Carrot Cookies

So one of the doctors whom I work with recently received a juicer as a gift from a patient. I wish I got gifts that expensive! Anyway, he went and bought lots of fruits and vegetables to make juice out of, including carrots. When I was using the juicer, I was sad about all of the carrot pulp that I was throwing away. The next day at work when I make more juice, I decided to take the carrot pulp home. I made carrot cookies and carrot cupcakes (see other post) with them. Since the juice was already extracted from the carrots, I added a few splashes of milk to make sure it didn't turn out dry.

This recipe is from King Arthur Flour (yes, I use this website a lot), which they call Take-10 Super Cookies.

Recipe:

1/2 cup toasted nuts
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) boiled cider (for great flavor; substitute maple syrup or dark corn syrup, if desired)
1 cup shredded fresh carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries, packed
1/2 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour, organic preferred
1 1/2 cups quick rolled oats

1. Chop your nuts and toast in a pan on a stove on medium heat for about 3 minutes. You could also toast in an oven or toaster oven, but I have a tendency to forget about them and end up burning the food.

2. Mix oil, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, salt, vanilla, syrup, and egg by hand or with an electric mixer on medium or high until smooth.

3. Mix in the carrots, cranberries, chips, and nuts until combined. Then the flour and beat on low until mixed.

4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper (I used a silicon baking sheet).

5. Add in the oats and stir until mixed.

6. Drop the 1-tablespoon sized balls of dough onto the pans. It should make about 30 cookies. I made 12 huge cookies instead. If you make larger-sized cookies, make sure to press them until the dough is even. These cookies don't spread out much in the oven, so you can space them pretty close together, like an inch apart.

7. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. They will be soft, so let them cool completely on the pans before moving them.


They were pretty healthy, minus the amount of sugar in them. The cranberries became slightly juicy, which contrasted nicely with the toasted nuts. I didn't use quick rolled oats....I tried using steel cut oats. The result: the oats were not cooked all the way. All in all, a pretty good cookie.