smells wonderful too, Anna!
Not a comment about the bread, looks good.
But…….when writing about a decade such as the eighties it is ’80s, plural, not 80′s which is possessive.
A very common error.
Cheryl, thanks for pointing that out. I think I was too busy trying to have fun with the words and not paying enough attention to grammar. That happens a lot here. It’s pretty embarrassing.
Anna thanks for a great recipe! This was pretty darn healthy…so I made it with one slight change – I replace some of the oil with ground Flax Seed. It was delish so I decided to blog about it to my friends…thanks so much for the inspiration!!!