Recipe: Ginger Carrot Cookies

I worked off a recipe I found on the Food Network's website and made some substitutions.  1) I got rid of the butter.  I hate baking with butter!  2) Instead of using 1 cup light brown sugar and 1/4 cup molasses, I used 1 cup dark brown sugar.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup applesauce

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour, divided into two parts

2 tsps baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 carrot, shredded

Mix applesauce, sugar, egg, and one cup flour in a medium bowl until creamy.  Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and last cup of flour.  Stir in carrot. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and put mixture in refrigerator for 15 minutes.  When the time is up, spoon the batter into little balls on a greased cookie sheet.  (I used a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.) Bake for 10 minutes.

These cookies are light, but air on the dry side, making them great for dipping!  A yummy treat to have with your morning coffee! I might try using only 1 tsp of baking soda.  In this recipe, the baking soda counteracts the acidity of the dark brown sugar, but the down side is that it leavens the cookie.  I was going for a crispier cookie than I got.  Note: you'd have to use the baking soda even if I didn't substitute the molasses for the dark brown sugar.

The Scaredy Cat Cooks: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Alright, it doesn't sound very brave, but I'll have you know there was a 50/50 chance these cookies would have been a pan full of mush.  I had no confidence in this recipe as it was going into the oven and I'm just happy they came out in cookie form.

This recipe is a mix of a regular oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and a vegan one I've used.  The vegan one uses banana instead of the egg, but I never particularly cared for the interaction of the apple and banana.  I think it minimized the oatmeal and raisins which are supposed to be the stars of the show.  This "half vegan" recipe cuts out a lot of the fats while maintaining the oatmeal taste.  I think it could have stood at least 1/4 cup light brown sugar so if you're feeling brave, try that out.  If not, these are yummy little, almost-guilt-free cookies.

Just a warning: I got a different type of oat than I normally use and the cookies turned out crunchy.  I'm not sure if it's from the oat itself or they just needed to soak a little more.  The original recipe called for the batter to soak for 4 hours or overnight so maybe I should have actually, y'know...done that.  Again, if you're feeling brave, give it a try and send pics.  I'll post your results here!

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Mix applesauce, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Stir dry mixture into wet mixture.  Add raisins.

Using a spoon, drop cookies onto a cookie sheet (I didn't have to grease mine, but you can line yours so there is minimal clean up).   Bake for 15 minutes or until brown. *

*Note: the version I made didn't turn out too brown.  The bottoms certainly were though.

Better pictures to come once my camera stops being a jerk!