Thursday, September 10, 2009

Easy Cheap Cinnamon Carrot Bread Recipe

UPDATE: Click on photos to see color versions.

One of the very wise readers of this blog suggested shredding carrots to put in food. This gets more veggies in the kiddos and is an inexpensive way to extend a meal.
.
That got me thinking. My kids love bread, they eat it plain, and fruit, but don't often ask for veggies. So I was thinking carrot bread. I searched the web and found a recipe I like here. What I like the most about this recipe is that it has the same amount of carrots as it does flour, so it really is carrot bread. I simplified the recipe, taking out expensive and unnecessary ingredients and cutting back on others. I exchanged the nutmeg for cinnamon because I am out of nutmeg.
.
Mix together:
.
2 eggs -$0.16
1 teaspoons stevia or 1 cup of sugar - $0.16
1/3 cup fat (shortening, softened butter, etc) - $0.17
1 1/2 cups flour - $0.24
3/4 teaspoon baking soda -$0.03
2 teaspoons cinnamon - $0.16
1/2 teaspoon salt - $0.01
.
The dough will be very crumbly and you may even think you made a mistake, but you didn't.Then, peel and grate 1 1/2 cups carrot ($0.32), or about half a pound of carrots and mix it together. Unless you have a food processor, this can be a tedious task. I usually watch a ten minute video on YouTube while I do this.
.
Mix carrots with dough. It is a very heavy dough, and makes a very heavy loaf. It took me an hour and a half to two hours in the crock pot on high and it came out moist, but firm. This recipe makes one can in the crock pot, so I multiple it by 2, 3 or 4, depending on how long I want to grate the carrots. The original recipe, which says it makes one loaf, called for one hour in the oven at 350 degrees. I honestly can't believe how good this stuff is. Since I first made it, my kids and I have been going through about a loaf a day. I've been making extra batches and freezing them for some easy food when the new baby is born.

10 comments:

Jen said...

What size tin cans are you using in your crock pot? Also, are you baking it without the crock pot insert (the dish)? Those cans looks small for the amount of work and when you said it only makes one can I was confused. Are those larger cans? Thanks!

Emily said...

They are 28 oz tomato cans and 30 oz pumpkin cans. It is a dense bread, and I never make one batch at a time. Very filling. Yes, I take out the ceramic insert.

Treva said...

Just wanted to say this recipe looks delish and I plan on baking it up sometime in the next few days. I made sure to buy carrots -- 2 lbs for 69 cents!, thanks to Aldi's. I really hope DD likes it. She's a GREAT veggie eater so she probably will, but I'm hoping to add it into the baked treat rotation.

Anonymous said...

Love your recipes and I hope you won't mind to share more in the future. Thanks!

Aiming4Simple said...

I'm going to have to try this too! I love that you include stevia in your recipes!

myfamilyinterests said...

can you bake it in the oven or just straight in the ceramic insert?

Emily said...

I bake mine in tin cans in the crock pot with the ceramic insert removed. You can bake it in the oven at 350 for an hour.

A Bunch of Knits said...

sounds yummy! we'll try using whole wheat flour and honey instead of white flour and sugar. maybe even try a bit of molasses and see how that turns out too!

Emily said...

bunch of knits, it's our family favorite. FYI, we only use whole wheat flour, we use white wheat because it is a semi sweet bread, and we never use white sugar, only stevia.

Monique said...

I'm not big on carrots or veggies, but I find too that if I grate the carrot, I still get some of the vegetable and it's not as noticable to me.

Post a Comment