Carrot Bread is a delicious and easy take on carrot cake with walnuts, shredded carrots, cinnamon, and nutmeg that’s perfect for brunch, dessert or gifting!
Move over Banana Bread and Zucchini Bread, there’s a new tasty, easy bread in town. While we will always love classic Bread Recipes, we’d never turn down a cake inspired breakfast.
CARROT BREAD
Quick breads are some of the easiest and tastiest breakfasts to make. They last a long time at room temperature and they can go from morning treat to hearty dessert with just a few swaps.
We love making bread year round, from Pumpkin Breads in the fall to Banana Breads in the summer. Carrot Bread is one of those recipes you can make every season and never feels out of place. We love turning sweet and savory carrots into muffins, cupcakes, and even cookies but the easiest way to enjoy them is with this yummy bread.
This Carrot Bread recipe has all the classic flavors of Carrot Cake, minus the rich frosting. It’s sure to be one of your new favorite recipes for breakfast, plus you can always add that frosting later.
This is a perfect treat for Easter morning, it can be baking while your little bunnies dive into their baskets plus is savory enough to balance out all the candy they are going to eat later.
If you want a more healthy, but still yummy, bread, try mixing in some zucchini and substituting the oil for apple sauce. Serve with a greek yogurt spread instead of butter for extra protein.
If you are hosting an Easter Brunch, why not bake this in a bundt pan for a more festive breakfast. Dust with powdered sugar after its completely cooled. You can even use little cardboard stencils of rabbits or flowers to give it a truly Spring look.
Tips for making Carrot Bread
- To tell if your bread is done cooking, insert a toothpick in the middle. If it is cleaned when removed, then it is ready to come out of the oven.
- Allow grated carrots to drain a bit on paper towels while you assemble other ingredients, to soak up any excess moisture without drying them out.
- If you don’t have baking spray, use regular cooking spray and dust your loaf pan with flour to prepare.
- Remove your bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack to stop the cooking process and keep your bread moist.
OTHER DELICIOUS QUICK BREAD RECIPES
Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Zucchini Bread
Pumpkin Bread
Easy Banana Bread (No Mixer!)
HOW TO MAKE CARROT BREAD
- Mix Well: Make sure your eggs, sugar and oil are well mixed (a whisk is just fine for this).
- Dry Ingredients: Sift well then add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and beat well.
- Mix-Ins: Stir in the carrots and 1 cup of the walnuts.
- Prepare the Loaf Pan: Grease a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan and pour in the batter. Top with the remaining walnuts.
- Cook time: Bake for 1 hour and let rest 10 minutes before removing from pan.
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VARIATIONS ON CARROT BREAD
- Muffins: Turn these into Carrot Muffins by dividing the batter into a lined 12 cup muffin tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Add-ins: Swap out the walnuts for pecans. You can also add chocolate chips or dollops of cream cheese.
- Frosting: Make this into a dessert bread by spreading some Cream Cheese Frosting over your cooled bread. Go even further with your sweet tooth by drizzling some Salted Caramel Sauce on top.
- Apple Carrot Bread: Apples bring out the natural sweetness of carrots. Reduce the oil to 2 tablespoons and add 1/3 cup applesauce and 1/2-1 cup of grated apples to your batter. Bake as normal.
- Streusel Topping: Give your bread an easy, sweet topping by mixing 1/4 cup flour, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Combine and break into large pieces. Sprinkle on top of batter before baking.
MORE SWEET & TASTY BREAKFAST RECIPES
Easy Cinnamon Rolls (in 1 Hour!)
Gooey Monkey Bread
Easy French Toast Bake
Bread Pudding
HOW TO SERVE AND STORE
- Serve: Cover your bread in airtight container after serving. Store in a cool, dry place for up to 1 week.
- Store: Keep your bread fresh by storing in the fridge, sealed up, for about 2 weeks.
- Freeze: You can freeze this bread in an airtight container for 3 months.
Carrot Bread
Carrot Bread is a delicious and easy take on carrot cake with walnuts, shredded carrots, cinnamon, and nutmeg that's perfect for brunch or dessert or holiday gifting!
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups carrots , shredded
- 1 1/2 cups walnuts , chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat the eggs.
- Mix in the sugar and vegetable oil. Add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and beat well.
- Stir in the carrots and 1 cup of the walnuts.
- Grease a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan and pour in the batter. Top with the remaining walnuts.
Bake for 1 hour. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick and removing it; if any batter sticks to the toothpick, continue to bake until done.
Remove from oven and allow to cool 10 minutes before removing from loaf pan.
I like this bread. Will make it again. Thank you for the recipe. Used coconut sugar instead.
Very good except too much nutmeg. Next time I’d reduce it to 1/2 tsp.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the alteration suggestion, I’m making this for the holidays and will test with less nutmeg too.
THIS IS A VERY HEAVY batter, use your leightest mixing bowl and have a good bowl scraper ready.
Made it ate it awesome, watched the cooking time as suggested so it would not dry out. Every oven is different.
Hi! I was wondering if I could substitute the white flour with whole-grain flour. If so, would the quantity be the same or would I have to make changes?
Yes, just make sure you’re substituting by volume and not by weight since whole wheat has a higher absorption.
I added cardamom, ginger (fresh and dried) and allspice to this AMAZING recipe. Moist and spiced and oh-so nice! Thanks for sharing.
Sounds amazing! Thanks for the suggestions, Anne.
Not impressed. Too much baking soda. Very dry and crumbly.
Tried the recipe, great taste, great crust but a bit dry. Will be good with coffee. I swapped walnuts for pecans (great suggestion). I will decrease my baking time next time. Perhaps 50 min.
I wanna try your recipes. First time I will make carrot bread .
Enjoy!
Hi Sabrina!
Can I use butter instead of Oil and Brown Sugar rather than white?
Btw, loved your recipe of Vanilla Pound Cake.
Of course! Glad you’re enjoying the recipes.
I have made this 3 times. First time, I followed recipe exact and was very happy. Second time I did half white sugar and half brown sugar and added pinch of ginger. Was very happy with results. Today I added 1/4 each allspice and ginger together with only 1/2 tsp nutmeg and the half and half of brown sugar and white. Fingers crossed that it will be good. Thank you for the original easy recipe that we can tweak depending what we are craving. ?
I’m happy to know you’re loving the recipe so much!
Hi Sabrina:
Thanks for this recipe. You made my husband day with all those nuts permeating the recipe.
You’re welcome!
Best ever! I substituted half a cup of pecans for the topping, giving it a bit of sweet and delicious roasted snap-crunch.
Made on yesterday. The flavor was great, but I wished I saw one if the other comments about the cook time. 1 hour made it dry inside. I will try and rate again.
I love baking.. I have tried many recipes.. So far, it’s an easy recipe. It’s in the oven, hopefully it will be awesome (according to the ingredients) however, I did not add the walnuts due to allergies.
Delicious and easy to make. I subbed 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce for the oil and did not strain the carrots, and the texture was great. I was low on sugar and only used about 3/4 of a cup, but I didn’t notice a difference.
Did you use castor sugar or did you use brown sugar?? It doesn’t specify
I used white sugar for this recipe. Enjoy!