Carrot Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies Journey

Who Needs Vitamin A, Anyways?

It’s April 2024. Over the past few months, I’ve been aware of how little Vitamin A I typically get from my average diet. I’m not an expert on Vitamin A, but I know you get it from carrots. You can also get it from leafy greens. You can probably get Vitamin A from other sources as well, but I think carrots and leafy greens are two of the biggest sources and I don’t really regularly eat either of those. I really want to like carrots. I do. I wish I could eat raw carrots like a horse, but I just can’t. With dedication and work, maybe one day I can eat them and appreciate them, but that would require a lot of energy and I’m having a real hard time allocating energy to this purpose right now.

So here’s my problem: I want to get more Vitamin A from my diet, but I don’t like eating the greatest sources of Vitamin A.

So here’s my solution: Let me make a cookie that has carrots in it.

I’ve made a similar cookie when I was in high school and college, but I don’t have the recipe for that one, so I’m starting from scratch. I went with my wife to the grocery store, we bought a bundle of carrots, she took 2 of them for…a soup, I think…leaving me with 3 of them. I shredded them using the small holes of a box grater, added other ingredients as outlined below, baked them, and made a pretty successful first batch.

The first batch was good. They’re tasty, which is most important. I need to want to eat them. That’s the point. But they’re not perfect. Over the course of this month, in part as an intentional celebration of my own autism (April is Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month, after all), I will obsess over this recipe and make them perfect – or at least near perfect.

Batch #1 (8 April 2024)

125g carrot shredded using the small holes of a box grater
160g rolled oats
118g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
A little bit of nutmeg and ginger (I didn’t measure, but less than cinnamon)
1 tsp kosher salt
25g sugar
100g brown sugar
1 stick of butter, melted and then cooled some
2 large eggs
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix together carrot, oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, sugar, and brown sugar.
Mix together butter and eggs.
Add butter/egg mixture to dry mixture.
Add nutmegs and chocolate chips.
Put dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes. While dough is in refrigerator, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Bake for 11 to 12 minutes.

This recipe made 26 cookies. I’ll try them tomorrow morning and the morning of the following day, make notes on the taste, and come back for a third try. For now I’ll say that a difference of 90 to 120 seconds has a big impact on baking. One is quite soft and one is more firm. For the next batch, I think I’ll try mixing the carrot with the melted butter and egg, and then adding the dry ingredients. I think I will also try and decrease the overall sugar content. More to follow.

Batches 2 and 3 (Less Sugar) – 10 April 2024

The first batch was very solid. My only complaint is they were too soft and/or spongy depending on how long I baked them. After experimenting with baking times for these two batches, I’m currently set at 175 degrees F for 12 minutes and to let them sit out long enough. If you put them in a covered container too early, they’ll get too soft. I left a batch out on the cooking rack overnight and then put them in a covered container to satisfying results.

The second and third batch were each half batches with the only change being to the amount of brown sugar. The second batch was 25% less brown sugar (75g for a full batch instead of 100g) and the third batch was 50% less. The result was positive. Especially with the chocolate in place, these cookies don’t need to be too sweet. Moving forward, I’ll stick with 50% less sugar. The only issue I have is the lack of spread when baking of cookies with this sugar level. I may experiment with flattening them before baking to help remedy this.

Moving forward, I will eventually need to figure out exactly how much walnuts and carrot to put in. I feel as though more walnuts are needed and I want to find the threshold for carrots. I may also experiment with different flours (almond and coconut come to mind) and perhaps the addition of flax seed. I also have it in mind to have the end result be a larger cookie – maybe 2 or 3 times the size of regular cookies.

Batches 4 and 5 (Coconut Flour Pt 1) – 12 April 2024

For these two batches, I replaced 10g and then 20g of all purpose flour with coconut flour. I have a solid coconut flour chocolate chip cookie recipe and I really enjoy the taste of those, and I wanted to try and get some of that flavor in these cookies. The results weren’t great. First, coconut flour absorbs moisture, so these two batches didn’t spread much. Batch 5 didn’t really spread at all. Second, the flavor of the coconut flour didn’t really come through. I’m not completely done with the idea of adding coconut flour to these cookies, but for now I think I’ll try something else. In a future batch, I think I’ll try subbing some of the oats for coconut flour to see what sort of effect that has.

Batches 6 and 7 (Almond Flour Pt 1) – 14/15 April 2024

I backpedaled from using coconut flour and instead tried using almond flour. For batch 6, I replaced 20g of the all purpose flour with almond flour. For batch 7, I replaced all of the all purpose flour with almond flour. Both were good. Batch 7 spread nicely, but they may have been a bit too soft for my liking. I am going to see what would happen if I switched completely to granulated sugar instead of the current mix of brown sugar and granulated. Looking ahead, I still want to find the right amount of walnuts and carrot to put in the cookie, I’m curious about the current baking soda and powder make up, and I may try and substituting some of the oats for coconut flour. I’m also curious about adding flax seed to the recipe.

A special note – I shared some of batch 7 with my friend, Rachel, and she proclaimed the cookie to be perfect.

Batch 8 (no brown sugar) and 9 (more carrots) – 17 April 2024

First I traded out all the brown sugar for regular sugar. I thought this might crisp up the cookies some. The difference was not noticeable. I then added more carrots, I upped the carrots from 62g to 80g and…I couldn’t tell the difference. So, not much to report on. I’ll likely keep these changes moving forward. Next I think I think I’ll add some flaxseed. Really, it would be nice to give these guys some structure. I know that’s what flour is for, but maybe flaxseed will do something. We’ll see.