Last Updated on April 15, 2022 by Karen
You can feel good about starting the day with this lightened-up carrot quick bread that tastes like carrot cake!
Did you have a nice long weekend? Labor Day Weekend came and gone, and as always, it’s a bittersweet holiday for me. I love having the day off from work, but on the other hand, it means the end of summer (my favorite season!) is near. Everywhere I look, there’s something to remind me of that fact: pumpkin ales, pumpkin spice lattes, stores selling Halloween decorations (a little too early for that, isn’t it?!) and mobs of people on the streets and subways getting to and from school or work.
While I’m not quite ready to embrace fall just yet, I don’t mind turning on the oven for the first time in two months to make this carrot bread. I think I’ve used the oven not more than once this summer to be honest!
Sweet quick bread loaded with carrots, raisins, and pecans, it’s perfect for breakfast or for an afternoon snack with a cup of tea. And the fact that they are lightened up is just icing on the cake! I replaced most of the vegetable oil in the recipe with applesauce, but you won’t even miss the fat and calories in these carrot bread – the applesauce actually helps keep it nice and moist. Think of this as a healthier version of a carrot cake.
Bake up a batch of these carrot bread if you have a few extra minutes today and you’ll be happy to see that on your breakfast plate tomorrow morning!
Spiced Carrot Quick Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsps ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup carrots shredded
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup pecans coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan by coating it with cooking spray or lining with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, sugars, applesauce, oil, and vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing just enough to moisten. Fold in carrots, raisins, and pecans, then spoon the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before remove the loaf from the pan.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
Hey! I’m Lexi from Sempre Dolce – I just wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for the One Lovely Blog award – if you don’t wish to participate, that is perfectly fine, I just wanted to let you know! :)
Hi Lexi, thanks for the nomination!
This bread looks SO up my alley! Carrot cake is my absolute favorite. How do you think it would taste with whole wheat flour?
Whole wheat flour would definitely work! In this case, I’d use 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour – the texture is not noticeably different.
How delicious is this spiced bread! Looks jam packed full of yummy ingredients, spices and flavours.. definitely need to recreate the recipe!
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