Cranberry Carrot Bread

Talk about random cravings. I woke up this morning craving carrots. First I was going to make fresh carrot-apple juice in the juicer, but the then I busted out my faithful Better Homes and Garden Cook Book and looked up some loaf/bread recipes. I combined a few of the ones listed in the book together and came up with this, which was perfect for breakfast with coffee.



¾ cup of dried cranberries
¼ cup rum
1 ½ cup flour
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp ginger
¼ tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup finely shredded carrots (3 large carrots)
¼ cup of cooking oil
¾ cup chopped walnuts
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar

Grease the bottom of a loaf pan (8”x4”x2”) and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl stir together cranberries and rum; set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt.

In another medium bowl combine egg, carrots and oil. Stir in cranberry mixture. Add egg mixture to dry mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in walnuts.

Pour batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes. To test if done, insert a wooden toothpick and it should come out clean.

Remove from oven. While bread is still in the pan, brush lemon-sugar mixture over the top of the loaf. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.