Carrot Patch Bars

RéeLani's Note:

Spicy, soft and cakey treats. I thought it'd be fun to try carrots instead of pumpkin in a recipe and see how it turned out. Hope you enjoy them.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 pan

Bars

• 6 ounces all-purpose flour
• 7 ounces brown sugar , firmly packed
• 4 ounces granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs , lightly beaten
• 8 ounces cooked carrots , well mashed
• 4 ounces chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

• 2 ounces soft caramel candies
• 1 ½ tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease/flour a 9 x 13" baking pan.
3. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
4. In another, smaller, bowl mix the beaten eggs, mashed carrots, pecans and vanilla.
5. Pour the bowl of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well,'til everything is nicely combined.
6. Spread in the prepared pan.
7. Bake 30 minutes and test in the center with a toothpick.
8. If it comes out mostly clean, they're done.
9. Cool in the pan on a baking rack.
10. While bars are cooling, put caramels in a small saucepan with the milk over low heat.
11. Stir constantly'til the caramel is melted.
12. Spoon, or pour, or drizzle over the bars and spread the caramel mixture around a bit.
13. Cut into bars before caramel gets too firm.

Reviews

[Bertsy Davenport]

This is absolutely fab! I love carrots any way they are fixed and these were fixed to a T. Great recipe to serve at luncheon for light dessert.

[Nelly]

Delicious and very easy to make. Clear instructions.

[TOOLBELT DIVA]

More like a spicy nut cake, familiar in some of the Caribbean Islands. Full of flavour this is a nice moist treat with a cup of tea. A very easy recipe to whip up. When caramel candies cool, they tend to harden up to their original consistency, making it very difficult, if not impossible to cut. I would not use them for cake topping. Without compromising the intent of this recipe, I used caramel chips for the topping; melting chips in a double boiler, mixed with 1 tbsp soya/canola margarine. The topping, in its melted smooth, creamy state spread very easily. (the caramel colour is not very appealing, however). When cooled, the topping was easily cut. It was easy to cut the cake into "bars"; these "Carrot Patch Bars" will be a nice addition to our treat table, during the coffee hour after church service, on Sunday. I will keep this recipe in my collection and use it again for bake sales, church coffee hour, etc. Thankyou for your contribution.