TWD: Gingered, Carrot Cookies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina: gingered carrot cookies.  This recipe is definitely a sleeper - the one you pass right by without much of a second thought - and also the one you wish you'd tried sooner once you finally get around to making it.  The cookies include a lot of the ingredients Dorie uses in her carrot cake (the very first recipe I ever made as a member of this group) - carrots (obviously), raisins, coconut and pecans.  Don't get me wrong, I like carrot cake, so I wasn't opposed to the idea of these cookies.  They just didn't excite me at first.   

I halved the recipe this week and still wound up with over 20 cookies.  The only other change I made to the recipe was to omit the pecans.  Baking these cookies was fantastic as they don't spread much so you can cram lots of them onto the same baking sheet.  Surely I can't be the only person who enjoys being able to bake all of the cookie dough at once, eliminating the need to let the cookie sheets cool before loading them up and popping them into the oven again...     



The cookies were delicious plain, but I knew they'd be even better with a drizzle of maple glaze.  I used a simple recipe combining maple syrup and confectioners' sugar (the same one I used on these pumpkin scones last year).  I adore this glaze and it was the perfect complement to these not too sweet cookies.  The carrot flavor isn't overly prominent and the texture is both light and chewy - all in all, a surprisingly fun treat.  Many thanks to Natalia for hosting this week!  You can find the recipe on her blog or on page 162 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

As an aside, remember when I mentioned being sick in my post last week?  Well, it lingered into the weekend and kept me from doing much of anything besides sitting on my couch.  So, that explains the complete radio silence on my end.  I have a huge backlog of posts to share so hopefully things will return to normal around here soon!