Joy the Baker » carrot

Vegan Carrot Cherry Breakfast Cookies

joythebaker — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:48:47 +0000

New Joy the Baker Podcast is ready for your ears! Get your listen on!!

When I was a small little baby girl, I was super stoked to grow up and:

Wear sunglasses like Jackie O. Stop doing homework. Shave my legs (um…. wwwhhhhyyyy!?). Stay up past 9:30. Watch all the Beverly Hills 90210 ever ever ever made. Do my own hair. Roller skate without a helmet. Play basketball better than my little sister (I can not. I mean… come on). Be a firefighter, writer, or veterinarian. Eat cookies for breakfast, Cheetos for lunch, and fried chicken and chocolate cake for dinner.

I’m a real-life grown-up now.

I’ve moved past my haphazard Jackie O phase. I’m pretty sure that email is the new homework. I shave my legs, but wow… the appeal of that pastime is loooong gone. I stay up as late as I want… because I’m grown. Beverly Hills 90210 has been replaced by Real Housewives of Minnetonka. I get my hair done did…. and that feels nice. I wear a helmet because I’m totally over trying to look cute. I’m totally into trying to look alive. I realized I don’t like fire, dictionaries, or sick animals. I don’t eat Cheetos for lunch. If I ate fried chicken and chocolate cake everyday I would be a happy and hefty lady.

But! but but but but but….. I can totally have cookies for breakfast.

I may have known absolutely nothing about my adult self as a young youth…. Meh! At least now there are cookies, and coffee, and iPhones.

These are happy happy cookies! Major.

They’re absolutely filled with good for you stuffs!

Whole wheat flour. Oats. Millet. Carrots. Dried cherries. Maple Syrup. Coconut oil. and Ginger!

Amazing!

I didn’t say any words like butter, chocolate, peanut butter, cupcake, nutella, marshmallows. I didn’t say aaaany of those words! It sorta made me twitch a little.

These breakfast cookies are entirely wholesome and totally delicious. They’re moist, soft, and cakey… like carrot cake with a crunch. They have just a hint of coconut flavor (from the oil), a little zip from the ginger, and a perfect tartness from the dried cherries. I am totally obsessed!

If you eat one whole rushing out of the house, into your car, into traffic, spilling your coffee, forgetting your cell phone, trying to get to work… I assure you, you’ll feel like a real-life grown-up. For better or worse.

Carrot Millet Breakfast Cookies

makes about 2 dozen cookies

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Print this Recipe!

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)

1 cup old-fashioned oats

3 tablespoons dry millet

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup real maple syrup

heaping 1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, millet, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, whisk together coconut oil, maple syrup, shredded carrots, dried cherries, and ginger. Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients. Fold together until thoroughly incorporated. Let dough stand for 5 minutes before spooning by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until just slightly browned and cooked through. I like these cookies a bit underdone. Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. The fresher the cookies are, the better the are… obviously.

Carrot Apple Ginger Soup

joythebaker — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:42:09 +0000

Sometimes I just want to eat a color.

…Does that make sense? Does that ever happen in your brain?

Usually I want to eat things that are green (kale), milky (coffee), made of booze, made of chocolate, or made of pie.

For some reason, yesterday I wanted something orange and spicy.

I made soup. Because all I ever make is soup… then I put it in this wood bowl and take two pictures of it before I have to sit down on my couch and eat it.

That’s how it goes around here. It just does.

Carrots with their hair are so much more romantic that the stripped version. Don’t you think?

The cute bagger boy at Whole Foods asked me if I was going to juice the greens when I got home. I think he was trying to impress me. I looked at him like he was from Mars.

I was also wearing my super fitted workout pants. He tried to recover from the juicing comment by asking me how many miles I ran that morning. I answered ‘zero’, which was totally true. Awkward. Asking a girl how many miles she ran is basically announcing that you’ve checked out her rear end and find it interesting enough to ask about.

I wasn’t doing anything to make him feel any better about checking out my butt and trying to impress me with his carrot juicing knowledge. Poor thing… he was trying.

Anyway….

Onions and garlic go in soup, because onions and garlic always go in soup.

Duh.

An apple and ginger can totally go in soup too. These two items can also go in spice cake… but we’re not here for cake. Concentrate, will you!?

Carrots, apple, and ginger cook down beautifully in this soup. The carrots are slightly sweet and full of good-for-you-things. The apple adds a necessary touch of sweetness (although it doesn’t taste distinctly apple-y in this soup), and the ginger is perfectly spicy. It’s good for you. It’s orange. It’s really delicious with buttered bread… that goes for just about anything in life, though.

This whole mess is vegan too. Minus the delicious buttered bread. Silly.

Carrot Apple Ginger Soup

serves 4

guided by this recipe.

Print this Recipe!

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small yellow onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 small apple, peeled and sliced

4 to 5 cups sliced, peeled carrots (about 1 1/2 pounds)

4 cups vegetable broth

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook for one minute, until fragrant. Add sliced apples and diced carrots and cook for 3 minutes more.

Turn flame to medium-high and add vegetable broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce flame to low and simmer, uncovered, until carrots and apples are softened, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from the flame and let rest for 10 minutes.

Blend the soup in batches in a blender. Be sure not to fill the blender more than halfway full or hot soup will explode everywhere. Not cool. Also, when blending hot liquids in a blender, leave the blender lid slightly ajar to let some of the steam escape.

Once all of the soup is blended, return to the pot. You may decide that you want you soup a bit thinner in consistency. Add more vegetable broth if you’d like. Taste, and add a dash of fresh ground nutmeg, as well as salt and pepper to taste. The soup won’t need much pepper, as ginger is pretty spicy.

Serve with a drizzle of quality olive oil, a sprinkling of fresh cracked pepper, and a few carrot top sprigs… cause you’re fancy, and whatnot.

Soup will last, in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Soup also freezes well. Thaw in the fridge before reheating.