Carrot Cake Cookies

Here we have all the spicy, gingery goodness of carrot cake packed into a big fat cookie that you can eat for breakfast and still feel good about yourself (not like those mornings when you go for the butter-drenched cinnamon-sugar pop tarts/cinnabun/pick-your-poison and end up drooling in a near-coma at your desk by 9:15.  C’mon, we’ve all been there).  These are low in sugar, high in fiber, and make for a great afternoon snack.  For those of you who are watching your cholesterol, these make use of rolled oats, which many studies show help lower LDL cholesterol, as well as pumpkin seeds, which are purported to do the same.  That, and since you won’t find any eggs in here, you won’t be unnecessarily taunting the heart-attack gods by adding cholesterol to your diet.  Win win!

I make big ones for the gym using a 2.5 ounce ice-cream scoop that yields about 13 cookies.  To make them even more cake like, I suggest making smaller cookies and sandwiching them together with cashew cream frosting.

•  Preheat oven to 350 and prepare two cookie pans.  (I use silicone baking mats)
• Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Whisk together the wet ingredients in a medium bowl.
• Add the wet to the dry and stir just until incorporated – over-mixing will make tough cookies.
• Fold in the add in’s.
• Spoon onto baking sheets and bake for 12 to 20 min (depending on size) until slightly golden.
• Allow to cool on the mat for a minute or two to finish baking (and to save your mouth from the inevitable burns) and enjoy!