Carrot Spice Bread

I had carrots sitting in my refrigerator for sometime now. I had actually bought them when my father-in-law was visiting and had intended to roast them. But with working the days that he was visiting I never found the time to make them. So it was time to use them up, they had sat in the refrigerator long enough.

I decided not to roast them now, because I would have been the one eating them, the guys in the house are not much for roasted carrots. They would rather be eating carrots in a cake or muffins …
So that got me thinking I wanted to make something a little different, that is when I thought of carrot bread.

I started looking for a recipe and found one in my Joy of Cooking 75th addition that sounded quite good. I did jazz it up with a couple of more spices. The recipe called for some cinnamon and I decided to add some ginger and nutmeg for a little more pizzaz.

The ginger and nutmeg were good additions to the bread, I think they went well with the carrots. I liked that there were flecks of orange throughout the bread, it made it very eye appealing. Our daughter and granddaughter came for a visit the day that I made this bread and my granddaughter loved it. She will be turning a year old next month and she is starting to eat a lot of different foods, so it was fun to see her enjoying this bread.

Carrot Spice Bread (Source: adapted from the Joy of Cooking 75th addition)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. In a large bowl blend together the sugars, eggs, oil, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the dry ingredients and blend with a few swift strokes. Scrape the batter into the greased pan. Bake until the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.