Battle of the Breads! Part Two

Wait no more, my friends! The winner of the Battle of the Breads will be announced shortly. First, let's get familiar with Contestant #2. 

Contestant #2: Old-Fashioned Carrot Bread (found on One Perfect Bite - www.oneperfectbite.blogspot.com)

Our second contestant comes from a blog called One Perfect Bite. It's touted as "a lovely old-fashioned tea cake." From this description, I assumed it would be best for me to keep as close to the sugar suggestion as possible. I try to learn my lessons as I go. Alright, time for the ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour (Again, I used self-rising.)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup nuts (I used chopped pecans.)
1 cup vegetable oil (I had canola instead.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups sugar (Guess what? I only used about 1 cup. I know. Old habits.)
2 cups shredded carrots
3 eggs

Here's what you do: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Generously grease a 9-inch loaf pan. (Or 2, if you want to go by the last recipe.)

2. Whisk flour, soda, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. 

3. Add nuts, oil, vanilla, sugar, carrots and eggs. Mix well. 

4. Scrape into prepared loaf pan. Let stand 30 minutes. Now, if you look at the image, it seems like a reasonable amount of batter for that pan. Well, it ain't called self-rising flour for nothing. It was closer to the top after 30 minutes but I decided to risk it.

5. Bake for 60-70 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn bread out of the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack (which I don't have, so I used a plate. 

Assessment: Sigh. Okay, so it was a stroke of luck that I decided to put a cookie sheet under the loaf pan in the oven. I checked on it after about 20 minutes when I smelled a slight hint of burning waft through the kitchen. Sure enough, the darn thing had bubbled over and bits of it had turned into burned carrot bread cookie things. I scraped the mess into the sink and replaced the cookie sheet. Then I trimmed the burned edges from the loaf itself and put it back in the oven for the rest of its allotted 60 minutes. 

I'm not too proud to tell you, I wasn't feeling good about this one. 

When the buzzer rang after an hour, I took the bread out of the oven and decided to skip the part where you let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes and just turned it right out onto a plate. Part of the bottom stayed stuck to the pan, furthering my dismay. I left it for about 10 minutes before my curiosity got the best of me. 

Hold onto your seats, folks. 

IT WAS AMAZING! The outside was actually crispy like a cookie but the sweetness - and the fact that I'd scraped away the burned edges - made it really enjoyable. The inside was unexpectedly moist. The pecans added enough crunch to keep things interesting. And I was thrilled with the amount of sweetness, so I'd recommend sticking to a cup instead of a cup and a half. 

I was shocked that this bread could taste so good despite being burned. 

Now, to compare to the other: this one is definitely not the choice you'd make if you want something that tastes "healthy." The other one certainly fits that bill better. This one is going to satisfy a craving for a dessert that isn't really a dessert. It's sweet enough that it feels like a treat without being over the top. Despite having a lot of similar ingredients, these are two very different breads. 

Points out of 10: I have to give this one a 9. 

HOORAY FOR OLD-FASHIONED CARROT BREAD!

If you make these for yourself, please let me know if we're in agreement on the winner! Enjoy!

Battle of the Breads! Part One

Get ready for a battle, y'all! It's time to see which carrot bread recipe will come out on top. Before we get to the competition, let me do a brief explanation of how this idea came about. 

I have been living in a small town where farming is still a way of life for many people. My sister works for one of the churches, so I've been connected to a lot of people through her. One of my favorite people is Lowell. Lowell has come to my rescue a number of times. He helped me free a bird stuck in the fireplace. He saved my cat's auto-feeder from an entire army of ants. And he brings us produce almost weekly. For a time, I would reward Lowell with a pie. On his last visit, he informed me that his wife, Carol, would prefer I not send him home with any more pies. Apparently, I've been giving Lowell a weight problem. The two of them are too cute. 

Back to the produce though.

Now, when I say "produce," I don't mean a piece or two. I mean I could open a veggie stand after Lowell leaves. His last delivery was a giant bag of carrots. I've been debating how I can possibly put them all to use and decided at least a few could go into a carrot bread. While looking through recipe options, it occurred to me that it would be fun to make a couple and compare. And here we are. 

Now, on to the main event!

Contestant #1: Carrot Almond Bread (found on Happy Food Healthy Life - www.happyfoodhealthylife.com)

Our first contestant comes from a blog called Happy Food Healthy Life and is adapted from a recipe that blogger got from an issue of Yoga Journal. For the most part, the instructions are exactly as I found them on the blog, but I have changed a few things and made note. Let's start with the ingredients first: 

2.5 cups all-purpose flour (I used self-rising because that's what I had on hand.)
1 TB baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 cups shredded carrots
3 large eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar (I only did about 1/2 cup because I tend to use a little less sugar than recipes call for.)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (I used butter because I didn't have coconut oil, but I'd recommend using an oil substitute if you're in the same position.)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 TB vanilla
1 cup chopped almonds (The ones I had were slivers.)
1/2 cup milk or soy milk (I used coconut milk-the kind that's a little sweetened.)

Here's what you do with all these lovely items: 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Lightly oil or butter two 9-inch loaf pans. (The original recipe said to use one pan, but it was so full that I made an executive decision to split it between two. You do what you want.)

2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Then set aside. 

3. In a larger bowl, mix the carrots, eggs, sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla until well-blended. 

4. Fold in the flour until just combined. Then gently stir in the almonds and milk. Pour into the prepared pan. 

See how full that looks!? So this is before splitting into two pans.

 5. Bake in preheated oven until top is golden brown and a fork comes out of the middle with some moist crumbs attached. This is going to take about 40-45 minutes if you've split it between two pans. I checked mine after 30 minutes just to be safe. Ten minutes later, I saw exactly what she meant by "moist crumbs." I love when that happens. 

It's time for the assessment. This bread is definitely tasty. I thought it would be sweeter, and then remembered I used less brown sugar than what was called for. I would follow the recipe next time around. No penalties for that. It tastes healthy, too. This is a plus. The texture is perfect: just moist enough inside with an almost-crunch on the outside. I had my first slice with butter, which was really nice. I put honey on the second piece to see if the sweetness added anything to the taste experience. It was good, but my sugar shyness has left me with a not-sweet bread for this round. Totally still delicious though. 

Points out of 10: I'm going to go with 8. 

Tune in tomorrow to see Contestant #2: Old-Fashioned Carrot Bread from the blog One Perfect Bite.