Carrot Cake Cookies

     With the Easter season, comes one of my favorite cakes: carrot cake! I love it so much I wanted to make one and bring it to bible study this week. However, that was when I realized how cumbersome cakes can be. You need a plate and a fork and you have to commit to a whole pice if you even want to try it and then some people won't finish their piece because they don't like frosting or something. And then on top of it all, only about 8 people will be able to have a piece because half pieces are almost impossible and just make a mess. It would all be so much easier to make it individually. Yeah, cupcakes are a little better, but still, you need liners and they make a mess so you're going to have crumbs everywhere or use a bunch of napkins and you probably will only get 12 from one batch. Wouldn't it be so much easier if you could make carrot cake in cookie form?

 Well... buckle up my friend! These carrot cake cookies are soft and moist and have the amazing signature carrot cake taste and texture while being bundled up in one tidy little cookie. No need for cupcake liners, napkins, or plates! The only problem you will have bringing these to the function is people being upset when they realize they are all gone!

    I start off my recipe like any good cookie recipe by beating together butter and granulated sugar, and brown sugar, and then beating in an egg. Then, I pour in 1/3 cup of milk and mix. When that is combined I dump in my flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Because this is a cookie recipe instead of a cake recipe there is no need to sift together your dry ingredients as you would with a cake (can I get a woot woot for less dishes?!). If you have read any of my other carrot cake inspired recipes, you will know how much I love my ginger and cinnamon so I definitely reccomend you double the measurements of those two in the recipe but if you like a less spicy carrot cake flavor leave the measurements as they are.

    While there are still dry streaks in my cookie dough I dump in my carrots and fold everything together until it is just barely combined. You have to be careful not to over mix your dough. By this time my oven is preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit so I use a tablespoon size cookie scoop to scoop mounds onto my baking sheet. I can fit about 12 on each sheet. Space them at least an inch apart because they will spread just not a ton. 

    My cookies baked for about 12 minutes. While they were baking, I made a half batch of my standard cream cheese frosting. because your cookies have a smaller surface and you won't be piping anything fancy on top you shouldn't need a ton of frosting. With only half of my normal amount I still had some leftover!

    Once my cookies were done baking, I let them cool for about 20 minutes before frosting them so that the frosting would not melt off. I didn't put a lot of frosting on each cookie because if you are not careful they can get overly sweet and we don't want that. I covered each cookie with just enough to get that extra sweetness and it complemented the carrot cake flavors perfectly!

    When I brought these to bible study they were gone in minutes. They were so tasty and easy to eat to the point where they were almost dangerous! They are soft and cake unlike a normal cookie but with enough structure to eat without worrying about it crumbling everywhere making the perfect grab and go taste of spring!

    What did you think of this recipe? Questions? Comments? Concerns?