Carrot Cake Nest Cookies
The January/February 2019 issue of Food Network Magazine included a fun feature: a cookie for every month of the year!
Each month’s cookie is such a great fit for that month, so it’s not surprise that April’s cookie is spring-y and carrot cake-y.
These cookies are really pretty easy to make, and don’t call for any ingredients that are super out-of-the-norm, with the exception of maybe dark brown sugar.
I’m pretty sure most people are familiar with light brown sugar, as that’s what is most often called for, especially in baked goods.
Color aside, what differentiates brown sugar from white sugar is the presence of molasses. Either by adding molasses to already-refined white sugar or by not refining out the naturally-occurring molasses all the way, brown sugar is basically sucrose (sugar) + molasses.
Molasses is what gives brown sugar its color, and also what gives it its more complex flavor instead of white sugar’s just straight sweetness. Dark brown sugar has a higher molasses content than light brown sugar, which results not only in a darker color but in a deeper, richer flavor.
Not to get all Ina Garten on you, but if you don’t have or particularly want to buy dark brown sugar, light brown will work just fine in this recipe. It is worth a taste test sometime though: if you usually use light brown sugar, try swapping in dark brown and see if you like or can even tell the difference!
I used a size 40 cookie scoop in order to get more uniformly-sized cookies, and ended up with 31 cookies total. Not too shabby, the recipe states that it makes about 30!
Carrot Cake Nest Cookies, Food Network Magazine January/February 2019.
