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)
- 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.
- 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.
- Chill dough in refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- 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.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 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.
