S.KRAUSE

In the Kitchen with Krause #11

Ingredients:

Dry:

• 2 cups grated carrots*
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Wet:

• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Other:

• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

* I increase this up to 3 cups at times; also works nicely

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease and dust with flour two loaf pans.
2. Grate and the carrots; set aside.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Whip the eggs. Stir in sugar and then add the oil, extract, and milk.
5. Make a depression in the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture along with the carrots and nuts. Mix with a spatula until combined.
6. Divide batter between the two pans. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until the a toothpick is inserted in the middle of the loaves comes out clean. Remove the loaves from the pans and cool on wire racks.

Play-by-Play:

I had three aging but still non-lethal eggs in my refrigerator from a previous shopping trip so I picked up some fresh carrots and decided carrot-nut bread would be the best way to finish those eggs.

In terms of effort and time (not counting the time in the oven) the most cumbersome aspect is grating the carrots. This recipe calls for 2 cups; my other recipe, which makes one loaf, asks for 1 1/2 cups. I've gone up to 3 cups with this two-loaf recipe. About four medium to large carrots do the job.

Just put the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon) together in a large bowl and mix them with a fork. I tend to add 1/2 a teaspoon or so of ground cloves. I like the aroma and flavor.

The fun of whipping the eggs, oil, etc. together is in watching these different sorts of ingredients rather quickly transform into a single viscous concoction. This is especially noticeable with the oil, which at first sits on top of the egg-sugar mixture, and as you mix with a whisk you see strands of egg-sugar swim through the oil. You can beat quite a bit of air into this.

As with most such recipes the goal is not to thoroughly mix the wet and dry ingredients but to combine them until all the flour is moist and there are no pockets of flour hiding. Do not over-stir.

Compared to the other, single-loaf recipe that I use, this one doubles the flour (1 1/2 to 3 cups), more than doubles the sugar (3/4 cup to 2 cups), triples the oil, and adds milk. The number of eggs only increases from 2 to 3, and, as mentioned above, the amount of shredded carrots only increases from 1 1/2 to 2 cups. There is considerably more cinnamon (2 tsp. instead of 1/2 tsp. The amount of baking powder is steady, but 1/4 tsp. baking soda is introduced.

The results are similar, but in my experience this two-loaf recipe results in slightly moister, denser loaves that do not dry out as quickly.

—January 11 2007