Carrot Cake Cookies w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

[smasty]

Wow!! I made these this weekend and wanted to get the recipe documented before it leaves my head. These are awesome, and very packable for traveling

Ingredients:
1 2.5-3 pound bag of carrots***this is a correction, I originally wrote 5#
1 c. flax seeds ground in vitamix (measure before grinding)
1 c almonds ground in vitamix (measure before grinding)
1/2 c flax seeds soaked in 1/2 c water
10 dried apricots, soaked
1/2 c raisins, soaked
3/4 c chopped walnuts (coarse)
3T. Yacon Syrup (or agave or honey, yacon is sort of like molasses)
Cinnamon
Almond extract
bit of sea salt

(when I made these for X-mas cookies I added organic vanilla, ground ginger, cardamom, and LOTS of cinnamon. I would have added nutmeg but didn't have any. I also added about 20 kumquats to the food processor with the carrots for a great orange flavor, and I doubled the amount of apricots so it would be sweeter)

Put the apricots in the food processor and process until smooth, add all the peeled carrots and process until very fine (you might have to do 2 batches of carrots), add cinnamon and almond extract and salt.

Put the ground flax seeds and ground almonds in a large separate bowl. Add the soaked flax and carrot mixture and mix well with hands, pour in raisins and chopped walnuts and mix well. This is a fairly stiff dough. Make 3" patties and thin them slightly in the middle, thicker on the edges for even drying (think "thumbprint" cookies). The cookies are not overly sweet, you can add more apricots or raisins to make sweeter. Place cookies on mesh screen, you don't need the teflex. Dry until done, not crisp. My 3.5" x 1" cookies took about 14 hours. Go ahead and taste while they're drying!

Cream Cheese frosting:

Use Alissa's cream cheese recipe and add a tad of vanilla and agave or honey for sweetener. Don't store cookies with frosting on them, frost the cookie before you eat it. They are also great w/o frosting. I'll try to post a pic of them later. This recipe made about 20 3.5" cookies....they'll be gobbled up fast!

[Alissa]

oh my. not a good thing to read while on a fast. im printing this out for later

[smasty]

Whoops!! 5 pounds of carrots is too much, I used a 2.5 or 3 pound bag.

[Tanja_swe]

Mmmmm this sounds delicious!! Thanks smasty for sharing!

[smasty]

I've got a big batch of these in the "oven" for Christmas cookies...I added about 15-20 kumquats, lots of cinnamon, some cardamom and ground ginger. These will make wonderful Christmas cookies (w/o the frosting).

Next I'm going to make some rum balls. Yeah, I know rum is not raw, but I'll use just a tiny bit for flavoring. Raisins, walnuts, almonds, cacao, vanilla, rum, and roll in dried coconut or carob powder.

[FEELIN'GOOD]

Smasty, do you think these would work w/o the use of a vitamix? Could I just food process the bloody-no-how of it all and get the same or close enough effect? I did that with flax and it came out like a powder... it took a good 10 minutes though. Just wondering before I invest in all these yummy ingredients. :) Thanks

[Teen Girl]

I want to eat it...now! lol

[smasty]

Hi Guys!!! These are SO good! There are plates and plates of cookies and fudge all around the office today...thank GOD (and I mean that) that I have my own Christmas cookies with me today.

Ok..Vitamix? Nope, you just need to be able to grind flax seeds and almonds. Use the food processor to grind the almonds--you want them very fine, a coffee grinder works beautifully on flax seeds.

If you like carrot cake, you'll love these! And they are sooo healthy!

Yacon Syrup? You have to buy it online...rawfood.com or eatraw.com both have it. Agave would be the other alternative. There's not a ton of it in the recipe though, you could use a spoonful of organic molasses maybe, or just use more dried apricots. I probably doubled the amount of apricots in this last batch to make it a little sweeter. Try adding some soaked dates, or more raisins. But I think adding the syrup will help just a little with chewiness.

These are really really good!

[smasty]

I just edited the recipe to say "measure before grinding" on the almonds and flax seeds.

[FEELIN'GOOD]

Thanks smasty! Can't wait to try them

[trinity082482]

Did u ever take a picture?

[Pansy]

Did u ever take a picture?

Hey Trinity,

I don't think Smasty is on here anymore!

;)

[tvillemom]

These cookies sound sooo good, has anyone else made them?? I'd like other opinions.
Wendi

[trinity082482]

Hey Trinity,

I don't think Smasty is on here anymore!

;)

Oh bummer