Brown Sugar Carrot Bread

I made some Bahn Mi the other night and shredded WAY too much carrot. I did a bit of cookbook surfing to try to decide what to use the leftover on. I was thinking carrot souffle, pudding, maybe cake... When I stumbled across this recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman I had to try it.

Modifications from the original: less lemon zest because I couldn't bear to make more than one lemon naked, no nuts because I'm allergic, shredded instead of grated carrot because that's what I had, golden raisins because they seemed like a good addition and I had them on hand.

Brown Sugar Carrot Bread Recipe
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp butter
2 cups flour
1 cup dark brown sugar (okay, I was a bit short so it was more like 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/8 white sugar, 1/8 Splenda for baking).
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup fruit juice (I used a tropical mix - pear, pineapple, papaya, guava, mango, etc.)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
1 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup golden raisins

Method:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9x5 loaf pan.
Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in the butter (either by hand or using food processor).
Beat juice, zest, and egg together. Pour wet mixture into dry and stir just until blended.
Fold in carrot and raisins.
Pour into loaf pan and spread into all corners.
Bake for an hour (was 65 mins for me) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool in pan on rack for 15 mins, then remove from pan.

Verdict? Pretty good. I'd stay closer to the hour cooking time if you're using a metal baking pan, as my crust was fairly thick considering how moist the inside stays (meaning it was tough to cut a pretty slice). Then again, that could have been a result of me slicing it while still warm because I couldn't wait. It was pretty sweet but in a nice, earthy way. I probably could have gotten away with just the 3/4 cup of brown sugar just fine.

Edit: After letting it cool fully, the bread sliced wonderfully. So don't be impatient like I was. The crumb also looks/feels better in the cooled-off version than it does in my close-up pic. But I think it looks yummy either way...