CEiMB - Breakfast Cookies

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL OF YOU!

One of my favorite bloggers, Natalie of Whats for Supper chose this week's Ellie Kreiger challenge - Breakfast Cookies. When I told the yankee what I was preparing in the kitchen, his words were "what ARE breakfast cookies and who comes up with these crazy names for recipes?" I laughed to myself when I had earlier asked him to pick up strained carrots from the baby food section and he never even asked what they were for.

That comment from him reminded me of a joke. No offense to blondes out there, but blond jokes really can be funny.

One day a blond walked into a cookie shop to see a small tray full of cookies. The sign said 'free sample' so she took one. The next day the blond was sick and could barely move. She swore revenge upon the cookie shop. She marched back to the cookie shop and burst into the cookie shop and slammed her foot. "Your cookies made me sick!" she screamed, pointing to the 'free sample' tray. "Oh, what are we going to do about that?" said the store clerk, as he bit his lip. "I want my money back!" screamed the blond.

ok. . that was lame.

Well these cookies will NOT make you sick. They are fabulous. I am not sure they will last until breakfast because we are eating them tonight!

I did make some major substitutions to Ellie's recipe. They weren't intentional substitutions, however. I just did not have some of the ingredients on hand so I used what I had. I did not have any brown sugar so I just used white. They are probably even better with brown sugar, but the yankee said he didn't think they could BE any better. I didn't have any rolled oats, so I used instant oatmeal, which had a little brown sugar in it! Yea. I didn't have any walnuts so I used pecans. I didn't have any bran flakes so I used vanilla granola. Even with all these substitutions, they were great. I can't wait to eat more of them tomorrow! I'm trying to pace myself you see.

Thanks Natalie for a great pick this week!

Recipe
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup (1 small jar) strained carrot baby food
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup bran cereal flakes
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted in a dry skillet for 2 minutes, until fragrant and chopped
Directions
Place rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Combine butter, oil and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed, scraping down sides if necessary, until sugars have dissolved and mixture is light in color, about 1 minute. Add egg, carrot puree and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, flakes, raisins and walnuts and mix over low speed just until incorporated. Dough will be slightly sticky and less cohesive than traditional cookie dough. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using between 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter, form a ball and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining batter, leaving about 3 inches between cookies. Wet hands and use palm of hand to flatten cookies until about 1/4-inch thick. Bake for 12 minutes, until cookies are fragrant but still soft. Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.