This carrot bread is soft, moist and chewy. The bread is very easy to make and only needs 3 ingredients. The bread doesn’t need any eggs, butter or oil. You can also easily customize the bread with more spices and mix-ins.
This bread is a great way to use up leftover carrots. What I especially love about this carrot bread is that it really is a bread. It is not just a sweet carrot cake baked in a loaf pan. The bread has a texture more like traditional bread rather than cake. It is lightly sweetened and packed with carrots and cinnamon flavor.
Ingredients
- Carrots
- Self-rising flour
- Cinnamon applesauce
Carrots: The recipe uses freshly grated or shredded carrots. I prefer to thinly shred the carrots so that they blend in better with the finished bread but you could also use grated carrots if you prefer. The carrots add carrot flavor and a lot of moisture to the bread.
Self-rising flour: Self-rising flour is flour that already has baking powder and salt added to it. I use self-rising flour a lot because it saves me a few extra steps and time. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make your own with all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
Cinnamon applesauce: The bread uses applesauce in place of eggs and oil to add moisture and create the bread structure. I used sweetened cinnamon applesauce but if you want to make the bread a little healthier you can use unsweetened. Using sweetened applesauce will only lightly sweeten the bread. I also used cinnamon applesauce because it adds a lot of cinnamon flavor to the bread. You don’t really taste the applesauce in the bread. The cinnamon and carrots help cover up any applesauce flavor.
How to Make Carrot Bread
The self-rising flour and applesauce are first mixed together until a wet dough forms. The carrots are then folded in. The bread is then ready to be poured into a loaf pan and baked.
Carrot Bread and Texture
This tastes like a carrot-flavored bread. It has a European-style bread texture: crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. The bread is very moist and lightly sweetened. It tastes of carrots and cinnamon.
What is great about this bread is that you can make it as is, or you can customize it to your liking. If you like nuts, you can add chopped nuts (the version in the pictures contain chopped walnuts). You can also add raisins or other dried fruit. You can also add other spices like nutmeg or cloves.
More Bread Recipes
3 Ingredient Carrot Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups (385 g) self-rising flour
- 2 cups (510 g) sweetened cinnamon applesauce
- 3/4 cup (57 g) thinly shredded carrots
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). Line an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Add flour and applesauce to a large mixing bowl. Mix with a spatula until flour is completely incorporated and no lumps or streaks of flour remain. Your batter will be very thick and should look like a very wet dough.
- Add in the carrots and fold them into the dough until they are evenly distributed. If adding other mix-ins, like chopped nuts or raisins, add them in now.
- Transfer the dough into your prepared loaf pan. Smooth surface with spatula. Bake for about 45-55 minutes or until the bread is done. When bread is finished, the surface should bounce back when you press on it. Let bread cool before cutting and serving.
Notes
- You can also use unsweetened applesauce but I prefer using sweetened because it makes the bread lightly sweetened. I used Happy Belly cinnamon applesauce which is sweetened with sugar and not corn syrup.
- If you can't find cinnamon applesauce, you can just use regular applesauce and add 1 tsp of cinnamon to the dough.
- This bread does not have a cake texture. Instead, it is like European-style bread: crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.
- To make thinnly shredded carrots, use the small holes on a box grater. You can also do grated carrots if you want more pronounced carrot pieces in your bread.
- I don't recommend adding more than 3/4 cup of carrots because the bread will be too wet and not bake through.
- As discussed more in the post, this is a basic carrot bread recipe. You can feel free to customize it with other mix-ins or spices. For the bread in the pictures, I did add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.
- Homemade self-rising flour: Add 3 cups all purpose flour, 4.5 tsp baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt to a bowl. Whisk until evenly combined.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Can you use almong flour instead of self rising b h flour and just add baking powder?
The recipe will not work the same with almond flour.
Would using gluten free flour work instead?
Sorry I haven’t tested with gluten free flour but I think it should work