Carrot Bread

I love carrots.  Raw carrots, cooked carrots, carrot cake and cupcakes, muffins,  but I have never heard of carrot bread.  Hmm.  Sounds---interesting.

The house smells heavenly.  And this bread is pretty; good crumb, nice texture.  I am a little tired of loaf shaped breads so I baked mine in a tube pan (think Angel Food Cake). 

I followed the recipe (with high altitude changes, of course) exactly as written except that I substituted Chinese 5-spice powder for the cinnamon, added raisins and left out the nuts.  No one in my family likes walnuts - so they're not here.  I also sprinkled a handful of raw sugar on top of the loaf before baking.  Carrots, coconut, cinnamon, some wheat flour.  This is not a sweet bread, in spite of what you might think when you smell the aroma of it baking.  I think it actually might be healthy. 

 I spread this with some wonderful Irish sweet butter (it is St. Patrick's week after all) and that is all it needed. 




I'll be saving a chunk for breakfast toast and sharing the rest of the loaf with friends.