I'm going to admit that I was pretty excited when I started reading Dorie Greenspan's introduction to her recipe for Gingered Carrot Cookies, "I wanted to make the cookie equivalent of carrot cake," says Dorie. "Yes, fantastic idea!" I agreed mentally. Carrot cake is a huge favorite in our house. As I've mentioned before (picture included), we had carrot cake for our wedding, and it's often the cake of choice for my husband's birthday. My longtime recipe is for a carrot bundt cake, but we also loved Dorie's Bill's Big Carrot Cake (or at least my adapted version of it.)Reading Dorie's account further, I learned that although she used far too few carrots to approximate carrot cake's intense carroty goodness, she decided the "scone-like" cookies that resulted were keepers. Well, alright then, even though these cookies were not going to replicate our favorite cake after all, we happen to love scones, so I figured we'd do fine with these cookies, especially if I served them for breakfast!
n.o.e.'s notes:
- These cookies were chosen this week for the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group by my long distance baking buddy Natalia of the lovely blog Gatti, Fili e Farina and you can find the recipe on her cookie post.
- My husband is a confirmed coconut-phobe, so I omitted the recipe's coconut and bumped up the carrots and the pecans to compensate.
- For about a quarter of the flour, I used oat flour.
- I reduced the total volume of sugar, used a combination of dark muscovado and palm sugar. To make up for the reduction in liquid (the sugar bakes as a liquid) I threw in a spoonful of creamy yogurt.
- I formed my cookies a bit bigger, getting an even dozen from my half batch of dough.
the verdict:
I sampled a cookie warm from the oven and enjoyed the subtle flavor of these cookies. They were slightly sweet and had a bit of a tang from the yogurt and the ginger. The texture was moist and wonderfully soft from the oats. I think they'd be even better with a bit of butter, but what isn't, really?
My husband tried them the next morning for breakfast. His vote: very good. I've gotta say, though, now I'm in the mood for real, honest-to-goodness carrot cake!
16 comments:
These look great and it was fun hearing what you did this week with them...always something new over here. I think they would work great as a breakfast cookie, especially in light of the fact that I had to remake them this morning and we did eat them for breakfast...LOL. Thanks for the offer of the photo, I should have taken you up on that as yours look delightful.
Oh, and is ALE going to have Carrot Cake at her wedding? I think it is only fitting, don't you...tradition and all.
I like your idea of doctoring them a bit to make them breakfast cookies. Though I have to admit to eating one of mine with my breakfast this morning...icing and all. =) And now I'm wanting to make carrot cake too.
I would love to have cookies for breakfast.
I would eat these cookies for breakfast any day of the week! Im glad your hubby and you enjoyed them. I loved them and love the idea of putting on a glaze next time. I have a pumpkin cookie recipe with a creamcheese topping that is out of this world!
Oat flour and yogurt sound really good in these and that clearly qualifies them as breakfast cookies!
The Hub's favorite is Carrot cake too. Every birthday.
I like the alterations you made. So much I learn from you.
Your cookies look terrific! I'm considering making bigger cookies and calling them scones so I can eat them for breakfast. I like the idea of adding oat flour and yogurt to make them a little more breakfast-friendly.
Ciao Nancy ! i'm so happy that your husband loved them !! I love carrot cake too ! Thanks for joining me this week ! Thanks for your very nice comment
I like your adaptations, and if I make these again I'll use more carrots too. I went the other way completely and made mine into ice cream.
That was exactly my reaction - now I really want carrot cake! Glad they were a hit!
oat flour--yes! good idea for these!
Glad that these were a hit at your house. I love that you liked them even though they didn't exactly replicate carrot cake. :)
oat flour. i should try that! I loved these cookies!
They look great Nancy :)
Nancy I have to make carrot cake for my husband's birthday as well. I'm not a carrot cake lover though. but I thought these cookies were good the first day, not so much the second.
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