Carrot Cake (cookie) Comeback

Since my first post I took a bit of a hiatus, with school and dance starting back up this fall I needed to reorganize my life and try out a few new recipes. Needless to say a few were flops, but one was a complete winner in my book. So without further adieu, this my friends is for you. 

Ingredients needed :


preheat your oven to 375.

Measure out 2.5 ounces of raisins


Put a stick of butter in a large mixing bowl.


Measure out 1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons worth of granulated sugar


Add the sugar to the butter.


Measure out 1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons worth of brown sugar.


Add the brown sugars to the butter and sugar.


Add one egg to the bowl.


Add done teaspoon of vanilla extract to the bowl.


now it's time to mix the fat and sugars!


You can stop mixing once the fat and sugars look light and fluffy, like this.


now it's time to prep the dry ingredients

Measure 1 and 1/8 cup of flour.


Add 1 teaspoon of cinnimon to the flour.
 

Then 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda


And last but not least of the dry ingredients 1/2 a teaspoon of salt!


Go ahead and mix your dry ingredients with a fork.

Now the fun part!!

Grate three nice sized carrots. (To save those fingers and a little bit of sanity. It's OK to leave an inch of carrot ungrated to hold on to)


Add those carrots and raisins to your fats.



and for a little pizazz, you can toss 3 oz or pecans into the mix as well. (you can usually find 3 oz bags of pre-chopped in your grocers baking isle)


And mix!


Add your dry ingredients to the bowl.


And mix again, it should look like this.


Go ahead and spoon some batter on to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (I used tablespoons and had some toddler assistance) 


let  them cook for 13-17 minutes. (I baked mine for 16 and they turned out fantastic!)

let them sit 2 minutes on the pan after baking then transfer to a wire rack to cool.


Now if you want to get really fancy with these super tasty treats you can sandwich them using a dollop of frosting (cream cheese frosting is delicious here, but i used regular buttercream and was happy with the turn out).

Chocolate dipped Almond Biscotti

First ladies and gents, the ingredients for the Biscotti:


Put 2 cups of all purpose flour into a large mixing bowl


Add 1 cup of sugar


Add 1 table spoon of baking POWDER (I noticed that in the picture of the ingredients I showed soda, but this recipes calls for baking powder)



Add 3 eggs, 1/2 cup of oil, and 1able spoon of vanilla extract (I got a bit lazy with the pictures here, my apologies)


Mix with a spoon.


The dough should be difficult to mix when it looks like this, so ditch the spoon and knead by hand.


 Your dough should end up looking like this! (Or very close)


Prep a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper. =)


Now you'll have to lightly flour a working surface.


Divide your dough into 2 balls.

Take one ball and roll it into a log about the same length as your cookie sheet.


Now place this log of dough onto the cookie sheet and using your hands, flatten it to about an half an inch thick.


Repeat with the other ball of dough!!


Now bake these puppies at 375 for 25-30 minutes (I bake mine for 27 minutes and it comes out perfect!) It should look like this!


Move them to a wire rack and let them cool completely for about 30 minutes.

Cut them into 1/2 slices.


now the fun part (which i don't have pictures of  because my phone was being used at the time, my apologies).

Take a bag of chocolate chips (any ol' bag is fine), pour half of it into a microwave safe bowl and add 1/4 cup of milk.

Microwave the chocolate and milk at 30 second intervals (stirring between) until you get a smooth glossy texture (think ganache people).

Take a pastry brush and a big dollop of that smooth deliciousness and "paint" the biscotti. I like to do it so half of it is covered.


This part is optional, but it sure makes a complete package ;)

Open a store bought bag of sliced almonds (always useful to have in the pantry).


Take a handful of those suckers and decorate the cookies as you deem necessary! I tend to sprinkle a few on the very end to make them look kind of semi-professional. (you may have to "paint" more melted chocolate on the cookies for the almonds to stick)


Et Voila!!



Now you have an easy to make tasty treat that will make even the zaniest of tea parties "official".

When that day comes I shall futterwacken... vigorously.

Welcome to the fantastic first post of the Mad Hat Kitchen blog. Things to expect could quite possibly be Recipes, Photos, Music, and Nonsense (literally). ;)

With that being said, here's a teaser of today's goodies: Almond Biscotti dipped in Chocolate, Homemade Pasta with Carbonara Sauce.

Sit Back. Relax. Enjoy.