Yummy Carrot Bread

I baked a super yummy snack cake this past week. I had been wanting to bake it for quite a while, but I just couldn’t seem to find the time between my school work, family stuff, house stuff, church stuff…ya know how it is. Anyway, I finally got around to it on Saturday.

I found the original recipe here. Of course, I tweaked it a bit. Here’s my version.

Yummy Carrot Bread

3 eggs

2c sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup apple butter

1/1/2 cups finely shredded carrots

8oz can pineapple tidbits

2 tsp vanilla

3 c flour

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt



Beat eggs and sugar about 2 min until fluffy. Add in oil and apple butter. Beat another min or so. Stir in carrots, pineapple and vanilla and stir until well combined. In a sperate bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Slow add to the wet ingredients while stirring. Mix until completely combined. Divide the batter between 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 45-60 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.



This was a really nice snack bread. Not too sweet, moist and just yummy. This would make a great dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of a simple powdered sugar glaze. I think I will add more pineapple next time. I didn’t have the tidbits, so I whizzed up some chunks, but I think I whizzed them up a bit too much. I would have liked to have had bigger pieces of pineapple in my bread. I think you would get that with the tidbits. I also used the last bit of the homemade apple butter I canned. The original recipe calls for apple sauce and some other spices. Because the apple butter has spiced in it, I omitted them from the recipe.

I will be making this again. We ate 1/2 a loaf right away and put the remaining 1 1/2 loaves in the freezer for later.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I volunteered to make something for a bake sale our Pastor's daughter is having next week to raise funds for her year long mission trip to Vietnam. So, I went looking for a cookie recipe. I found this one. Of course I changed it a bit. Oh, the best part is it doesn't have any eggs in it, so you can eat the dough raw...if that's your thing. :)

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

Heat oven to 375°. In large mixing bowl combine sugar, butter, buttermilk, and vanilla with a hand held mixer. Stir in remaining ingredients with a spoon. Using a cookie scoop, place dough balls onto cookie sheet. Flatten slight with wet fingers. Bake until set and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove to cooling rack and allow to cool.
I used a 2 scoops with a small cookie scoop for each cookie. I also cut the recipe in 1/2 and I got 2 dozen cookies out of it. You can change the dried fruit to whatever you have on hand. I had cranberries, so I used those. You could use blueberries or cherries, those flavored cranberries, or a combo.

Fresh Bread, Yummmmm

I like to make our bread. Having that skill is great. Knowing you can throw together a nice fresh loaf of bread for dinner is comforting. It really helps stretch your grocery dollars, as well. Sure you can get bread for less than $1 a loaf ( at least you can around here), but it's not as yummy as homemade bread and you probably can't read all the ingredients on the label, either. I tried this white bread recipe last week. I changed it slightly and made it in my bread machine. Here's my version with the instructions for my bread machine.

White Bread
1 cup milk
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp yeast
2 tbsp sugar
3 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 egg
Put the milk, butter, egg, & salt in the bread machine. Add the flour. Make a small well in the center of the flour. Add the yeast and sugar. Select the "dough only' cycle. You know, the one that just does the kneading and rising for ya. :) I use the largest loaf setting on my machine. I think it's the 2lb loaf setting. Turn the machine on and let it do it's thing.
Once the machine is done, take the dough out and place it in a greased loaf pan. I flip the dough around to make sure it is coated in oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Set somewhere warm to rise. I put mine in the oven with the light on. It seems to do well. After about an hour, or until the dough has risen slightly above the pan, your dough is ready to become bread.
Take the plastic wrap off and place your pan in a 350 degree oven. You can preheat it, but I normally don't. Back for 45 min or so until bread is lightly browned and sounds hollow when you tap it. I am sure this is not the most scientific way to test your bread, but it works for me. Take the bread out of the pan and let it cool on a rack. You can wrap it in a towel to cool, which helps keep the crust softer but I let mine cool unwrapped and the crust was fine. After your bread is cook, slice and store in an air tight container.
Because this is homemade bread, and doesn't have any presevatives, it won't last as long as store bought bread. You might get a week out of it. Ours doesn't last that long.