Lovin' From the Oven

Day 6: Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

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Day 6 of my 12 days of cookies: Carrot cake whoopie pies. I’ve always been a fan of carrot cake, but it’s never been very easy to transport. This is a great alternative! You can pack them and eat them without any utensils. All you need are your bare hands– now that’s my kind of dessert!
I baked these when my little sister had some friends over and they mostly freaked out by the appearance of the cookie. “Carrots?! There’s carrots coming out of your cookie!” Don’t fret your heads, little ones, carrots can be in cookies too. Yes, they may look like tree branches coming out of the sides, but you barely notice them when you eat them. I promise.
The original recipe called for raisins, but in my book, carrot cake is not supposed to have raisins. So I did what any girl would do: I omitted them. They also have oatmeal in the recipe…what the heck? Since when does carrot cake have oatmeal? But I left them in, anyways. They’re good for the structural shape of the cookies. Look at me, I act like I actually know what I’m talking about.
These cookies were a hit with everyone that liked carrot cake. For the others, it’s a little difficult to make someone like a carrot cake cookie if they don’t like carrot cake. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all. Adapted from Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body (makes about 4 dozen cookies or 24 whoopie pies).
  • 1 cup light-brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 cups quick cooking oats
  • 1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 large carrots)
  1. In a large bowl, combine sugars and butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until well combined.
  2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; stir to combine. Gradually add flour to butter mixture; mix on a low speed until just blended. Mix in oats and carrots.
  3. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  5. Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Transfer to oven, and bake until browned, rotating pan halfway through baking to ensure even color, 12 to 15 minutes.
  6. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  7. Sandwich two cookies together with cream cheese frosting spread in between.
As for the cream cheese frosting, I used my trusted recipe that can be found HERE.

Day 5: Chocolate Jumbles

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Day 5 of my 12 days of cookies: So far, so good! I’m still on the right track to finish my list this year and I am ever so determined to do it! Chocolate Jumbles. A dark chocolate, cakey cookie with chopped pecans and white chocolate. You can make them as big or as small as you want. The recipe says it yields 18 cookies, but I managed to make over 4 dozen with the batter by using a small cookie scoop. Instead of making them huge, I baked them into miniature poppables. The recipe also said that you have to flatten them a bit before baking, but since I made mine so tiny, I left them as is.
I took just over 3 dozen cookies to work, thinking no one would want them in my family (my parents aren’t a big fan of chocolate). When I came home, my mom asked me where the rest of the cookies went. I had left a little plate of about 6 cookies on the counter, which seemed to have mysteriously disappeared while I was at work. My mom confessed to eating 4 of them and was asking for more. Um, what? Where is my mom and what have you done with her? Apparently, they reminded her of some cookie she ate back in the day. She wasn’t even phased by the chocolate in it.
I was in a rush taking these pictures because I did it in the morning before work, so I texted my DB asking if he could take some extra shots just in case I didn’t get one that I liked. “Sure,” he said, “but you never like my pictures!” Grateful, I started uploading the pictures when I came home. Curious as to what his shots look like? Notice anything out of the ordinary?
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I was laughing so hard when I saw this. He didn’t even bother flipping an upside down cookie! EVERY picture he took had a flipped cookie. Hahaha.
This recipe came from a beautiful cookbook that I recently received from Tate’s Bake Shop. Not only did they send me a cookbook, they also sent me cookies! Three different kinds!

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The beautiful box it came in..
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and even more boxes!
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Each pack has two individually wrapped packages, each filled with a row of cookies. White chocolate macadamia nut…
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Oatmeal raisin..
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and your classic chocolate chip…
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These cookies were thin and crispy. I’m not usually one to like those kinds of cookies, but I couldn’t stop eating the white chocolate macadamia nut. My dad actually finished all of them. True story. The oatmeal raisin, I could do without… but as for the white chocolate macadamia nut– I’d eat it for dessert every day.
For those of you who want cookies right away, you can use the 15% discount code “cookie” on their website (valid until December 31st) for instant satisfaction. Here’s the recipe for the jumbles to tie you over!
Chocolate Jumbles
By Kathleen King from Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook, p. 50
  • 2 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups white chocolate chips or chunks
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets, or line them with silpat.
  2. In a lage bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix and scrap down the sides of the bowl.
  4. Add the white chocolate chips and pecans. If the dough is too stiff, wet your hands and finish the mixing by hand. (Don’t worry, it’s not a big sticky mess.)
  5. Using two tablespoons, drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheets. Use and ice cream scoop if you have one. Wet it with warm water between scoops so the dough falls out easily. Press the dough balls down gently with your fingertips.
  6. Bake the Jumbles for 20 minutes. The cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven. Do not overbake them.
  7. Cool them on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes and remove the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Day 4: Trifecta Cookies

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Day 4 of my 12 days of cookies: Trifecta Cookies. What the heck are trifecta cookies? Well, they’re the perfect blend of chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter cookies, all rolled into one. They were deeeelish. The oatmeal didn’t overpower the rest of the cookie. In fact, you could barely even tell it was there. My DB even finished a whole cookie. He NEVER eats anything with oatmeal! I normally don’t eat peanut butter cookies, but I ate three of these right out of the oven. Bottom line? These cookies are here to please everyone… even the haters.

I sent these cookies out to the winners of my last giveaway and got wonderful feedback from them. So far, they’ve been loved all around! I substituted reduced fat peanut butter for the regular peanut butter, and it really didn’t make a difference. Who knew that you can skimp on the fat and still have it taste good? Not me! These cookies are ever so slightly adapted from The Novice Chef Blog.

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 creamy natural peanut butter (I used reduced fat Jif peanut butter)
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
  2. Cream together butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add in the flour and mix until combined. Stir in the oats and the chocolate chips.
  3. Refrigerate the dough overnight or up to 24 hours.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  5. Roll the dough out into balls and place about two inches apart on a baking sheet.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet then move to a wire rack. Makes 22-24 cookies.

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