Carrot Cookies
Carrot cookies are soft cookies with an orange-flavored icing. They get their golden color from pureed carrots, but they taste like oranges instead of carrots. This recipe is adapted from the "Golden Carrot Cookies" recipe in Betty Crocker's Cooky Book.
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Yield
- 48 cookies
Ingredients
- +Cookie dough
- Butter, slightly softened (can substitute vegetable shortening for half the butter)
- White granulated sugar
- Whole eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Orange extract (optional)
- Carrots, cooked until very soft and then mashed or pureed
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Coconut, sweetened and shredded (optional)
- +Orange buttercream icing
- Butter, softened
- Powdered sugar, sifted
- Orange juice (or frozen orange juice concentrate)
- Orange zest (optional; fresh is best)
- Orange extract (optional)
Method
- Preheat oven to 400 °F (205°C, gas mark 6—moderately hot). Line baking pans with parchment baking paper, or lightly grease the pan with shortening.
- Put the butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat it with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Alternatively, beat it with a wooden spoon until soft.
- Beat in the sugar, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Beat in the eggs, vanilla extract, and optional orange extract, if using it.
- Stir in the carrots. If you want a solid, uniform color for the cookies, then the carrots should be pureed (smooth like baby food). If you want visible streaks of orange, then shred the carrots on a grater.
- Stir in the flour, salt, and baking powder.
- Stir in the coconut, if using it.
- Drop the cookie dough by rounded teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet. They will spread somewhat while baking.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are golden in color and if you gently touch them, no imprint remains.
- Remove from the cookie sheet. (They're very soft, so you may need to let them cool on the pan for a moment before moving them.) Cool completely before trying to frost them.
- Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat together the butter and powdered sugar.
- Stir in the orange juice to make a smooth, soft buttercream icing. To increase the orange flavor, optionally add orange zest and/or orange extract.
- Spread gently on the tops of cooled cookies. If the icing is too stiff, the cookies will break when you try to frost them. Thin it by adding a small spoonful of water, or warm it slightly to make it softer.
Notes
- You can use gluten-free flour substitutes. Avoid high-gluten bread flours.
- You can replace up to half the sugar with a sugar substitute.
- This recipe can be halved or doubled easily.
- If you are making large volumes, then the dough is soft enough to pipe through a large pastry bag, which may be faster than scooping each.
- Store at room temperature or in the refrigerator for a few days.
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Stand mixer (optional)
- Baking sheet