A moist and flavorful vegan carrot bread topped with black sesames. This tasty loaf is perfect to snack on for breakfast, or as a light mid-afternoon snack!

I wanted to share this recipe with you before Halloween because of the whole orange/black color scheme of the carrot bread. But here we are, four days after Halloween. In my defense. Okay, I guess I don’t really have any defense besides not being able to stay on track of anything anymore. Rest assured though, this gingery carrot bread topped with crunchy black sesame seeds is delicious no matter what day of the year you make it.

And I should know because I ate about one and a half loaves on my own. Yeah, it’s that good.

Not that I can take credit for it though. This recipe comes from the cookbook Everything I Want To Eat by Jessica Koslow, the owner of the popular Californian restaurant, Sqirl. If I am honest with you, I’ve heard of Sqirl before, but I really had no idea just how incredible it really was. I’ve made a few recipes from the book and they’ve all been insanely delicious, so I can only imagine how much better it would be direct from the source. I kind of want to put up my arms and declare that I was once lost, but now am found. But I wont because, well, you know.

This is the kind of bread I like to snack on throughout the day. The black sesame seeds add this addictive crunch that contrasts with the soft, spicy bread. I especially loved the sides of the bread that got lots of black sesame and the bread itself gets a bit crunchy too. All I need is a big mug of tea and I am set for the day – until I look down and realize I accidentally ate the whole loaf of carrot bread. Oops!

Yield: 1 loaf

Carrot Bread with Black Sesames

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Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 2/3 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce*
• 3 tablespoons pumpkin puree*
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large (approx 7oz total) carrots, peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons black sesame seeds

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a larger bowl, mix together both sugars, apple sauce, pumpkin puree, almond milk, ginger, and vanilla.
4. Gently fold in the flour into the wet ingredients, then fold in the carrots. It's encouraged that you leave lots of lumps and streaks of flour at this point.
5. Carefully fold in the vegetable oil, getting rid of any streaks of flour this time, but leaving lumps in the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and smooth out the top. Sprinkle the black sesame seeds over the top of the batter, gently pressing down to adhere them. The top should be completely covered in black sesame seeds.
7. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean - approximately 70 - 85 minutes.

Notes

*I replaced some of the applesauce with pumpkin puree to intensify the orange color of the loaf. You can omit the pumpkin puree and to a total of 1/2 cup applesauce if desired.