Friday, June 27, 2008

Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

















Adapted from
BakingBites.co
m

Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup quick-cooking (1 minute) oats
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or spray with nonstick spray.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla and spices.











With the mixer on low speed, or working by hand, stir in flour mixture. Once no streaks of flour remain, stir in carrots, oats and raisins.












Roll tablespoonfuls of batter into balls and drop onto prepared baking sheets, flatten slightly.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, until cookies are set and lightly browned on the edges. Cool for 3 or 4 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.












The KBo Conclusion:
I loved the idea of carrot cake cookies, and knew I had to try this recipe out. BakingBites always has great recipes, so I know doubt knew these would be no exception. When my plans for last night were suddenly cancelled, I immediately knew what I could do instead (no, I'm not lame for baking on a Thursday night, what? Don't you see that Corona Lite in the pic?).

After a pit stop at the Teet (I cannot stress enough how EXPENSIVE that place is! Pumpkin Pie spice alone was $5!!) I set out to make these delicious bites.

I decided to alter the recipe a little bit by using whole wheat flour instead of All Purpose, and I think everything came out just fine! I also didn't use quite a full cup of raisins, I just didn't think it needed a whole cup after adding all the carrots. And I was right! Although, I am sure it would taste good with more raisins as well if raisins are your thing...

I was also surprised that the BakingBites recipe called to just drop the dough onto the baking sheet without first rolling it into balls. As you can see from the oven shot, thats how I made the first batch and while the tasted great, they didn't have the cookie-like shape and thickness as the finished product in the first bowl picture, above. So I added in the instructions to first roll the dough into balls and then flatten it out.

I know bakers stress parchment paper for cookies, and I guess once I get more heavily into it I will buy some, but my mom (and grandmothers for that matter) have always used good ole nonstick spray so that's what I used and guess what? They tasted great and didn't stick!

All in all these were relatively simple, very good, very cakey and the carrot adds a great amount of moisture. I give them three thumbs up!

3 comments:

rachaelgking said...

You know oatmeal raisin cookies are my weakness... combined with carrot cake?? Oh, the craziness! Must try!

Anonymous said...

I made this without butter using mashed pear, banana and about tsp of Olive Oil (it was all I had). I also added a little ginger (no raisins), and boy! was it a delicious and healthy treat. My family loved it.

Kristin @ The Southern Summer said...

Anon-

That sounds pretty good as well. I tried making these without butter once and instead using applesauce, they did not turn out very good. :( But the mashed fruit sounds great! Maybe I will try that with some canola oil instead of olive.