I am so eager to make giant fancy cakes for 12 lately - but I have nobody to eat them *ugh*. So I'm trying to transform my cake recipes into cookies. Some failed. Some succeeded. These carrot cake cookies were the result of a successful cake to cookie transformation.
As for Ingredients, here are my favourites to use:
Butter: I used regular salted butter for this one, normally I'd sub for Dairy-free but if we're looking for the real-deal carrot cake, real butter is the way to go. I always bake with salted butter (I know I know I'm bad) - but honestly it makes everything taste WAY better.
Brown + White Sugar: I always use Rogers sugar! Produced in Canada so I feel good about it. 😎
Flour: Same same. I used Rogers flour, too. I've recently switched to unbleached flour and it works great in all the recipes I've tried so far. Not as shelf-stable but at least it contains some nutrients.
Old fashioned + Quick oats: I love Bob's Red Mill. Fun fact, I've actually met Bob! I work for a natural product sampling company and we attend a couple trade shows in Vancouver each year and Bob is always there. He's so sweet. Quite the talker too. 😉
These are soft and super *moist* (sorry) from the grated carrot, then topped with a good spread of cream cheese buttercream and it's like a little carrot cake cookie dream - the closest cookie form of the real deal.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Cookies 1/2 cup of butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp nutmeg (heaped) 1/2 cup of shredded carrot 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats 1/2 cup of quick oats 1/2 cup pecans
Cream Cheese Frosting 1/2 cup of butter - room temp 1/4 cup of cream cheese - room temp 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla cinnamon - optional (for sprinkling on top)
Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a bowl fitted with a stand mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy and pale in colour.
Add brown sugar and white sugar and beat until light and fluffy, around 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract and continue beating on medium/high speed for one minute. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, + nutmeg. Whisk together until evenly combined.
Slowly add your dry mixture to the wet ingredients in two batches to prevent overmixing. Once ingredients are just coming together, add shredded carrot, old-fashioned oats, quick oats, and pecans. Continue mixing until everything is evenly combined.
Using a large cookie scoop, grab ~1/4 cup of batter and place it on the prepared sheet. Roll the dough with your hands until it forms a uniform ball and press it down until it's roughly 1 inch thick.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack, cookies might look underdone but this is what makes them soft! Trust the process.
Now it's time to make your cream cheese frosting:
In a medium sized bowl, beat butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Slowly add icing sugar and beat for 2 minutes on high speed until super whipped and fluffy, add vanilla and continue beating for another minute.
Spread frosting on top of the cooled cookies. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top and ta-da! You're done.
Enjoy :)