Carrot Coconut Bread

Easter is right around the corner, which means it's pretty much carrot cake season. I'm not a huge fan of carrot cake, but I will have a piece when in the right mood. And I'll certainly entertain the idea of turning carrot cake into something else, like a cookie or in this case, a lovely loaf of quick bread. I actually made this twice in the past week--once for my friend Cindy for her birthday baking and again for us because Dave was drooling when he saw Cindy's loaf and I think was a little disappointed he couldn't try it. But I'm glad to repeat it since it's a delicious twist on a breakfast or snack bread and was super easy to make. And the glaze. Do not skip the glaze. If carrot cake is just a delivery vehicle for cream cheese frosting, then this bread was made specifically for this cream cheese glaze. So. Good. This loaf is hearty, so you could totally just make it breakfast with a cup of coffee. Or a mid morning snack. Or lunch. Or grab a slice when you're up at 2 am with the baby.

Carrot Cake Mix Cookies

Time for cookies!  Soft chewy cookies with lots of flavor--not just a not to carrot cake, but also white chocolate chips as a nod to the traditional cream cheese frosting on carrot cake and an added sweetness from caramel bits.  These cookies are yummy and fun and so easy to make.  They would be a lovely after school treat or for a bake sale or some other fall gathering.  Carrot cake tends to be a big deal in the spring, but these cookies definitely have a place as a fall treat.  And I just hope my Foodie Pen Pal enjoyed them too.

Hearty Beef Stew

Winter just will not quit.  Supposedly we're getting some more snow today.  For a winter season that was slow to start, it's proved to hit New England with a vengeance in February and March.  I'm just hoping we don't get another April Fool's storm like we did a few years ago.  The moral of this story?  Even though it's technically spring, it's still the season for comfort food and this stew is exactly that.  I almost named this CSA Stew since it's chock full of beef, red and yellow potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and onions from a recent farm box.  And can we talk about how good the house smells while this cooks?   I put it on in the morning and when I came home from work, I couldn't get over how amazing and inviting the scents from the kitchen were as they wafted through the house.  Thick, perfectly seasoning, and probably the most delicious way to get your veggies, this stew will help you forget about the remaining foot of snow in your yard.  And warm you up from the frigid winds and cold night temperatures.  At least for a little while.

Zucchini-Carrot Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Well, I actually didn't make these bars for the Airstream event, but since I've already posted the recipe for the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars that I did make for Madaline and Ernie's rally, I thought I'd substitute a yummy zucchini recipe as part of zucchini week and in keeping with the bar theme for Wednesdays this month.  See how well that works out?  And these bars are delicious.  They are soft and full of flavor, sweet with a little crunch from the walnuts and the cream cheese frosting, with a light hint of lemon, is a perfect match.  Almost like a carrot cake, these bars have a nice flavor, cakey texture, and are perfect for a snack, dessert or breakfast.  In fact, I took half the pan to my aunt and uncle's house when we visited and we definitely had them with breakfast.  These were a lovely sweet alternative to other breakfast pastries on a hot summer day. 

These bars were one of my first pins and I was so happy to have an overabundance of zucchini to have an excuse to make them.  Laura over at Real Mom Kitchen posted this recipe and I really like how she included the carrot, but didn't make these into a carrot cake bar with zucchini thrown in.  The walnuts are a nice touch, too.  I was a little skeptical since a bit of ginger was the only seasoning, but it really worked with the creamy frosting, which piled super high on these bars.  I adjusted the recipe to include more zucchini than carrots because I was running low on the orange veggies and high on the green ones (I just eked out a full cup of carrot).  I also forgot to pick up a lemon to add zest to the frosting, so I used a bit of lemon juice instead, which I liked for a more prominent lemon flavor.  These would be great for a morning meeting, church social, book club, or just for a new way to enjoy a zucchini enhanced dessert.  If my zucchini plant continues on it's current path, I might be making these a few more times this summer.

Carrot Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I know--cookie is not the word you expected to see at the end of a recipe starting with carrot.  But hey, carrot and cake are good friends, and the carrot muffins I made were mighty tasty, so why not give carrots and cookies a chance to get to know each other?   These cookies are sweet but not sugary and the flavors from carrot and cranberry match well with the soft, almost cakey, oatmeal cookie

I'd been asked a few months ago about a "breakfast" cookie and thought these would come close to fitting the bill since they are a relatively healthy cookie.  Well, they aren't quite ready to take a place at the breakfast table, but they are on the healthy side of sweet treats, so I whipped up a batch to share as birthday baking for my Grandma and friend Lisa who is pregnant and likes things a little less bad for you.  I'd pinned this recipe and thought the flavors were pretty interesting.    Jaclyn at Cooking Classy did a great job with this one.  I opted for all cranberries instead of part raisin and really like the outcome.  I got far more cookies than Jaclyn did, but I wasn't sure what size to make them, so I deferred to a small cookie scoop.  I also left off the glaze because I really didn't think they needed it.  Don't be afraid of carrots in your cookies--these are wonderful and unique.  Make, share, love.

Inside Out Carrot Cake Muffins

I don't even know where to begin with these.  These are amazing muffins.  Full of crazy delicious flavor, pretty to look at, and a wonderful treat for brunch or a pot luck.  And I don't even like carrot cake.  Not sure why, it was just never a flavor that I could get into.  If carrot cake was an option, I'd most certainly choose anything else, and if it was the only thing, then I'd just forgo dessert.  I like veggies and I like desserts, but I guess I just preferred if they minded their own business and kept to themselves.  But these.  Oh, these are a muffin I can get behind.  I took them to work for a morning meeting where they were well received.  Then around 3 pm the meeting chair wandered into my office, asking, "Do you have anything sweet left from the meeting?"  I did, shared with him, and he said, "These are so good.  What are they?"  Is that not the best compliment?  It screams "job well done" when someone admits they have know clue what they are eating but it's so damn good I just want more.

This recipe is a recovery from a carrot cake I tried to make that FAILED.  Ug.  It was beautiful, fragrant, perfectly golden and the cream cheese frosting smeared beautifully on it.  Then I sliced into it to find it was completely undercooked despite my having tested it numerous times.  (Stupid oven...you just wait until the appliance guy shows up and gives you what for.  Or at least I hope he gives you what for and doesn't tell me I need a new oven.)  (Don't worry--I'd sliced the cake before I took it to work and was able to have enough time to whip up something else to take that day.)  The next week, discouraged by my cake catastrophe, I took to Pinterest hoping to find something I could make in a carrot cake-style.  I searched "carrot cake muffins" and this pin was practically the only picture that showed up.  I remembered that months ago I'd actually pinned this King Arthur Flour recipe myself, but forgot.  This recipe is amazing.  It was super quick to put together, even with layering the batter and filling.  It uses Fiori di Sicilia, which I realized I'd picked up last fall when I visited the King Arthur Flour store but hadn't used yet.  It's a wonderfully unique flavoring that provides a subtle citrusy flavor (don't worry if you don't have any, you can omit it and still have a lovely muffin).  I actually really liked how the filling broke through the surface of the muffins--they look very inviting and delicious, but I think next time instead of doing two scoops of batter on the bottom and one on top of the filling, I'd do the reverse.  I just didn't seem to have enough batter to cover the top of the filling in the muffin tins.  Either way, these are amazing and have definitely made me a carrot cake convert!