Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies

I am a few week’s late to the party but I did make the Inside-out carrot cake cookies (or as someone in my house called them “carrot cake whoopie pies”) last week.  These were relatively easy to make and jammed pack with good stuff like golden raisins, walnuts, and of course, carrots. The batter/dough was delicious.  The cookies had much more of a cake texture than a cookie texture. I found that they spread more than I expected them to, so next time I make them I will definitely make them smaller to have more petite cookie sandwiches. My husband loved the honey-sweetened cream cheese filling.

Kate made a lovely PDF of the recipe that you can find here.

Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies (from Gourmet April 2004)

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
• 1 scant cup walnuts (3 ounces), chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 ounces)
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 cup honey

Preparation

1. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets.
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
4. Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
5. While cookies are baking, blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth.
6. Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.

Caramel Crunch Bars

I am running REALLY behind here. So please bear with me. My husband and I have been exchanging this fabulous cold back and forth for weeks…hopefully some day soon we will have a healthy household again. Neither of us have much of a sweet tooth when we are sick… never mind the fact that I don’t feel like baking when my sinuses are about to explode.

So, anyways…on to the baked goods. Last week I cooked up these puppies while my husband was zonked out on Nyquil. Dorie Greenspan’s Caramel Cruch bars feature a layer of chocolate chip shortbread spread with a layer of milk chocolate and topped with crushed toffee. Yum. yum. yum.

Thank you Whitney of What’s Left on the Table for selecting this recipe. If you are interested in making these cookies yourself, you can find the recipe on Whitney’s blog here.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Caramel Bars

Valentines day means sweets for my sweetie. I baked up some oatmeal chocolate chip caramel bars and cut them into heart shapes.  These cookie bars feature oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough with a layer of caramel. They got rave reviews from my mister along with his co-workers, with whom he shared the cookie hearts.

 

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 a 12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup quick oats
• jarred caramel sauce/ice cream topping

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Grease bottom and sides of 8×8 inch square pan
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt
4. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg beating well.
5. Stir in hot water, vanilla and flour mixture
6. Add pecans, chocolate chips and oats; mix well.
7. Reserving 1/4 – 1/3 of the dough, spread dough in layer on bottom of prepared pan.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
9. If caramel sauce is not spreadable, microwave it enough so that it is soft.
10. Spread a layer of caramel sauce over the top of the baked cookies.
11. Drop reserved dough by teaspoonfuls on top of the caramel.
12. Bake for an additional 10-12 minutes until top cookie layer is golden.
13. Cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting into individual servings.

World Peace Cookies

I’ll Crumble For Ya!  I’ll Crumble For Ya!  I’ll Crumble For Ya!  I’ll Crumble for You!

Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies are chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and sea salt. I love  the combination of salt and chocolate. One of my favorite snacks is chocolate covered pretzels– the good ones, not those crappy ones sold at the drug store.

World Peace Cookies have some crumbly cookie dough.  The only “wet stuff” in this dough was butter, which was way outnumbered by the “dry stuff”, resulting in a crumbly dough that I was supposed to form into 2 logs. I wrapped up my delicate cookie dough logs tightly in saran wrap and squeezed them into shape more and then put them in the freezer and prayed for the best. When it came time to slice the cookie dough…guess what??? CRUMBLE!  But, Dorie warned that the dough may crumble on slicing and to just squish the crumbled dough together…so that is exactly what I did.

After baking, my cookies aren’t perfect little rounds. But they are perfectly delicious!  mmmmSaltAndChocolate! They were at their best shortly after they were out of the oven.

I will be making these again, but next time I will try adding an additional tablespoon or two of butter.

The recipe for these cookies can be found at cookbookhabit. Thanks to Jessica for choosing this week’s TWD recipe.

Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

These nutty, buttery, shortbread cookies are historical!  How?  Well, they were the very first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe way back on the first Tuesday of this year. Back then you could count the members of TWD on one hand and now the membership is around 300 somewhere.

Making these shortbread involved mixing the cookie dough and then chilling the day before cutting it into squares to bake. In the shortbread section of the cookie chapter of Baking, Dorie Greenspan offers some helpful tips on making the perfect shortbread.

You can find the recipe for these cookies on the blogs of one of the original members, Brown Eyed Baker.

Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps

I was looking for an easy cookie to fill out my 800-pound (slight exaggeration) cookie tray that I was taking to my family’s Christmas celebration.  I flipped through my cookbooks and old magazines and one cookie recipe in particular seemed to suit my needs, AND I already had all the ingredients at home and wouldn’t need to run out and battle the mobs at the store. The recipe was for Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps and was from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food Cookie Edition.

The batter for these cookies came together in a few minutes then had a nice 45 minute winter’s nap in the freezer.  The final step before baking is to roll the chilled dough into 1″ balls and coat them in powdered sugar. Yay!  More messy stuff for me to clean up (I feel like I am on a non-stop cycle of messing up and cleaning up my kitchen this month).

The final verdict: these cookies looked really tasty and were cakey with a rich chocolately flavor with undertones of coffee. They were a bigger hit with the adults than they were with the little kids, probably due to the coffee flavoring.  I will definitely be making these puppies again!

 

---

Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps (from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food Collectible Cookie Edition)

Makes about 18 cookies

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, for coating

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well combined; mix in cooled chocolate. With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients; beat in milk just until combined. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar twice.
3. Place balls on prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Roll Out Cookies

For this month’s Cookie Carnival we were given two options for cookies: chocolate roll out cookies or vanilla/sugar roll out cookies. I opted for the chocolate ones since I had recently made sugar cookies. It struck fear in my heart when Kate also announced that there will be a cookie decorating portion to this month’s cookie pageant. I can bake, sure…but, my cookie decorating skills are very, very, very lackluster. They look about the same as a 5 year old could do.

I made several different shapes: trees, stars, hearts, houses, and little men. I thought I had more holiday cookie cutters than that but there wasn’t a candy cane or snowflake cookie cutter in sight… And I had grand deluded plans of pretty little snowflake cookies. Color me disappointed.  

Despite my sub-par decorating skills, I loved the way these cookies tasted and loved their texture. My little cousins (who range in age from 1-4) were impressed with the cookies and were begging their moms for some before we even had Christmas dinner. Glad to know my decorating skills have some fans.

---

Chocolate Roll Out Cookies

Recipe from Dorie Greenspan

Makes about 60 small or 20 large cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Sprinkles or other sugar decorations (optional)
• Royal Icing (optional)

1. Sift first 5 ingredients and cinnamon, if desired, into medium bowl. Stir chocolate in metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Set aside.
2. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and beat until mixture is pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat in vanilla and chocolate. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just to blend.
3. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Form each half into ball and flatten into disk. Wrap disks separately in plastic and chill until firm, at least 4 hours.
4. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before rolling out.
5. Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 1/8-inch thickness for smaller (2-inch) cookies and 1/4-inch thickness for larger (3- to 4-inch) cookies. Using waxed paper prevents you from adding too much flour, which will make the cookies tough.
7. Using decorative cookie cutters, cut out cookies. Cold dough is much easier to work with. If it gets warm as you’re cutting out the cookies, place the dough—waxed paper and all—in the freezer for about 5 minutes.
8. Use an offset spatula to peel away the excess dough and transfer the cookies to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps, roll out dough, and cut more cookies, repeating until all dough is used. If not icing cookies, decorate with sprinkles or other sugar toppings, if desired.
9. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are firm on top and slightly darker around edges, about 9 minutes for smaller cookies and up to 12 minutes for larger cookies. Line baking sheets with fresh parchment as needed. Cool completely on rack.
10. Decorate cookies with royal icing if desired.
11. DO AHEAD: Cookies can be made 4 days ahead. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers.

Buttery Jam Cookies

When I heard the name of this recipe I thought that the cookies would be butter thumbprint cookies topped with jam. I was wrong (not the first time in my life for that!).  These cookies have jam mixed into the dough.

I used apricot jam in my cookies. The resultant cookies are cakey little domes with a buttery and lightly fruity taste.  They are going to be a part of the cookie platters that I am bringing to a couple of family parties over the next few days.

These cookies were very easy and quick to make and will go on my list for cookies to make again. Next time I might put in a smidge more jam to get a little bit more of a fruity flavor. 

This recipe was selected by Heather at Randomosity and the Girl . She has the recipe for this cookies posted at her blog. Stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie blog roll to check out what the other bakers have cooked recently!

Orange Sugar Cookies

Let’s call these my tasty, lazy, lumpy sugar cookies. Why? Because…

a) They are super tasty– I added orange zest to Dorie’s All-Purpose Sugar Cookie recipe. My hubster was raving about these little cookies for days and days after I made them.

b) I was too lazy to make the rolled out, cookie cutter-ed version of the sugar cookies. Besides, I know that my decorating skills aren’t up to snuff. (SANTA: please give me cake decorating classes for Xmas!!)

c) The cookies ended up kind of not-quite-perfectly-round because the cookie dough log (which was packed with buttery goodness) started melting and mushing around as I was slicing it.

This recipe was selected by Ulrike at Kuchenlatein. She has the recipe for this cookies posted at her blog. Stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie blog roll to check out what the other bakers have cooked recently!

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

 Sometimes it is so difficult to chose exactly what type of cookie you want to eat… chocolate chip, peanut butter or oatmeal. Why not all three at once??  Crazy talk!

Well, Dorie Greenspan has come up with the perfect cookie for the indecisive baker.  The Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters from her cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours has a dough made up of chunky peanut butter and oatmeal with lots of chocolate chips mixed in.

I enjoyed the cookies best shortly after they came out of the oven when they were still on the soft and chewy side. After they had cooled off they became crunchier. The recipe made a truck load of cookies which makes it the perfect cookie recipe to bring to an office party or a bake sale.  

This recipe was selected by Stephanie at  Proceed with Caution back in September (just before I joined TWD). She has the recipe for this cookies posted at her blog.  Stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie blog roll to check out what the other bakers have cooked recently!