A “Healthy” Sweet Treat – Carrot Cake Cookies
With the holidays behind us and a few extra pounds under our loosened belts, many of us have resolved to eat lighter and leaner. It is all well and good; admirable to be healthier. But cleanses and resolutions be damned, let’s be realistic, we are not going to forgo dessert forever. So when it is time to finish a meal with sweets, it makes sense to eat one that we can fool ourselves into believing is healthy.
Carrot cake fits the bill. It’s got vegetables in it after all. And eggs and nuts and flour. What’s so bad about all that? Practically health food.
But in quarantine, with so few mouths in our homes to feed, who needs a whole cake lying around? You would probably cut the slices unevenly and then the edges would need to be straightened all the time, the cake disappearing until, little bit by little bit, you’ve eaten all there was of it.*
Instead, make Carrot Cake Cookies. I don’t mean bake a whole batch of dozens of cookies; that would defeat the purpose. Rather, embellish store-bought cookies – as many or as few as you want – with icing, quick cooked carrots, (raisins, if you must), and a few toasted nuts. With the right spices and flavorings, they taste just like carrot cake, without all the fuss or the need to bake a whole cake.
All you need to do is grate a few carrots and sauté them briefly in a pan with a bit of butter and spices. Whip together a quick buttercream icing and smear it on store-bought cookies. Sprinkle the cooked carrots and a few toasted nuts on top and voila…Carrot Cake Cookies. As tasty as a cake in bite-size portions and ready in a flash. A “healthy” sweet treat that fits into all your New Year’s resolutions.
Carrot Cake Cookies
I use Lotus Biscoff brand cookies to make Carrot Cake Cookies. They are speculoos, a thin, crisp, lightly-spiced European cookie. Any brand of speculoos would work just as well, as would any dry, biscuit-like cookie with a snap (Parle-Gs or gingersnaps, for example).
I do not like raisins in my carrot cake, but there are those that do. If you feel they must be there, add a tablespoon as you sauté the carrots. In a similar vein, I think toasted nuts are a must. However, if you feel they do not belong, by all means, leave them out.
If you only want to make a few cookies, divide the recipe into smaller portions. You could also prepare all of the carrots and buttercream icing, and store them separately in sealed containers in the refrigerator, assembling a cookie or two (or more) as you want them, and then, little bit by little bit, you’ve eaten all there was of it.*
makes about 15 cookies, about 20 minutes
5 Tbsp. (½ stick plus 1 Tbsp.) butter, divided, at room temperature
2 oz. (¼ package) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup grated carrots, from about 2 – 3 peeled, medium-sized carrots
1 Tbsp. raisins (optional)
½ Tbsp. granulated sugar
⅛ tsp. cinnamon
⅛ tsp. ground cardamom
Small pinch salt
2 Tbsp. walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped (optional)
½ tsp. vanilla
½ cup confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
About 15 speculoos or other crisp cookies
- Remove the butter and cream cheese from the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature.
- Melt 1 tablespoon butter over a low to medium-low heat in a small skillet. Add grated carrots, raisins (if using), granulated sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and a tiny pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are somewhat soft, about 10 minutes, adding a teaspoon of water if needed. Set aside to cool.
- Prepare the nuts by toasting lightly on a sheet pan in the oven for a few minutes or in a dry skillet. Cool and roughly chop. Set aside.
- Make the buttercream icing by creaming together with a fork the remaining ½ stick butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioner’s sugar in a small bowl.
- Smear each cookie with about a half tablespoon of buttercream icing. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of the cooked carrots and a few pieces of toasted walnuts.
*Adapted from the poem, “Little Bits,” by John Ciardi in You Read To Me, I’ll Read To You, originally published in 1961.
