Now if I had a back yard garden I would have rows and rows of heirloom carrots growing. Not because I have an over whelming taste for carrots all the time, (although I do quite like them.) But because there are so many different colours you can grow. Orange, yellow, white, pink and for todays bread, the lovely purple.
I don’t often see them for sale, however my local farmers market has been stocking them the last few weeks so I’ve been stocking up. The Monkeys needed a little convincing they were indeed still carrots. A raised eyebrow and a sceptical look that only a 3 and 5 year old can give on being told, ‘of course they were carrots, taste them’.
So why should you eat an heirloom variety carrot?
* They taste fantastic. If you are comparing it to an insipid supermarket pale old orange carrot- well, there is no comparison.
* Encouraging genetic diversity.
* The purple carrots are full of antioxidants, and… they make things a pretty purple colour, (like this bread.)
Purple Carrot Bread
150g sourdough starter
150g purple carrots- steamed/ mashed
25g wheat bran
125mls water + purple carrot water from cooking
225g strong bakers flour
1 tsp salt
I did an over night prove in the fridge for this one. Baked at 240C with steam.
The result is a soft, chewy crumb similar to adding oats in a dough. The purple cooking water from the carrots adds to the intensity of the colour. The next lot of bread I made was just with the carrots, and no cooking water- resulting in a slightly less intense colour.
Next stop, Purple Carrot Cake…
This post submitted to yeastspotting.
cityhippyfarmgirl 
This is too cool! Looks tasty too.
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Thanks Greg 🙂
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Looks amazing. I haven’t tried the multicoloured carrots as yet but do grow a few other heirloom vegies. They are just so reliable and delicious.
Dayla
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They are aren’t they. I haven’t tried any other coloured carrot…saying that, I haven’t seen them for sale either. Just the purple and the orange.
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that colour is impressive – I agree that purple carrots are adorable – whenever I have tried baking with beetroot the bread or cake doesn’t hold the colour well – I have been cooking with purple carrots this week as I too got a coloured bunch from a farmers market – once one more purple carrot left and now I am wondering what to do with it!
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Cook it up and pop it in some bread Johanna!
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I liked seeing the stack of bread in the background.
😀
My niece sent me some taro bread from Hawaii that is the same color as your carrot bread- it was hard to get people to eat the purple bread as toast- but they gobbled it up for sandwiches.
Carrots are so versatile in baking- I’m going to go looking for some purple ones at the farmer’s market!
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What was the taro bread like Heidi? I’ve eaten taro in a few vegetable dishes before and found it fairly nondescript. I would imagine with a bread it would be like the carrot though and keep that moisture in?
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It is moist and purple- but fairly nondescript is a good call.
I think most of the appeal is that it is a staple in the Hawaiian diet and that it is purple. My son liked it for sandwiches- so I didn’t mind making it.
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Yes please for purple carrot cake!!
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what a gorgeous looking loaf..and i am looking forward to seeing the purple carrot cake..
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It’s coming Jen and Jane 🙂
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I wasn’t expecting that colour when I clicked on the link to your blog. Wow!
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I wasn’t either when I first cooked it. I thought it would dull down a little.
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carrots were originally purple and then had a colour change to look more appealing on the plate. I cannot wait to start my veggie garden and get all these lovely heirloom vegies 🙂
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Me too Tandy. I have grand dreams of a very large vegetable garden!
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Why have I never heard of purple carrots?! Especially if, as per Tandy above, they were originally purple. It’s like magic in food form, but naturally!
Great bread, too 🙂
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Most people wouldn’t think they were a carrot. I’ve heard lots of comments at the vege stall…”WHATS that?”
Apparently purple carrots originated in the Afganistan region in 900’s and wasn’t until 1500’s that the orange carrot came on board in Europe.
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I love the idea of carrot bread – purple carrot bread is way more fun!
Have a happy day.
🙂 Mandy
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It is a bit fun isn’t it. I friends daughter declared she wanted purple bread for her birthday.
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I’ve only ever tried orange carrots, although I know different colours do exist. It’s really hard to get vegetable or food variations in this part of the world unfortunately. I shall keep my eyes peeled though. This bread has such an amazing colour. Looks brilliant.
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Thanks FF. It’s frugal too, you are using up any extra cooked carrots and the cooking water!
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Definitely a bit of a hippy bread colour!
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Wonder if I could make a rainbow one…
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Oh Brydie, I really, really love this – fantastic!! I’ve not seen many of these heirloom carrots and even if I did I doubt I would think to put them in bread – brilliant.
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Thanks Amanda. Hows your sourdough going?
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wow. i never thought of that.. i also will grow these next year, what a fantastic colour! c
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They are aren’t they. Happy growing Cecilia!
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Hi- this looks scrumptious! I was wondering how long you normally cook your sourdough for? I tried it in my breadmaker, and failed dismally, and am on attempt 2, following your recipe. Thanks so much for all the wisdom you share:)
Shelly
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Shelly I can’t really give you an exact time. Sourdough really works on it’s own time, depending on the room temperature beforehand, the strength of the starter and what sort of flour you are using etc. The bread maker is too quick for a sourdough as it needs a lot longer to think about things and get proving beforehand.
For actual cooking time, depends on the size of the loaf, and temperature. I usually bake at 240C with steam and range from about 20 minutes for bread rolls for a lot longer with bigger loaves. I will jiggle it though and change the shelves around, and lower the temp for the second part of baking.
Sorry I can’t be of more help! Have a look at the site Wild Yeast. It’s in my blogroll. Susan is a wonderful baker and there is a wealth of information in there that should explain a whole lot of proving and baking times.
Good luck 🙂
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Oh lovely! It looks amazing. Definitely on my list. Thanks for all the tips and encouragement. I was so excited to produce my first loaves today! 🙂
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I was excited for you too 🙂 They looked fantastic!
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OH that looks good! Just as strongly coloured as beetroot it looks like! If I was any good at growing carrots (I’m not) I’d grow the heirloom colourful variety too!
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It’s funny with these carrots I think they came out possibly even darker than beetroot I’ve played with in the past.
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what an amazing colour. I often find with these purple ones that the colour drains when you boil them, but this looks amazing and I wish I was having a slice with a nice bowl of hearty autumn soup.
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Oooo, now you have me thinking…a carrot soup with these little guys would look quite different wouldn’t they 🙂
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That looks amazing. Did I tell you I grew some purple potatoes this year from seed stock sent to me by a blogger in Gloucester? I had completely forgotten about them until I saw your post and they are sitting in the garage waiting for me to try them. I had a plan for purple potato bread but have I done it? I’m getting mega forgetful here. Interesting that you say it has a similar effect to oats, I wonder if it is the sugar or simply that they hold moisture in the dough… Anyway it looks splendiferous and I would love to try it! x Joanna
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i grew terrible carrots last year. i think i left them in the ground for too long and i didn’t thin them out so the ones that were close together were tiny while the other ones were huge, cracked and parsnip-like
…oh well.. better luck this year
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I get so excited when I see these heirloom varieties of vegetables around! I even saw a black radish the other day and I thought that was the coolest thing ever! Lovely looking purple carrot bread Brydie! 🙂
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Your experiments are wonderful – what a fantastic result. I’ve not tried purple carrots – we can’t seem to grow carrots very well in our plot and I’ve not seen them for sale around here.
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The colour is really stunning. I like heirlooms carrots, too. They add so much colour to dishes but I never tried to add them to a bread. Great idea!
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Looks fabulous. I don’t think I’ve seen purple carrots here, but if I do I’ll definitely bear this recipe in mind. Perhaps I’ll just have to have a go at growing my own, it’ll be the longest I’ll ever wait for a loaf of bread though 🙂
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Wow! If I only could get my hands on some purple carrots!
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When you make the bread, you said you use
125 ml water + carrot water from cooking. How much is this carrot water from cooking? Thanks.
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I was wondering this myself. I’m just boiling a batch of “normal” orange carrots and am going to try this recipe with them. I’m just about covering the carrots with water (about 200mls to start with) and simmering for 15 mins to render them mashable. I’ll let you know how it goes and how much water I end up with!
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