I love this recipe because it has good healthy foods for ingredients and my kids love it. It’s a perfect addition to Santa’s cookie plate on Christmas Eve. Santa can share the Reindeer Loaf with his reindeer because it has ingredients reindeer like including carrots, applesauce, and raisins (if you add the raisin sauce). While your kids load up Santa’s plate on Christmas Eve, they can snack on a piece of Reindeer Loaf too. My kids love this Reindeer Loaf. It’s a very kid-friendly recipe.
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Christmas is Made More Magical with Our Food Traditions
Christmas is such a magical time of year! There are so many great family traditions and memories at Christmas time that I love, especially revolving around food.
When I think about Christmas, I smile. I love the feelings associated with Christmas, giving to others, and making special foods. I have traditions of making certain recipes in celebration at this time of year and I make them each year, however, my Reindeer Loaf is a new tradition for our family because it’s a new recipe I invented. I love creating new recipes! It’s like play time for me in the kitchen:)
Food memories that go along with our holidays are the best! Making the same foods year after year at holiday time stirs up strong emotions because we recall the smell, taste, and look of the food plus we get enjoyment out of eating it. Food memories are strong and precious because they touch our taste buds, our heads, and our hearts!
Hidden Healthy Apple and Carrot Ingredients
The hidden ingredient in this snack bread is a secret from my kids.
You want to know what it is? It can be just between us;) I won’t tell your kids if you don’t tell mine!
It’s carrot baby food!
Or, you can cook and puree carrots if you prefer that route. However, the baby food works out perfectly because it is already smooth and the kids don’t even know carrots are in the loaf. My kids, like many kids, have issues with certain textures so chunks of carrot and even shreds embedded in bread turn them off. For this reason, the smooth baby food works fantastic in this recipe!
The appearance of the bread turns out slightly different based on whether you use carrot baby food or carrot puree. The Reindeer Loaf in the first image in this post was made with baby food so it is more orange, whereas the bread in other photos in this post were made with carrot puree. The bread made with carrot puree is a bit more brownish in color.
Since reindeer like apples and carrots, I named this bread Reindeer Loaf.
As a mom I just love sneaking a vegetable in a sweet tasting loaf like my Reindeer Loaf. The more vegetables in my kids’ diet the better, especially around the holidays with so many sweet treats.
The Ingredients for Reindeer Loaf:
The Ingredients are:
- sugar
- butter
- eggs
- flour
- baking soda
- salt
- milk
- carrots
- applesauce
- For optional Raisin sauce topping: water, raisins, corn starch, and cinnamon
See below for easy printing of the ingredients and instructions.
Make yourself some Reindeer Loaf this December
Enjoy your Christmas season and add this gorgeous orange color loaf to your Christmas goodie making. Have the kids help make it or keep it a secret to hide the fact that it actually contains a vegetable. Sometimes as moms we need to be sneaky and sneak those vegetables in when we can. Whether the kids know about the baby food in it or not, the carrots in the bread are an added extra healthy boost to a yummy snack bread.
Get Santa’s Milk and Cookies and Reindeer Loaf ready
Come Christmas Eve when you prepare Santa’s plate for cookies, add a few slices of Reindeer Loaf, an apple, and a carrot treat. Tell your kids the treats are for Santa and the his reindeer to share. While you’re at it, grab a slice for your kids along with a cookie (gotta have a cookie too!) for a bedtime snack on Christmas Eve!
Don’t forget the milk and don’t forget a piece of Reindeer loaf for yourself to snack on too:) It’s a really good moist bread and I love it! I hope you do too:)
Have a Merry Christmas and Holiday Season!
Try out this Holiday Bread too! Maple Cinnamon Pumpkin Bread
Easy Frosted Raspberry Filled Biscuit Loaf
This is an original recipe by Julie Hoag. Copyright @2016 Julie Hoag. All Rights Reserved.
Reindeer Loaf
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, melted can use soft butter but melted blends better with sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 Tablespoons milk
- 8 ounces carrots smooth carrot baby food or cooked pureed carrots, blended with a bit of water added
- 1 cup applesauce
- 3/4 cup water For raisin sauce
- 1/2 cup raisins For raisin sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon corn starch For raisin sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon For raisin sauce
Instructions
- Cream together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. Stir by hand until blended. Add the two eggs and stir again. Add the dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir.
- Once blended add the applesauce and carrot baby food or cooked pureed carrots. Stir to blend.
- Pour bread batter into a loaf pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Optional Raisin Sauce Topping: While the Reindeer Loaf is baking, prepare the raisin sauce. This is optional and the Reindeer Loaf is good even without the raisin sauce. However, the raisin sauce adds some sweetness and nutrition. Cook the raisins and water in a pan on the stove top over low-medium heat for about 20 minutes.
- Towards the end of the 20 minutes, mash the raisins with a fork. Add the corn starch and cinnamon and stir. Raisins will bust open but the sauce remains a bit lumpy. Remove from the heat to let it cool.
- Once the loaf has cooled to the touch, spread the raisin sauce over the top of the Reindeer Loaf. Store in a sealed container.
What a great way to sneak in some extra nutrition!
Yes, and it really is good, I love it! My kids didn’t even taste the carrot flavor in the bread and they keep asking me to make it. Thanks!