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!