Carrot Bread

Is carrot cake or carrot bread seasonal?

I'm asking because the idea of a loaf of carrot bread sends me into hallucinations of cinnamon and fireplaces and changing leaves.

Maybe it's the bright orange of the carrots.  Or the aromatic wonder of fall spices.  Maybe it's because no one in my family remembers to make carrot bread until fall.  Whatever it is, it's homey and wonderful and meant for brisk nights cuddled up next to a raging fire, right?

Well, this was my mentality until I was getting the oil changed in my car yesterday and found this undeniably amazing recipe in an old magazine.  Carrot bread.  Check.  Cream Cheese glaze?  Yes, please.  Candied carrots?  I don't even know what you are, but I want you.

So, naturally, I had to steal the recipe.  There's a lot more work involved then the recipe I had used previously.   And, making candied carrots requires a careful eye and finesse that I don't have.  After a couple attempts, I counted myself lucky, or at least close enough, to have an edible, aesthetically-pleasing carrot topping.

Tomorrow, I'm putting these candied carrots to good use again.

Dessert anyone?

Carrot Bread

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens)

2 cups flour

2/3 cups brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups shredded carrot

2 beaten eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup canola oil

Cream Cheese glaze

2 tbsp cream cheese

3/4 cup Confectioner's sugar

3 tsp milk

Candied Carrots

2 tbsp butter

1 cup shaved carrots

3 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease an 8" loaf pan.

In one bowl, combine all dry ingredients of bread.  In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients including the carrots.  Add the wet bowl to the dry mixture until fully incorporated.

Bake for 1 hour.

For the glaze, combine all three ingredients and drizzle over cooled bread.

For the candied carrots, cook the carrots and honey in the butter over medium heat.  Stir for 2-3 minutes until the carrots are tender.  Lay them out on a sheet of waxed paper to cool.  Pile them onto the carrot bread.

Listening to:  Carrie Underwood - Good Girl