Carrot Cake Cream Pies

One of my favorite treats as a child was a Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie. I didn’t get these very often because they definitely aren’t the healthiest treat, but I would save my money and ride my bike up to the gas station to get one with my friends. I loved the soft cookie and who can resist the creamy frosting in the middle!

I was searching around on Pinterest a few weeks ago and came across Carrot Cake Cream Pies. Instantly my mouth started to salivate at the thought of these delicious treats. It just so happened I was invited to watch the Packers’ playoff game at a friends and because I can never show up empty handed, I decided to make these.

The only ingredient that I didn’t have was the grated orange rind and I didn’t substitute anything else in its place.

I had carrot chips that I put in my food processor and chopped down quickly. Before this recipe, I didn’t know that you needed to let the carrots drip in a strainer, but it makes sense because they do have quite a bit of water in their makeup.

 Then it was time to mix part of the dry, then add some wet, then more dry and more wet.

They did take a bit longer in my oven to be done to my liking. I think I added about 5 minutes to the cook time, but remember these are a softer cookie, so don’t expect the edges to crisp up. 

I put them in a storage container for a day before frosting them. I realized that sealing them caused them to get a bit softer, so I actually spread them out on a pan for an hour before frosting.

 Then I paired up cookies of the same size and started frosting them.

Voila! I ended up with 14 cookies to take to my friend’s house. They were enjoyed by all and I was told to keep this recipe as one of the favorites because I should definitely bring these again sometime! I’m glad they were such a hit.

I did learn another thing about carrots with this recipe. If your baking soda is olde, or if you don’t mix it thoroughly through the recipe, it can cause the carrots to change pigment – in this case: green! It’s a known effect. My baking soda wasn’t old as I just bought it at Christmas time. But I could have skimped on the thorough mixing of the dry ingredients and caused this occurrence. I’m also wondering if the missing grated orange peel would have helped in this situation. (After all, lemon juice helps with apples and other fruits not turning brown when exposed to air.) The green carrot doesn’t affect the flavor of the cookies at all.

To eliminate any chance of worrying my friends  about the green parts of the carrot cake cookies, I planned to tell them it was zucchini that I added for Packers cheer! (Plus, who wants to hear about alkalinity imbalance during a Packers party?!?!)

Thankfully, no one questioned the color. 🙂