Christmas is tomorrow.  And that means most of us are making those cookies for Santa today.  No exception here.  If you are looking for a last minute amazing Christmas cookie, I have your back.  This recipe is my grandmother’s and she makes these cookies ever single year.  For me, it is simply not Christmas without them.  And I always make them on Christmas Eve.

Ingredients:

Carrot Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup shortening

¾ cup sugar

1 cup mashed cooked carrots (microwaving works well)

2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¾ cup shredded coconut

Orange Butter Icing (see below)

 

Directions:

Heat oven to 400⁰.  Mix shortening, sugar, eggs and carrots.  Blend in flour and baking powder.  Stir in by hand the coconut.  Drop dough by teaspoonfuls about two inches apart onto a lightly greased baking sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until no imprint remains when touched lightly.  For these cookies, using a kitchen timer is a very good idea.   Watch carefully.   The bottoms of the cookies burn very easily and the tops of the cookies do not brown much.   They will look undercooked when done.   I can only fit one cookie pan on each oven shelf, so I switch them half way to make sure the bottom pan doesn’t burn.

Immediately  remove from baking sheet and cool.  Frost with Orange Butter Icing.  The icing is not an option.  The cookies don’t taste good without it.

This makes about four dozen cookies, depending on your scoop size.

 

Orange Butter Icing

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons soft butter or margarine

1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar

2 teaspoons finely chopped orange zest (it’s worth getting an orange zester just for these cookies).

About 1 tablespoon orange juice

Directions:

Zest the orange then cut it in half and squeeze out the orange juice and set aside.  Blend butter and sugar.  Stir in orange zest and juice.  Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency.   Sometimes you need a little more than one tablespoon of the orange juice.

Warning: You will have exactly and I mean exactly enough frosting for each cookie to get about ½ teaspoon.  Kids are notorious for sneaking a taste of the frosting.  Don’t let them or you won’t have enough. Or, you can just go with it, and double the frosting recipe.  It is Christmas after all.

 

-Stephanie Wright