Carrot has always been my favorite kind of cake, so when I needed to bring some sort of dessert to work recently, my first thought was to go to my standard carrot cake recipe. Upon second thought though, I wanted something that would be readily portable with a minimum of fuss, and sans cake box, a double-layer cake with delicate icing seemed more trouble than it was worth. So, I turned to my usual source for innovative ideas: FoodGawker. Sure enough, I was soon eyeballing a promising recipe for carrot cake cookies. A hybrid between whoopie pie and carrot cake, these cookies pack the flavor of carrot cake with the convenient, fuss-free format of a cookie sandwich. Parfait!

Adapted from Butter and Sugar:

Cookie Dough:
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/4 c white sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
1 egg, room temp
1 t vanilla extract

1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ground ginger

1 c rolled oats
3/4 c grated carrot
1/3 c chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
3 T butter, room temp
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
zest of one orange (optional)

1. Cream the butter and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
2. Sift together dry ingredients (flour through ginger). Gradually combine with the butter mixture, then mix in the oats, carrots and nuts. Chill dough in the refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, make the frosting by combining the cream cheese and softened butter, then add the powdered sugar, vanilla and zest. Refrigerate while not in use.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 F. On a cookie sheet, place dough balls 2" apart. I used a tablespoon to scoop dough and got 16 sandwiches out of the batch. Bake until brown, about 12-15 minutes, rotating pan once to ensure even color. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, apply frosting between cookies to create sandwiches. These are particularly good served cold out of the refrigerator.