World Bread Day 2009 - Carrot Walnut Loaf

My how time flies when you're having fun. I cannot believe that it has been 12 months since the last World Bread Day. However, today is indeed World Bread Day 2009, and is once again hosted by Zorra of Kochtopf. To participate, all you have to do is to bake or buy bread of any kind and blog about it - simple!

Until I started blogging, I would never have dreamed of baking bread, but I am so glad that it is an art I have discovered - the variety and flavour of bread that you make yourself surpasses any supermarket bread, and you would be amazed at how easy it is. The biggest trick is making yeasted bread on cold days, when the yeast needs a little help to get going.

This year, I have made an unyeasted Carrot & Walnut Bread. The recipe comes from page 46 of the November 2009 edition of Australian Good Food magazine. Now, the bread in the photo is rustic to the extreme, and I found it a little off-putting. However, I am so glad that I ignored the photo and forged ahead - this bread is moist and delicious, with a wonderful crunchy texture from the walnuts. It actually reminded me more of a cake than a bread because it was so sweet and moist.

I did have one hitch with this bread in that the 30 minute baking time in the recipe was clearly not long enough in my case. I thought that my bread was ready at that stage, but the next day when I was cutting it into slices for work, I discovered to my horror that the middle section of the bread was still uncooked in the centre. Dang - all that lovely bread went into the bin. However, the end parts which were cooked through and which I did get to eat were fantastic. I would definitely make this bread again.

If you would like to make this bread for yourself, you will need:

2 1/3 cups plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon salt
1 grated carrot
1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts
1 cup low fat yoghurt (I just used low fat vanilla)
1/2 cup skim milk

Preheat your oven to 230 degrees Celsius, and line a baking tray with a silicone baking mat or baking paper.

Sift the flours, baking soda and salt together into a bowl, then add the carrots and walnuts. Mix well.

Stir the yoghurt and milk into the flour mixture to form a soft, sticky dough. (I found that I had to add some water to make the dough moist enough to work with. I also find that using my hands to mix the dough is easier than using a spoon or a knife.)

Turn the dough out onto a floured bench and knead into a large round or oval shape. Place the dough onto the prepared baking tray and make shallow diagonal slashes across the top of the dough with a sharp knife or box cutter.

Place the bread into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding. (You may need longer than this - I should have!)

Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack before serving slices smeared with butter.

Do check Zorra's site for the World Bread Day 2009 roundup here.