That Seventies Carrot Bread

This carrot bread recipe I found in the mid 1970s in Seventeen magazine. I don’t know if carrot bread was invented then or if it was a cyclic refashioning of something from the 1930s or 40s. It was hippie hip anyway.

I copied down this recipe, lo those many years ago, and it has remained my standard ever since. Over the years, I have reduced the sugar a bit and increased the walnuts from the original. It comes together very fast, so get your oven heating while you grate the carrots.

Notice that this is 100% wholewheat flour, not even part white…very groovy!

Carrot Bread

Ingredients:

2.5c / 390g wholewheat flour
2/3c / 132g sugar
1t baking powder
1t baking soda
1t cinnamon
1/2t salt
3 eggs
1/2c / 118ml oil
1/2c / 118ml milk
2c / 100g grated carrots
3/4c / 95g chopped pecans or walnuts

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350F / 177C / gas mark 4. Grease a 9″x5″x3″ loaf pan and lightly dust with flour.
Combine the dry ingredients (1 through 6) in a mixing bowl.
Combine the eggs, oil and milk, and add to the dry.
Stir in the carrots and nuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Test doneness with a toothpick or skewer which should come out clean.
Look at how it rises — twice as high as the loaf pan!
Let it cool a bit in the pan, then use a dinner knife around the edges to loosen it.