Carrot Cake Bread

While quick breads and muffins make a great addition to your breakfast menu, this light and fluffy carrot cake bread with cream cheese glaze is a surprising way to use your bread maker.

For special festive occasions, a pretty drizzle of glaze over the top makes a gorgeous presentation.

For a cozy weekend with my family, we prefer to serve the glaze on the side for spreading over the surface of sliced pieces of carrot cake bread toast.

Whichever way you serve it, your family will love the sweet spiced flavor of this easy bread machine recipe from The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook.

Why This is the Best Recipe

I love each and every one of these delicious bread machine recipes but I think this is the best bread machine carrot bread because:

1. Quick and Easy Prep: With just a few pantry ingredients and a fresh carrot, you can have warm, homemade carrot bread with just minutes of hands on effort.
2. Sweet but Sliceable: Unlike a cake-like quick bread, this carrot bread can be sliced and toasted!
3. Glaze or No Glaze: Making this for a special event? Make the cream cheese drizzle for the top. Or you can leave it off if you plan to make more practical things with the recipe.

Ingredients

This simple bread maker recipe has just a few easy ingredients:

• Bread flour
• Sugar
• Butter
• Egg
• Canned crushed pineapple: Don't drain the juices!
• Shredded carrot: Freshly shredded from one large whole carrot. Skip the pre-shredded carrots bag at the store, their texture is too tough for this recipe.
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla
• Yeast: Instant or Bread Machine Yeast

For the glaze:

• Cream cheese
• Powdered sugar
• Milk
• Vanilla

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

The carrot cake bread starts just like all other bread machine recipes:

First, decide which size bread loaf you want to make based on the size of your bread machine. I've included both a 1 ½-pound and a 2-pound version of this recipe.

Follow the ingredient quantities in the recipe card according to the loaf size you chose.

Then, add the liquid ingredients to your bread pan fitted with the paddle attachment.

Pour in the entire can of crushed pineapple, including all the juices. Then add the freshly shredded carrot, egg, vanilla, and the softened butter.

HINT: Always cut your butter into smaller pieces so that small bread machine paddle can more easily work it into the bread dough.

Next, add the dry ingredients to your bread pan:

Add the bread flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and yeast right on top of the wet ingredients.

It is a best practice to sprinkle the salt around the perimeter of the bread pan so you can keep it away from the yeast until just the right time.

Use a spoon to make a well in the center of the flour, place the yeast in the well.

Place the bread pan back inside the bread machine and then:

1. Select the WHITE or BASIC program (depending on your machine's settings.)
2. Select the coordinating loaf size (1 ½-pound or 2-pound)
3. Press START

Note: Some machines also have a Crust Color setting, I usually use Light or Medium. You'll want to select this before hitting START.

The machine will knead together the ingredients to form a firm ball of dough.

Let the machine progress through:

• the kneading phase
• the first rise
• the brief second kneading

At this point, if you want you could remove the paddle from the bread pan so it doesn't bake into your loaf.

Simply nudge the dough ball back into place. It will be a fairly sticky dough so don't attempt to take it fully out of the bread pan to get the paddle.

Most of the bread makers we tested will take about 3 ½ hours or so from start to finish to bake the bread.

Once the bread is done baking, place it on a wire rack over parchment paper to cool while you prepare the glaze.

Beat together the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add 1 teaspoon of milk.

Decide how you want to serve your carrot cake bread:

• With a Fancy Drizzle Pattern: Leave the cream cheese glaze thick, add it to a ziptop baggie. Snip the corner of the bag and pipe a pattern on the completely cooled bread.
• With a Solid Glaze: Add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until a thinner texture is achieve. Spoon the glaze slowly over the top of a still warm loaf so the glaze will melt and spread evenly.
• With Cream Cheese on the Side: Leave the glaze extra-thick and serve it in a small bowl next to slices of bread for guests to spread over the top like butter.

Equipment

This is a bread machine recipe and will require a bread maker to make it. If you don't have one, read our thoughts on whether a bread maker is worth it here.

Want to get a bread machine? Here are the reviews we did of the bread machines we tested while writing the best bread machine cookbook:

Storage

This bread is best served the day it has been baked.

However if you skip the glaze or leave the glaze on the side, it will keep for 2 - 3 days in a bread box or plastic bag at room temperature.

You can also freeze the unglazed bread, just be sure to cool it completely before freezing and thaw it with the bag open to let moisture escape and prevent soggy bread. Make the glaze fresh the day you plan to serve it.

Serving Tips

This bread machine recipe is perfect served for any weekend brunch but is an especially fun recipe to serve during a holiday gathering.

For breakfast: Add this carrot cake bread to a buffet table with a fresh fruit tray, big tubs of vanilla yogurt, and homemade granola.

For dinner: For a special treat, add the carrot cake bread to the dinner table bread basket. It would pair well with any ham, fish, or light lemony chicken dish you plan to serve. Here are a few of my easy but elegant favorites:

More Bread Machine Recipes

Looking for more delicious bread machine recipes? You can find all my favorites here: