Carrot Cookies

I am still trying to use up the 4 lbs. of carrots I bought two weeks ago. I spent most of today baking and one of the things I made were these carrot cookies. They are a big soft cake like cookie. I took a plate over to my neighbor as a thanks for snow blowing my driveway. I hope he likes them because we are having another storm and the driveway is filling up fast today. It would be wonderful if I didn't have to shovel it all tomorrow!

One of the ingredients I used was crystallized ginger.

Crystallized Ginger is dried ginger root preserved with a heavy sugar coating. Eaten on its own it has a strong spicy sweet flavor. I would never toss a whole piece in my mouth. A teeny tiny piece is enough. So I chopped it quite finely to go in my cookies. I only used a 1/4 cup. Next time I will use twice that much because I can't really taste it in the cookies.

Crystallized ginger proponents claim it does everything from reducing hot flashes to curing indigestion. So who knows, these cookies may be just what the doctor ordered!

Here is my recipe:

Carrot Cookies

1.5 cups quick-cooking Quaker oatmeal
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar

2 cups grated carrot
1/4 to 1/2 cup crystallized ginger
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

8 oz. crushed pineapple UN DRAINED
walnuts, if desired. I used about a 1/2 cup and only put them in the last half of the batter because my husband does not like nuts.

Mix the first 9 ingredients in a large mixer bowl. Blend on low for 30 seconds.

Cut the butter in small pieces and toss into the mixing bowl. Mix for about one minute on low, scraping sides as needed. It will look like a crumble topping.

Add the eggs, one at at time,and the vanilla. Mix on low just until blended. Batter will be quite stiff.

Toss in the grated carrots, ginger and pineapple with juice. Mix on low just until combined. Don't over mix. Throw in the walnuts if you are using them and combine by hand.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet. I only put six cookies per 1/4 sheet pan baking sheet. They spread a lot. Bake about 12 minutes. I start to check at 10 minutes. When the edges are just slightly browned, remove from oven. Let cool one minute before removing from pan. Makes about 2.5 dozen cookies

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
approx. 2 tsp water.
Combine to make a drizzling consistency. Use just one tsp. of water at a time so you don't get it too loose.

Cookies weren't all I baked today. Look at these beautiful blueberries I froze last summer.I made three blueberry coffee cakes. I took one over to my father-in-law.
Right now I have two loaves of English Muffin Bread rising. They are just about ready to go into the oven.


Early this morning I went grocery shopping, so I am all set to stay inside the remainder of the weekend. I have BBQ pork ribs and twice baked potatoes in the oven right now. All I have to do is make the tossed salad.

After all this cooking and eating, I NEED to shovel tomorrow!