Breakfast Cookies

Didn't these bake up beautifully???

My oldest daughter and I watched Ellie Krieger makes these on the Food Network a few weeks ago, and my daughter thought breakfast cookies sounded no less than brilliant. I was willing to try them out. We'd made a very similar kitchen sink cookie recipe of Ellie Krieger's before, and it was pretty good. I figured these would be a good, fun breakfast for all of us.

Ingredients

• 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.

***

We had a really good time making these, but I will admit that I struggled a little bit with following the recipe. Since I don't have a printer, I wrote down the ingredients and just tried to remember the order in which to put things in. I ended up throwing my first butter, oil and egg mixture away. (Bummer because that Crisco Omega 3 oil sure isn't cheap!) I just COULDN'T get my softened butter to cream when adding the oil and egg at the same time. When I tried it a second time and had the same problem, I realized I was putting the egg in too soon. Next time I would cream the butter and sugar THEN add the oil and egg. Regardless, we had to get on with it, even though our mixture looked a little funny. I also had forgotten to buy carrot baby food, so we used unsweetened applesauce instead. AND, I didn't have DARK brown sugar, so I added like 1/2 teaspoon of molasses. Thankfully, they turned out just fine.

These did turn out really tender and almost caked like, which I expected as a result of our previous experience with the kitchen sink cookies. I'm sure it is a result of the reduced butter. They are pretty good and will make a great breakfast! However, I think if I were going to make these again, I would alter the recipe a little. I think with the applesauce change, these would have been super great with dried cherries (which we love and are super great for you) and raisins. With the original recipe that calls for carrots, I think I would add some more cinnamon. These were just a tiny bit bland for me.

Regardless, we will love warming these up and eating them this week! It will be hard to eat just one! And, I'm thinking next time I won't go to all the work without at least tripling the batch. 12 (or 11 in my case) breakfast cookies doesn't get 4 people very far!

Don't forget to share in the recipe sharing fun at A Few Shortcuts, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table and Mouthwatering Monday.