Carrot cookies

Mixing butter and sugar

Beating the egg white until stiff peaks form

Sieving the dry ingredients before combining with the wet ingredients

Combining flour to the wet ingredients

Adding shredded carrots

Mixing everything

The final dough

The cookie after baking

After decoration

The final product :)

Well, carrot has always fascinated me be it in terms of its color or its taste or the different dishes you can make with it. When I was a child, I never knew that carrot could be used to prepare other dishes apart from the dishes of "thoran" , "avial", "sambhar", "ghassi", in which my mom used carrot along with other veggies. It was our neighbour who made me interested when she prepared "Carrot payasam" one day. It was soo.. tasty that I wanted more and made one myself shortly. So when I came upon Carrot cookies, I thought why not give a try. Here is the recipe: My cookies turned out to be soft when I was expecting the harder version. If anyone knows how to make these cookies hard, please share it with me.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup butter
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 2 tablespoons orange or lemon zest
4. 1 egg
5. 1 1/2 cups grated carrot
6. 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
7. 2 teaspoons baking powder
8. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9. 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

• Preheat 375 deg F. Grease the baking vessel
• Cream butter and sugar
• To this add the orange or lemon zest
• Combine together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon) in a seperate bowl
• Seperate the egg yolk and white. This step is optional. You can add egg just like that. Adding the egg white at a later stage after its beaten until stiff, incorporates air into the dough
• Add the egg yolk to the butter-sugar mix
• Add to this a little of the grated carrot. Mix using a stirring spoon used for cooking
• Add some flour. Mix again
• Repeat the above 2 steps in the same order until all of the carrot and flour is used and combined well. Take care not to stirr too well as this might cause the air bubbles to escape
• Beat the egg white using a electric beater until stiff peaks form
• Blend it with the rest of the cookie dough gently
• Combine vanilla
• Make small cookie shapes out of the dough and place them on the baking vessel
• Bake for 12 minutes or until the cookie is done
• Let it cool completly