Carrot Raisin Bread is a sweet, soft & tender, delicious spiced quick bread. Made with a bunch of goodness – carrots, raisins and bananas – and no butter or oils!
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There’s Room for Creativity in Quick Breads!
You gotta love making quick breads! You can’t find much more freedom in the baking world than a quick bread. This baked good welcomes your creativity! Fresh and dried fruits, veggies, jams, nuts, skip the oils, applesauce, baby food…the possibilities are endless.
There’s really only one rule when making quick breads – do not over mix the batter. Most recipes will state to “stir until just combined or just moistened” – and those are important instructions to follow. Over mixed quick breads will result in over-developing the gluten in the flour – which will leave you with a dense and rubbery loaf.
I suggest mixing your batter by hand with a spoon. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just moistened.
Ingredients & Instructions
You may notice that there is no butter or oil in this recipe. I substitute applesauce for oil in most of my sweet quick bread recipes (with great results). You may substitute an equal amount of melted butter or vegetable oil if you do not have applesauce on hand. I wholeheartedly recommend using applesauce.
This carrot raisin bread is super simple to make & bake. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Combine the wet ingredients together in a separate mixing bowl. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined – as stated above – do not over mix. Spoon or scrape into a large, greased loaf pan and sprinkle with chopped nuts or chia seeds if you’d like. Bake until toothpick comes out clean or with a few dry crumbs. Done!
Have extra chia seeds? Searching for more good for you sweets? Check out this Banana Chia Pudding recipe!
As for grating carrots, I used to use a food processor for the task. Honestly, I’m over that. I’ve had a few food processors and they’ve always left a mess and much to be desired when grating. I started using a rotary grater and have been much happier with the process, the results and the clean up! Though feel free to go old school and break out the hand grater – just watch them knuckles!
Speaking of carrots…if you’re a carrot lover – check out my Carrot Pie!
Let’s Eat!
Result – a delicious, moist, lightly sweetened and spiced, reminiscent of a pumpkin bread. The carrots will really surprise you with their earthy sweetness in this bread and the raisins perfectly compliment it.
This bread pairs wonderfully with a smear of peanut butter, cream cheese, butter or apple butter. Add a small glass of milk and a cup of coffee and it can count as a breakfast!
Hope you enjoy!
Amanda ♥
Carrot Raisin Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 large ripe banana
- 1 1/2 cup grated carrots
- 1/2 cup applesauce heaping
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 2 teaspoon chopped nuts or chia seeds optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or spray a large loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. I like to mix the dry ingredients using a whisk. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mash the banana – I use a fork to do this. Add in carrots, applesauce and eggs. Mix well.
- Combine liquid mixture (applesauce, bananas) to dry bowl. Add in raisins. Stir, by hand, until just moistened. Do not overmix!
- Spoon/scrape bread mixture into a large, greased loaf pan.
- Sprinkle nuts or chia seeds over top if using.
- Bake for 60 -70 mins or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean / with a few dry crumbs.
- Let bread cool in loaf pan on cooling rack before turning out. Enjoy!
Notes
This is an excellent recipe. I substituted applesauce for 2 4 oz jars of pear baby food and I used about 1 Cup dried cranberries instead of raisins. They came out beautiful and delicious. My children loved them.