Cookie Carnival: Deliciously Soft Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies

Now, I've never been a fan of carrots. I actually hate raw carrots (although, I'll eat shredded carrots, but please, no carrot sticks!). But, carrot cake? That's a different story. Carrot cake with rich, creamy, cream cheese icing? I accept! So imagine my excitement that for my first Carnival Cookie recipe, we are making Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies... imagine two pieces of carrot cake sandwiching cream cheese icing. And an excuse to break out my new stand up grater? Sounds like a good plan to me. (Here's the round-up for the carrot cake cookies from us Carnival Cookie bakers)

RECIPE: INSIDE-OUT CARROT CAKE COOKIES
from Gourmet, April 2004

Ingredients:
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup walnuts (3 ounces), chopped
1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 ounces)
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup honey

(The cookies hanging out (and cooling down)...waiting to become yummy sandwiches)
What to do:
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter 2 baking sheets.

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

While cookies are baking, blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth.

Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.

Results/Comments: These cookies came out better than I expected! At first glance, I thought they would be a bit crunchy or hard, but they were wonderfully soft (I love soft cookies...). The cookies also turned out bigger than I expected and with two of these cookies sandwiching the cream cheese filling, it is quite a decadent treat!

The shredded carrots melted into the cookie batter and the walnuts provided a nice change in texture with a bit of crunch.

The cream cheese was actually a great complement to the cookies -- the cream cheese offered a bit of tangy-ness and offset some of the cookie's sweetness. I used lowfat cream cheese which was still quite creamy and also added some cinnamon to the cream cheese/honey mixture (I was going to add in some nutmeg too but found that I was all out).

I LOVED these cookies, much more than I thought I would. I will definitely make these again. I'm thinking next time I would make them as standalone cookies instead of sandwich cookies with the cream cheese filling as a topping. What a great recipe to start out Cookie Carnival!