Best savory carrot yeast bread for making delicious rolls into the illusion of garden carrots; a fun recipe for kids and the kid in you.
Savory Carrot Yeast Bread
I’d guess that when you saw the name carrot bread, you thought of a quick bread, likened to a carrot cake and not anything like a sandwich bread or a dunk-able soup bread.
Nope, this is a luxurious bread dough, made with yeast, and has all the comfort qualities we look for in homemade bread.
What Makes These Carrot Rolls Unique?
What makes it a savory bread recipe is pureed carrots with a bit of garlic, and once shaped for baking, a dusting of coarse salt and favorite herbs are sprinkled across the tops.
And because of the natural sugar levels in freshly cooked carrots, the dough is easy to make by hand or a stand mixer with no need for a bread machine or constant kneading while doing the windowpane test.
Yeast Bread
Making yeast bread can seem intimidating, until we try it for the first time and see how very forgiving the dough is to work with, so much so that I’ve taught my grandsons to make their own pizza dough with no help from grandma, other than encouraging direction.
A variety of breads, both savory or sweet, can easily be made from a yeast dough recipe; especially if pureed veggies or fruits are added to the dough.
Their natural sugar content aids in dough rise times to happen rather quickly.
Bread Recipe Ingredients
While any basic yeast bread dough recipe is simply flour, water and yeast, every possible variation can be exchanged within these ingredients, except for the yeast.
The more confident you become playing with yeast bread dough, the more creative you will become because the yeast basically does all the work in rising the ingredients into something fluffy and delicious.
A huge repertoire of great recipes can be yours if you just consider the basic dry/wet ratio and use your imagination.
Dry Ingredients For Yeast Bread
The list of dry ingredients that can be used for making yeast bread is quite extensive, but here are some of my favorites to work with.
- All purpose flour – a versatile, general-purpose flour made from a blend of wheat, easy to use in most types of baking.
- Whole wheat flour – a dense, nutrient rich wheat flour made by grinding the entire wheat kernel, bran germ and all.
- Spelt flour – an ancient grain related to wheat, rich in protein and fiber nutrients, a favorite of mine as I find it easier to digest than highly processed flour.
- Gluten free flour – an alternative to gluten flours, often incorporating a variety of grains, seeds, nuts and other ingredients.
- Other types of flour can be obtained from a variety of seeds, nuts, grains or even legumes.
- Almond flour – an alternative to wheat flour baking, made from finely ground skinned almonds, great in many types of baking, though without gluten it will not rise as a bread on its own, but great in cookies, pie crusts and cakes.
- Garbanzo bean flour – a gluten-free flour made by grinding dried chickpeas into flour, rich in nutrients.
- Flaxseed flour – a nutrient rich flour made from grinding the whole flaxseeds into a powder.
- Oat flour – is essentially whole oats that have been ground into a fine powder and delicious in many baked goods, a flour I often add to wheat flour to enhance the flavor of any baked goods.
Wet Ingredients For Yeast Bread
Then there is the substitutes for the water when making bread dough, and here is where we can get really creative in flavor and color, such as these pureed cooked carrots as add ins to the water/flour ratio, but there’s way more:
- Spinach – steamed or sautéed and then pureed and added to other liquids to make up the wet/dry ratio. Delicious in bread dough that can easily adopt the flavors of spanakopita.
- Sweet potato – much like pureed carrots, adds color, flavor and moisture to bread dough.
- White potatoes – are my number one go-to to speed up dough-rising time, be it a small single potato pureed into the bread dough or the water potatoes have boiled in for their abundance of starch.
And the possibilities go on and on!
A Savory Carrot Bread For A Variety Of Meals
For the sake of being that whimsical grandmother, I served these adorable rolls at Easter time for the kids, yet the adults are the ones that remarked on their delicious flavor.
A favorite bowl of soup would be great to serve with these rolls, so why not try my Carrot and Red Lentil soup for a double carrot nutrient benefit.
Often for Thanksgiving I prepare Sage Rolls for the meal but savory carrot bread rolls would be equally delicious alongside one of our favorite meals of the year.
Why not make small sandwiches out of these cuties for lunches or afternoon tea, filled with your favorite sandwich concoctions.
Carrots In My Garden
Gardening was not something I grew up doing, only later in life once I became a mom did I take to the nurturing of the soil along with that mom nurturing vibe.
I found carrots so easy to grow in pots on a deck or sunny window, and as of late I’ve taken to growing them in the garden, hoping the critters won’t get them before I do.
This whimsy of growing carrots in my garden inspired so many of my carrot recipes.
Homemade Bread Is The Best Comfort Food
If I made nothing else from scratch in my kitchen, bread would always be the ‘must have’ for so many reasons.
Smelling bread baking in the oven makes the house instantly feel like a home, wouldn’t you agree? Many a real estate agent would agree (wink)!
From a small bowl of risen bread dough I am easily able to make so many meals feel special, let alone use it as pizza dough.
It’s really not difficult and so long as your ingredients are always room temperature, not hot nor cold when making the bread dough, you can hardly go wrong!
How To Make Carrot Yeast Bread Dough
Once the carrots have been simmered in a small amount of water to soften them, cooled and pureed, they become part of the liquid ratio to the dry ingredients.
Adding fat to yeast bread dough is always a good idea to make the bread moist, soft and fluffy. While softened butter can easily be added to the bread dough, I’ve used olive oil in this recipe because it is already in liquid form and it adds so much flavor to this savory bread dough.
Shaping Bread Dough Into Rolls
After the flour is incorporated into the wet ingredients, the dough needs to sit in a warm spot to double in size, which should take about an hour.
On a lightly floured surface, the risen dough is placed to either form into a loaf to bake in a loaf pan, rolled out to press cookie cutter shapes, or simply shaped into individual roll knots and ready for baking.
With the help from cookie cutters, so many fun shapes are possible.
Fun Carrot Shaped Illusion Rolls
Don’t you think we should take advantage of the spring and summer growing season of carrots and shape the savory carrot yeast bread dough into carrot shapes?
Actually, I got the idea from watching way too many Great British Baking Shows and their famous Illusion cake and bread challenges.
My favorite children’s book are those of Beatrix Potter, in which I was inspired by the Taylor Mouse to create the Button Cup Cookies I made for a PBS episode I cooked for.
Once again Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit brought the inspiration for these carrot shaped savory carrot yeast bread rolls for the grandchildren on Easter.
Call me kookie but I even made a pumpernickel fougasse, which had just the right amount of cuts in the dough before baking, to stand the carrot rolls up to look like carrots growing in dirt!
Who knows, maybe I’ll get invited to the Great American Baking Show and get the chance to make these in that famous tent!
Equipment Needed For Carrot Bread Rolls
- Large mixing bowl if you prefer to make bread dough by hand or a stand mixer with a dough hook if that is your preference.
- Measuring cup and spoons for accurate ratios.
- Carrot cookie cutter, 4-5 inches in length if choosing to make the carrot shaped rolls, otherwise a loaf pan to bake one loaf of carrot bread.
- Baking sheet and parchment paper to bake the carrot cutouts for easy baking without sticking.
- Wire rack for a cooling rack to allow air to cool the baked bread fast to stop from cooking.
- Small saucepan to simmer the carrots in to soften before they are pureed, or a microwave if you prefer.
- Blender, food processor or immersion blender to puree the cooked carrots once cooled.
Ingredients Needed For Savory Carrot Bread
- Carrots, fresh is best for better flavor.
- Instant yeast, or active dry yeast, easily stored in the fridge for freshness.
- Sugar, just a bit to activate the yeast.
- Whole milk, is best for its fat content though a non-dairy milk can be used as well.
- Olive oil for both its fat contribution and flavor, though coconut oil or avocado oil can also be used.
- Salt, both fine and coarse, the fine salt goes into the dough making while the coarse salt is sprinkled on top before baking.
- Fresh herbs, preferably thyme or marjoram, though any favorite can be used.
- All purpose flour or bread flour.
- Egg, used to make an egg wash to brush across the dough before baking for a glossy finish.
Savory Carrot Yeast Bread For Rolls Of Loaf
Equipment
- carrot cookie cutter 4-5 inches
- Baking sheet and parchment paper or loaf pan
- Small saucepan
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Cooked Carrot Puree room temperature
- 2 1/2 tsp Instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1/4 cup Water lukewarm
- 3/4 cup Whole milk lukewarm
- 1 tbsp Olive oil extra for bowl
- 1 tbsp Fine salt
- 1 tsp Coarse salt
- 2 tbsp Fresh herbs thyme or marjoram
- 3-4 cups All purpose flour or as needed
- 1 Egg for egg wash
Instructions
- For carrot puree, simply peel and slice or place grated carrots in a small pan with just enough water to cover. Simmer until soft, cool, strain and puree.
- In a stand mixer with a dough hook, or a large bowl with a wooden spoon, mix the yeast, sugar and water together and let sit for 5-minutes to bloom.
- Add the carrot puree to the yeast mixture, room temperature milk, olive oil and fine salt. Whisk until all is incorporated. Slowly fold in one cup of flour at a time until the dough is no longer sticky and can be easily manipulated with your hands. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough, not vigorously but simply by taking the underside and folding it up, over the top and press; continuing in this way until the dough is soft and pliable.
- Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and place in a warm spot for about an hour until it doubles in size.
- Preheat oven to 375.Transfer the risen dough to a lightly floured surface, roll out until the dough is about half inch. Using the cookie cutter to press out carrot shaped rolls, then transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet, is an easy way to create fun shapes for rolls. Cover and let sit for about 20-minutes in a warm place.
- In a small bowl whisk the egg with 2 teaspoons of water to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash across the top of the dough after second rise, sprinkle with coarse salt and herbs.
- If making a loaf of carrot bread, simply place the dough after the first rise into a loaf pan, and follow the same instructions above for the rolls.
- Bake until the tops are golden brown, about 15-minutes for the rolls and 15-20 minutes for the loaf bread. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
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Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.