This is me adapting my own recipe. Actually that’s what I do all the time, there is not one recipe that I would call completed. Not one that stays as it is.  There is always something I like to change or swap, apples for pears, raisins for dried cranberries just to start easy. But I also changed recipes form savory to sweet or from meat lover to vegetarian. There are many reasons for that, at first I think it’s boring to eat the same over and over again. Then it depends what I am up to, sometimes it has to be a chocolate filling and not fruits. I think the main reason is quiet simple, I ran out of the asked ingredients and I am too lazy to hit the road for grocery shopping.

Well I don’t end up with something enjoyable all the time, that’s the risk if you manipulate recipes. But that’s fine, it might have also been the invention of the best oven soup ever although it should become casserole dish when grown up. Putting cheese on it is always a life saver…

This bread recipe caught my notice as I was working on my blog moving (copy and paste, copy and paste, that’s how the non web designer do it). I stopped at this post and I was embarrassed of the bad pictures. That’s maybe the reason why it didn’t get the attention and love I had hopped for, I truly understand. So here you get a second chance, I simplified the recipe and added more poppy seeds (I wrote poopy seeds for the fifth time now with no hidden thought, thank you spellchecker).

carrot bread with poppy seeds

If you don’t have rye flour on hand, substitute with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour.  If you want to skip the healthy flours and just use all purpose flour that’s fine, but start with less milk and add more only if necessary because whole grains are more “thirsty” than regular flours.

1 1/2 tablespoons / 20 g / 0.7 oz. butter
1 1/4 cup / 300 ml milk

2 cups / 200 g (about 4) carrots finely grated
2 cups / 270 g / 9.6 oz.  whole wheat flour
1 cup / 120 g / 4.3 oz.   all-purpose flour or bread flour
3/4 cup / 80 g / 2.9 oz. rye flour (I used stone ground)
1/3 cup / 50 g / 1.8 oz.  poppy seeds
4 teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt

Heat the milk and then add the butter, the butter will melt in the milk and cools it at the same time. Make sure the butter and milk mix cools down until lukewarm before you add it to the remaining ingredients.
Add everything into a large mixing bowl. Use a dough hook and a stand mixer or knead by hand for at least 3 minutes. Add more milk or flour if necessary and just a little bit at the time, you should end up with a slightly sticky but well manageable dough.
Cover the mixing bowl and let rise for 45 minutes.

Grease your  loaf pan or line with parchment paper. Carefully punch down the dough and put it into the prepared loaf pan. Let rise for a further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190 C / 375  F.  Make some cuts on the top of your bread and bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before you slice it.

For a even more crunchy crust: start baking  at 220 C / 430 F for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 190 C /  375 F and continue baking for 20-25 minutes.