Anyone who has had to hide veggies in foods is familiar with carrot cake. Grated carrots magically disappear when paired with butter, flour and sugar topped with cream cheese frosting. OK, so really we all know carrot cake is not exactly healthy, but we love it anyways. It’s soft, gooey and sweet. What can be better? A cookie can. I love carrot cake but often struggle to finish a piece of cake. It’s just too rich. So why not make the cake into a cookie. That is just what I’m setting out to do today.

Dough (about 4 dozen)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (if you only have light add 1 Tablesppon molasses)
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 2 cups finely grated carrots (about 5 medium carrots)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet with the mixer set to low, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Keep mixing until a dough forms. Add the carrots and pecans and fold them into the dough.

Drop the dough in rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are set in the middle, rotating on the rack once. Do not move these from rack to rack the cookies are too fragile. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet.