Carrot Bread (SCD)

SCD and GF Carrot Bread

What a beautiful day we had today.  The magnolia was in full bloom and it was finally a tad bit warmer.  The day was also rich with traditions and family time… all the kids got to enjoy the time together, young and old alike.  We even got to have an Easter Egg Hunt outside!  

One of my favorite traditions with Easter happens to be the bread.  I recall when we began a gluten free diet (oh so many years ago now), how I anguished about not being able to eat the great bread at Easter.  In the beginning, I thought it was a “forever” sentence!  Little did I know then, that there would be many great Easter breads to come for us to celebrate the day with.  Bread that my whole family, gluten tolerant and intolerant together, would love to have at our table.  I have found ways to make all the breads that I was missing gluten free, such as:  multi-grain rolls, Challah bread, focaccia, savory olive bread…  This Easter, while I chose to make our gluten free traditional rolls, I also made a really great bread for those of us at the table who are grain free.  This bread really fit the day as it has a beautiful golden-orange hue from its star ingredient… carrot fiber.  Here is another example of how you can use that fiber that comes out of your juicer!

What a beautiful bread this is!

The original recipe for this Carrot Bread can be found at Naomi Devlin’s blog in her article on A Residue That’s Good For You – Carrot Pulp Bread.  The only modifications that I have made to her original recipe to make it suitable for our needs are as follows:

• 6 oz. of finely ground sunflower seeds in place of the almond flour (we remain a nut free family)
• 2 oz. of melted coconut oil in place of melted butter
• Added 1/4 tsp sea salt
• I use only a 1/4 tsp baking soda.  Note:  If you notice your carrots, walnuts or sunflower seeds turning funny colors after baking (ie. green or black), you need to reduce the amount of baking soda used in the recipe.  That will solve the color problem.  If this happens, the finished product is still fine to eat.

Naomi’s bread is really super easy!  It is especially great toasted with butter at the breakfast table and for chicken salad sandwiches.  When I have extra carrot fiber from the juicer, I save it in a jar in the freezer.  That way, it is ready to use on the day that I want to make bread.  I have also made this with chili powder in place of the cinnamon and nutmeg.  The change in spices gives the bread a more savory flavor.

If you find yourself missing bread at the table, I hope that you can see through these pages that sometimes we just need to think outside the box in order to come up with a replacement.  Take some time to enjoy bread again this spring!