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All the flavors of a carrot cake including carrots, raisins, and pecans in a tasty bread with a cinnamon glaze on top!

Recently we got a lot of carrots. I’m talking we probably had around seven pounds of carrots. I like carrots but that’s a lot of them to use.

I’ve been trying a few new recipes to use up the abundance that we had. I made a carrot salad the other day that turned out to be surprisingly delicious.

While I love a good carrot cake I didn’t want to make one and have it sit in our house for a week. So when I saw a recipe for carrot cake bread, which is basically a mini version of the carrot cake minus the cream cheese frosting, I thought that would be a good recipe to make.

Ingredients:

flour
baking powder
cinnamon
nutmeg
salt
egg
sugar
vegetable oil
vanilla
carrots
raisins
pecans
powdered sugar
milk

To Make the Bread: Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well. In another bowl mix together the eggs, sour cream, and sugar. Add in the oil and vanilla and mix well to combine. Fold in the carrots, raisins, and pecans. Spread into a loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray.

To Bake the Bread: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the bread for 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 15-20 minutes. Run a knife around the pan and then remove to a cooling rack.

To Make the Glaze: In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Put in a zip top baggie and drizzle over top of the bread.

The thing about this carrot cake bread is that you can eat it for breakfast, snack, or dessert. Because it just has a glaze on it and not a ton of frosting I didn’t feel guilty eating it for my breakfast.

The carrot cake bread is packed with carrots so while I wouldn’t say it’s healthy it is a good way to get in some vegetables. It’s also made with raisins, nuts, and olive oil instead of butter so I didn’t feel bad eating it.

Can I use grated carrots from the store?

No. The carrots you get already grated at the store are pretty large and won’t cook in this bread. You’ll end up with hard bits of carrot throughout your bread. Grate your own carrots at home to make sure they are thin enough for this bread.

Can I add a cream cheese frosting?

Of course you can. If you want to make this bread and top it with cream cheese frosting to turn it into a dessert bread I say go for it. It will be plenty delicious. If you need a great cream cheese frosting recipe try THIS ONE. It has a hint of orange in it which would be awesome with this bread but you can just make it without the orange and it’ll be a regular cream cheese frosting.

Can I make this with butter instead of oil?

You sure can. The bread will have a bit of a different consistency but it’s delicious. The butter will actually give it more of a cake like texture. It will also add a bit of flavor to the bread. You will use 2 sticks of butter in place of the 1 cup of oil.

Do I have to add the raisins and nuts?

No you do not have to add the raisins or the nuts. If you don’t add either one I would increase the flour by 1/4 cup in the recipe. If you want a replacement you can add dried cranberries or chopped dates in place of the raisins. You can use walnuts, pecans, almonds, or your favorite kind of nuts in this recipe as well.

After the bread comes out of the oven you can add a glaze to the top of it but you don’t have too. I used a simple cinnamon glaze but you can make a vanilla glaze or even a cream cheese frosting.

Since the bread is already fairly sweet I found the glaze to be the perfect topping. The bread is sweet, spiced, and has tons of flavor from the carrots, raisins, and nuts. The glaze adds another bit of sweetness.

This bread does fall apart easily so be careful when slicing it. I recommend using a serrated knife to cut it so it doesn’t fall apart. While you can put butter on it I don’t think it needs anything. It’s perfect just the way it is.

More Carrot Recipes:

If you’ve tried my Carrot Cake Bread or any other recipe on Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks please take a minute to rate the recipe and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. I love hearing from you! You can FOLLOW ME on: