a lovely living

On every major holiday I’m fortunate to not be the one in charge of the family meals. Talk about pressure! I’m thankful for my mother, grandmother and mother in law who always graciously take the reigns and prepare delicious meals for our family. My role typically comes into play for dessert which I’m always more than happy to tackle. This Easter I wanted something festive and fun. Last year I enjoyed making these sugar cookies which were great but very time consuming. This year I also went the cookie route, but chose to try a carrot cake cookie with a cream cheese frosting and a simple carrot decoration. Don’t give me credit for any of the creativity, all thanks goes to Cooking Classy for this recipe. I’m just here to prove that your average baker can tackle this with ease. Oh, and they’re delicious in case I forgot to mention that ;)

Carrot Cake Cookies via Cooking Classy:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (213g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (106g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (55g) packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (118g) finely grated carrots
Chopped pecans or cinnamon, for decoration (optional)

Frosting
5 oz cream cheese, softened (don’t over-soften it)
6 Tbsp (3 oz) butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (220g) powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg for 20 seconds, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy. Blend in egg and vanilla extract. With mixer set on low speed, add half of the flour mixture and mix just until combined, then mix in carrots, then mix in remaining 1/2 of the flour mixture just until combined. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is properly incorporated.

Scoop dough out with a medium 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop and drop onto baking sheets lined with silicone liners, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven until set (they should still be soft to the touch though), about 11 – 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. After 5 – 10 minutes of cooling on rack finish cooling completely in an airtight container so they don’t dry. Once cool, frost with cream cheese frosting and top with pecans if desired.

For the frosting:
In a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and powdered sugar and whip again until light and fluffy (if slightly runny chill in freezer about 5 minutes then mix one last time). If doing the carrot decoration set aside about 2 Tbsp to ting green and 2 Tbsp to tint orange.