Carrot Cake....Cookies!
Easter weekend. It's warm, very warm, unsettlingly warm AND I've had the weekend off. What did I do over the weekend? I made hot cross buns, I went for two runs 8 and 12 km., I went biking with my kids and I tried Hot Yoga for the first time (pretty wicked BTW). My Mother-in-law has recently returned from her yearly sojourn in Trinidad which means that Derek and I get a little time to ourselves. Off to our favourite local and we even had a chance to try another spot (2 days later - no really we're not that piggy!) reported to have the best burgers in the East end. Lastly, I made these cookies. As promised, Carrot cake cookies!
Once again... Martha. Seriously though, this recipe looked so different that I couldn't resist. I love carrot cake and especially love the cream cheese icing. I don't love my carrot cake with too much extra crap. No pineapple, no coconut - more spice cake and moist carrots topped with the sweet and tangy white icing. A beautiful combination.
The cookies themselves have all the good qualities of carrot cake but the addition of oats makes them a cross between carrot cake and oatmeal cookies. Not bad at all. Nice and squidgy (I love that word!) and chewy. The cookies have been getting rave reviews all around - even from kid #1 and kid #2 (both asked where the chocolate was at first though). I changed up the filling a bit from Martha's original - just so you know, it called for only 1 cup of icing sugar (my filling was too runny with just 1 cup) and 1 tsp of vanilla (I just couldn't do it! Nothing should take the flavour away from the cream cheese).
Carrot Cake Cookies
makes about 3 dozen
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar (although I used dark with success)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 lg eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more for flattening)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (about 3 lg carrots)
1 cup raisins
Cream Cheese Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 - 2 cups icing sugar
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until well combined.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Stir to combine. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix well until blended. Mix in oats, carrots and raisins. Chill until firm, at least 1 hr.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Shape tablespoons of dough into balls and place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until browned and crisp, 12 - 15 minutes (rotate halfway through baking time). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Filling:
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add butter and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and stir to combine.
Once cookies are cooled, spread about 2 tsp of filling on the flat side of half the cookies. Sandwich together with the remaining cookies.
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About Me
- Wanda Thorne
- St Michael's Choir School is celebrating it's 75th anniversary year of service to St Michael's Cathedral. Part of the school celebration is a trip to Italy where our boys from Grades 5 - 12 will be performing and celebrating Mass. This blog will be chronicling our adventures. Wanda Thorne is the Vocal Coach at St Michael's Choir School. Gerard Lewis is the Grade 7/8 Homeroom teacher at the Choir School.
About Me
- Wanda Thorne
- St Michael's Choir School is celebrating it's 75th anniversary year of service to St Michael's Cathedral. Part of the school celebration is a trip to Italy where our boys from Grades 5 - 12 will be performing and celebrating Mass. This blog will be chronicling our adventures. Wanda Thorne is the Vocal Coach at St Michael's Choir School. Gerard Lewis is the Grade 7/8 Homeroom teacher at the Choir School.
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2 comments:
Yup. You rock my world, sis! They sound amazing. Wish I could try some with you :)
There are so many of 'the good things in life' in this cookie that it just couldn't go wrong! I wish were here to have some too - plus I'd love to have a partner for my hot yoga class this aft!!!
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