Cream of Carrot Soup

I am addicted to this soup.  I make a pot of it at least once a week and I've been going through pounds and pounds of carrots (like 15 lbs already).  It's originally from the American Girl Cookbook which is no longer available. However, there is a halved recipe (with the addition of cayenne) in the Samantha's Cooking Studio.  We have both books of course; this one is the newer edition.  

Cream of Carrot Soup
1 pound carrots
2 cups chicken broth
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
1/2 TSP salt
1/8 TSP cayenne pepper
1 c. half & half (I've also used a can of coconut milk to change it up a bit)

Peel carrots and rinse under cold water.  Cut them into 1/2-inch slices. Cook in a medium saucepan in the chicken broth until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the carrots, reserving the broth. Puree the carrots (the original method is using a potato masher, and I actually like the chunkier texture, but I also use the vitamix or immersion blender)
In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat.  Then stir in flour.  Cook the butter and flour for 1 minute over low heat, stirring constantly.  Add the mashed carrots, salt and cayenne pepper.  Stir to mix together.  Slowly stir in reserved broth.  Turn up the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.  Stir often.

Turn heat down to medium low.  Add the half-and-half.  Heat the soup slowly, stirring constantly. 

Ladle the hot soup into bowls.  Serve with crackers (or croutons).

So yummy.  Wyatt loves it too!

And for fun, we went to the zoo when it was freezing cold.