Brown Butter Oatmeal Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies and a few Thoughts…

I’ve been finding myself with a lot of extra time on my hands these past few weeks. You too? How are you feeling about it?

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I’m so used to moving a mile a minute, that it feels very strange, foreign, and honestly uncomfortable for me be so slow. It feels wrong, but there isn’t much I can do about it at the moment…

So last night I decided to let myself give into the slow moving… I put on a movie, and I actually snuggled up on my couch to watch it through instead of just having it on in the background while I do other, more productive things…

I decided on a nice, long movie I haven’t watched in years. Good Will Hunting. A classic, and one of my all time favourites.

It was lovely – lovely to sit in silence and just enjoy the movie with nothing else to distract me. And then something happened…

While watching I was completely taken aback by something Robin Williams said in the movie… His character said “You’ll have bad times, but it will always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to.”

I couldn’t help but almost laugh at how true those words are – and particularly because of how much they ring true for the world right now. All the little, daily things we take for granted, but now long for so much…

And what a beautiful thing to have been forced to slow down and appreciate those little things and understand how truly precious they are. The more I live this life, the more I realize that sometimes we are forced down paths, that we ought to have found on our own…

Just a thought I had.

And with that in mind… this morning I slept in – which is something I never do. I laid in bed reading a book as the morning light slowly filled my bedroom with life. It felt taboo; it felt lazy; but it also felt amazing.

I didn’t work out, and instead I wrote this blog post in my pj’s while sipping on a coffee. And I didn’t let myself feel bad about it. There was a kind of peace in all of it.

Just in time for your social distancing Easter… here are some Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies.

Happy Easter to you all. May this be a peaceful holiday for you and your loved ones.

Brown Butter Oatmeal Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

Things you need…

Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup brown butter, room temp. * (directions on how to brown butter below)
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, room temp
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup packed, finely grated carrot
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups large rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Frosting
4oz of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 – 4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

How to make…

To brown butter…

Place your butter into a medium sauce pan over medium heat to melt. Once melted, kick the heat up to medium high to brown. Your butter will start to hiss and bubble – this is normal. Swirl the butter around in the sauce pan every so often to avoid bits on the bottom from burning. Cook until fragrant and light golden brown.

Immediately remove brown butter from the heat and transfer to a heat-proof bowl and allow to cool completely at room temperature until the butter is firm again.

Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the brown butter and dark brown sugar; beat on high until pale and fluffy – about 5-6 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl every so often.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg and beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla, coconut and grated carrots; beat until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, rolled oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Add in two additions to the wet ingredients, beating on low speed until combined.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop your batter out into about 1 tbsp portions out onto your baking sheets leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. I usually put no more than 12 onto each tray.

Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the edges are golden and set. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool completely to room temperature.

Meanwhile, make your cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the cream cheese until well combined and there are no lumps. Slowly add half of your icing sugar and mix on low speed until well combined. Add in vanilla and  mix until combined. Continue to slowly add in remaining icing sugar and mix on high for 2 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.

If your icing is too stiff, add in some milk (1 tsp at a time). If your icing is too fluid, add in some more icing sugar (2-3 tbsp at a time).

Assembly

Once your cookies have cooled completely, you can begin to sandwich them.

Scoop about 1 tbsp of frosting onto the bottom half of one cookie, and press the bottom half of another cookie into the frosting until it just comes to the edges. Repeat with all the cookies until they are all sandwiched.

Enjoy!