I Like to Put Things That Are Orange In my Baked Goods

Hope everyone had an amazing weekend and wherever you are, the weather is as nice at is here in NYC!  The sun in bright, the air isn't too hot... and its almost the 4th of July long weekend. 

Last week I was "browsing the web" (surfing the internet?- geeze there is no non-nerdy way to say that) and found a recipe of carrot cake cookies on Eating Bird Food (Love her!) !! My boss has been raving about how he loves carrot cake and I have been dying to make something new and exciting (ie: not involving chocolate). I made a few slight tweaks and luckily had all the ingredients needed before I even decided to bake them (which, if you are a baker, you know is the best thing ever), so all I had to do was grate some mini baby carrots and I was good to go. I am sure this would have been so much easier if I had the big carrots but I thought, why go buy the big carrot when I've got a big pack a little carrots hanging next to the pickles in my fridge?

These cookies are a great treat because they are very flavorful and therefore, one really satisfies for a long time. Apparently, I like to add orange colored things to my baked goods because this one had two.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt (I substituted this in to replace the vegetable oil)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar (to replace dark brown sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg

Orange zest from an entire large orange (more than was orgiianlly recommended- gave great orange flavor)

1/2 cup oats, old fashioned 

2/3 cup shredded or grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins (you can do less but I love me some raisins!) 

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl

3) In a separate, larger bowl mix together the yogurt, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and vanilla. 

4) Add the egg and orange zest to the yogurt bowl and combine well. 

5) Add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir until incorporated. 

6) Add the oats, carrots, raisins (and some nuts if you like!

7) Put 12 mounds on a pam-ed tinfoiled baking sheet (maybe 2- they spread but not too much

8) Bake for 12 to 17 minutes.

9) Enjoy!

I definitely enjoyed these- as I said before they are very nice and powerful- the orange zest really gives them an extra kick. However, due to that, I have had 2 over the past 2 days and I am kind of all cookied-out (which is quite an accomplishment- I never get cookied out- not sure I like it!)

I would starfabulously rate them as 5/10 (this is with all my tweaks, I bet they would have been very different with the oil and the dark sugar and maybe some nuts!).  They are good- but not good enough for me to need to lock my cabinet.  They stayed on a plate on my kitchen counter all day and it was NBD.  Still- I did enjoy them ALOT and the idea of putting veggies into my cookie and having it still taste good really had me going!

Star Fabulous Rating: 5/10

What is your favorite seasonal fruit or veggie to try and sneak into a nom-nom.com baked good?