My mind was full of ideas of things I wanted to make and post this weekend. The only problem is, when you’re in classes every day, you literally have a window of a weekend for cooking. Add into this mix the fact that it’s dark by around 3pm then you need to get the cooking finished on the Saturday and then use Sunday for the photography. In the end I decided to go for something a little easier. It was still something I’ve never specifically tried before but it was a long time since I added to my list of “Vegetable Breads” – the first of which being, of course, the pumpkin bread I made for Kristy’s winning ingredient submission for my two year “blogiversary” some time ago.
Being very pleased by the results at the time, I decided to move on to other vegetables and opted next for beetroot – thinking, wrongly, that it would yield a wonderful red or purple colour. The end result was more of a “dirty brown” but the bread itself was still good and then after that I just seemed to… “stop”. I had such big plans! I wanted to try more… tomato, broccoli, cucumber, but I just never got around to it, so I decided it was high time that I fired up the oven again and start cranking out some carrot bread. We were out of soft bread anyway, so I got a post subject and a replenished supply of bread in the house to boot
The concept is simple enough; make a yeast bread the way you’d normally make it, but replace the water with cooked, puréed vegetables. It works surprisingly well and delivers beautiful colours and delicate background flavours and fragrances in the loaf. Carrots were no exception and resulted in a glorious orange hue. Vegetable haters – fear not. The flavour of the vegetable is not strong. I’ve never tried making bread out of, say, puréed sprouts or cabbage. Perhaps that wouldn’t be so tasty, but for vegetables which have a good natural sweetness, such as carrots, it works really well. You have a delicately sweet flavour – I suppose one could say it’s a bit like a good brioche – but it’s still very “bread-like” – you’d have no problem at all making a sandwich out of carrot bread, that’s for sure.
I’ve made this bread using my “two-hour no-knead” technique – still the most awesome recipe for bread I know and it works great with vegetables.
I’m hoping to head out soon and take some photos so I hope I’ll be able to share some with you soon to show you all a little more about “my area”. We’re finally getting a winter it seems. After some weeks of temperatures hovering around just under the freezing point they’ve finally sunk to -20 degrees Celsius. Half an hour outside and you really appreciate having a warm home to go back to: a roof over your head, clothing, and food. I feel fortunate.
I’ll sign off for today, but enjoy the carrot bread and I’ll be back soon.
Carrot Bread
Ingredients
- 1 kg Plain Flour
- 900 g Carrots
- 22 g Quick Acting Yeast
- 1 tbsp Salt
You'll also need~200ml Water to bind the dough
Instructions
- Start by placing a large pot of water on to boil. Peel the carrots and remove the tops and bottoms. Slice into chunks and place into the water. Boil for about 20-30 minutes until soft.
- Strain the carrot, discarding most - but not quite all - of the water. Transfer the carrots into a food processor and blitz until puréed and smooth, adding a bit of the water if necessary.
- Place the flour into a large bowl and stir in the salt. Mix in the yeast and then, if sufficiently cool (it should be warm but not too hot as it will kill the yeast), pour in the carrot purée to the flour and mix well. Add a bit of extra water if needed to bind the dough. Mix well and set aside in a warm place, covered with a cloth, to prove for an hour.
- Punch down the dough and turn out onto a floured surface. Divide between 2 or 3 greased loaf tins, or alternatively form other shapes (rolls, etc.) and set aside again, covered with a cloth, to rise for about 45 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius and transfer the risen dough into the oven. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown and it sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Set aside to cool and then enjoy!
Kelly @ Inspired Edibles says
Yes, the time challenge… it’s tough isn’t it? I’m with you on the natural light too. If I had good nighttime equipment (which I may eventually invest in) it would give rise to more flexibility otherwise I’m a stickler for natural light. A friend of mine uses the Lowell Ego Light Set and her results are really good.
What a lovely bread Charles — and one that might even be simple enough for my patience level ;-). At first I was looking for the sugar content (thinking of it in terms of a sweet loaf) and then I realized it’s a bread of course tinged with the carrot – what a great idea and I agree, the overall colour is delightful. I wonder how it might work if you left some of the carrot in bits and pieces whether it would create carrot flecks throughout the loaf. Love the look of the top of the bread too.
Charles says
Thanks Kelly – nah, definitely not a sweet loaf… at least not by any added sugar. As for the carrot flecks… it’s a good question. I’m not sure – I think you’re already pushing your luck a bit with the addition of the veg purée. It does impact the springiness of the bread slightly and makes the yeast really work to rise it up. Chunks of carrot may pull it down even more and result in clods of doughyness amongst the interior… “perhaps”, I’m purely speculating; worth a try though!
A_Boleyn says
Healthy, nutritious and I’m sure it’s very tasty as well.
Charles says
Definitely, and when it was a couple days old and I toasted some slices it tasted exactly like an English crumpet, which was a lovely surprise! 😀
Minnie@thelady8home says
Lighting is such a challenge. My problem is even if I have enough light, I never seem to get it right, lol!! The carrot bread sounds lovely!
Charles says
Thanks Minnie – at least come summer time I’ll never be able to complain about light, since I’ll have it almost round the clock, lol!
mjskit says
Oh Charles, I am in love with your quick yeast breads! What a versatile recipe. I bet this bread is naturally sweet with the carrot puree’. Great recipe! Thanks Charles!
Charles says
It was very tasty – definitely one of my favourite veg breads to date. Not sure about which veg to try next. Any suggestions?
Shashi @ http://runninsrilankan.com says
WOW – 4 ingredient flavored bread, I thought it was a concept like the abominable snowman! This bread sounds like my kinda bread!
Thanks for sharing – hope yall keep warm – 20c is awfully cold to me!
Charles says
Haha, thanks Shashi 🙂
-25 C right now which is even more fun! At least there’s no wind :p
Linda says
I’ve never thought to puree veggies into my bread – though, of course, I’ve made pumpkin bread! I’m almost ashamed of my not thinking out of the box!! So glad you do and I’m excited to give this try!!
Charles says
Hi Linda – I hope you have a chance to try this – it’s well worth it 🙂
nipponnin says
I tried your beet bread before and it was really good. I would love to challenge this one too. Looks great! It was a blessing to stumble upon your blog.
It’s not that cold here in Oregon but rain makes dark, not much lights to take good pictures.
Charles says
Thanks Nipponnin – I remember your beet bread. It looked so much better than mine, lol! This one was really good, everyone here loved it!
Gourmetgetaways says
What a great way to add nutrition and flavour to bread! I never would have though of replacing light with vegetables. Thanks for sharing!
Charles says
“light with vegetables”
teehehe :D. I guess you meant water, instead of light, but yes – it works really well. I’m not sure what to try next… perhaps tomatoes. I think that would work really well!
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
A house must always have fresh bread! I love carrots so I know I’d love this bread.
Charles says
Oh definitely – fresh bread… makes a home “homely” 🙂
Eva Taylor says
I had forgotten about this grand invention of yours Charles, this is a great post; very clever to choose such a sweet vegetable too! I wonder if you roasted the carrots instead, would it be even sweeter? I also like Kelly’s idea to leave a few bits like you would see in raisin bread. Oven roasting the carrots might also yield a loaf that is much more orange coloured too. Hmmm…now you have me thinking…this would actually make a beautiful soup bowl if you made it into round buns, cut the top off and scoop out a bit of the bread to make the bowl! Sounds very tempting for sure!
I take my hat off to you for going back to school, learning another language is no easy task particularly as an adult, but having the other languages already will be very helpful I’m sure. I wonder if English is prevalent where you are living right now, or do you really need a working knowledge of Swedish? I suspect you are already speaking Swedish to William, and French hopefully, having more than one language is really such a gift. My parents gave us Hungarian and I am fortunate to have kept it up, but sadly my brother did not and did not even try to teach his kids — so sad.
We had a bit of a warming spell in Toronto over the last weekend and most, but not all of the ice melted. It’s good because it was impossible to walk outside without slipping and I have most of my faculties, I cannot imagine the elderly. It’s going to become cold again but we won’t slip down to the -20s at least not in the near future.
I am interested in a typical Swedish home, can you take some photos for us? Are the homes brick or wood? Just curious.
Charles says
Hi Eva – you know I was thinking about that (roasting) but then I thought that they might be hard to purée. The oven would cause them to have a slightly rubbery / tough outer skin and so it might not work so well.
Pretty much everyone in Sweden speaks English – with the exception of maybe the elderly – so as a tourist you wouldn’t really need to learn any phrases at all, but to live here you’d definitely need to speak the language. One can’t expect to integrate into the society if you don’t embrace the language and culture. Right now we’re speaking English and Swedish to William – no need to confuse the poor boy with French as well at this point, but hopefully he’ll be able to get a little head-start with that when he’s a bit older too :).
Most Swedish homes are wooden, indeed. Timber is a common construction material. Even the big supermarket outside the nearby town is made from wood.
Check out tomorrow’s post here for some photos… they’re from outside. I’ll try and fix up some photos of some interior Swedish design “features” some time later 🙂
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says
Carrot bread – who’d have thought. I’ve never eaten carrot bread but I like onion bread and others so I’m sure I would love this too.
Charles says
I think you would Maureen – it had a lovely flavour 🙂
betsyb says
Wow, does this sound good and easy…my kind of bread recipe. And I love you thought process on making these vegetable breads. I’ll bet a tomato bread would be awesome…maybe with a bit of basil.
betsyb says
Not that I don’t love you, but that was supposed to be “your” thought process..LOL. 🙂
Charles says
Yeah, I think I’ll try that next! Would need to skin the tomatoes first I think, but it would be amazing!
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com says
Charles, this looks wonderful! I love making bread, so I’ll add this to my queue.
Charles says
Let me know how it turns out Jean, if you have a chance to make it!
Fredrik & Elin says
Hi Charles,
We remembered the name of the blog and found it and it looks amazing, great for inspiration!
Have a great day,
/Fredrik & Elin (we met you at Celina & Christoffer’s house yesterday)
Charles says
Thanks a lot! Hope you can find something nice to make and nice to meet you again 🙂
Anneli Faiers says
Carrot bread you say? Interesting indeed! Looks really good I must say! I am very curious to try some! x
Charles says
Thanks Anneli – it had a great flavour and when it was a couple of days old I toasted some and it tasted like… CRUMPETS! Would you believe it! Very tasty 🙂
Bam's Kitchen says
I love the simplicity of this recipe. I pinned this one so I can come back and make this one later. So what are you studying Charles? Best wishes to you. Take Care, BAM
Charles says
Thanks Bam 🙂 Right now I’m studying Swedish… need to bring my level of Swedish up to a good level before I can go to University here 🙂
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
Despite the lack of natural light, your photo is amazing with natural light! In winter months I usually do night time shooting for step by step (not as important as final shot) and try to get the best light for the final shot. I have to decide on recipe based on the food that can last over night (such as baked goods). Our kitchen has no window so we rely on studio lights for video/photography. I wish we have more equipped kitchen with windows and natural light! I love your carrot bread! Very easy, simple and I bet these are delicious!
Charles says
Hi Nami, thanks for your compliment! Our days are gradually getting “lighter”. Each sunday, the day is about 40 minutes longer than the week before so soon I’ll have a bit more light to “play with” :).
I gave up taking step by step photos. I think if I make something very “involved” I would do it but in many cases I think it’s not so necessary. I know a lot of things you make though are quite “foreign” to a lot of people so it’s very useful on your blog. I’m going to make something soon which will be quite complicated so I’m going to be posting lots of pictures of that!
kristy says
Well, now that I know that this can be done with your deliciously easy no knead bread! This would be a great way to sneak some extra veggies in on Miss A. She’d never be the wiser. I can totally relate to how your school/cooking/blogging is going. My weekdays have been consumed by work, leaving only the weekends, and our weekends are anything but settled with all the running around of the kiddos. Thus why my blogging and commenting has gotten so far behind! You know I wouldn’t miss any of your posts entirely though (at least not intentionally). It just may take me a bit to get here. 🙂 And now I’m going to head off to put my feet up a bit before bed. I’m sure I will have wonderful dreams about that delicious Monte Kristy sandwich. Mmmmmmm!!!!!!
Charles says
Eesh, I can well imagine! Luckily I now have school only two days a week… gives me a bit of breathing room! I can’t believe I used to post every day at first… then I slowed down to every two, then every three… then five… now it’s once a week, but you know, that’s fine with me. I’m in this for pleasure. I think I’d end up tiring of this very fast if I felt pressured into doing it!
Caroline says
Charles! I’m so behind on commenting! This bread sounds fantastic, and I love that it only calls for four ingredients. Now that’s my kind of recipe. Hope you’re keeping warm!!
Charles says
Thanks Caroline! Nice to see you around!