Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies

December. Christmas approaches like a train you can see but can't stop. I want to be ready. I want to walk into Christmas the way I walked into Thanksgiving — prepared, steady, crying into the greens if necessary but not stopping. I can do this. I have done harder things this year. I buried my mother. I fed four hundred people at a funeral. I made dressing that was RIGHT. Christmas is just another meal at another table. Except it's not. It's the first Christmas without Mama and the tree won't smell the same and the carols won't sound the same and I will sing "O Holy Night" at the Christmas Eve service and her seat in the third pew will be empty and the note I always looked for — Mama's nod, her small nod during the high note — won't be there.

I'm decorating. The townhouse has lights on the bushes (Marcus helped; he's tall enough now to reach the hooks) and a tree in the living room (artificial, because real trees are beautiful and also expensive and also drop needles that I find in July). Jasmine decorated the tree with the precision of a museum curator. Every ornament has a designated spot. She reorganized Marcus's ornament placements twice. He let her because he's learned that arguing with Jasmine about aesthetics is futile.

Christmas shopping on a budget is an Olympic sport. Marcus wants books (easy, cheap, bless this child). Jasmine wants "art supplies" which could mean anything from a $3 sketch pad to a $200 easel — I'm aiming for the middle. Curtis wants nothing, says nothing, needs everything, and will receive a new robe because his current one has been washed so many times it's transparent. I'm making gifts for the Set the Table girls: mason jars filled with my dry spice blend, labeled "Miss Tamika's Mix" because every cook needs a signature and this one is mine — garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, cayenne, black pepper, a pinch of brown sugar. Not Mama's blend. Mine. Built from hers but different. The way I am built from her but different.

Baked Christmas cookies all Saturday: peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodles, and a new one — brown butter chocolate chip cookies with sea salt that I found in a food magazine and adapted with my own proportions. They are obscenely good. The brown butter gives them a toffee depth. The sea salt makes them sing. Marcus ate seven and said, "These are the best cookies you've ever made." He's not wrong. They're not Mama's. They're mine. And they're the best cookies I've ever made.

The brown butter chocolate chip cookies Marcus couldn’t stop eating were the spark, but the ones I kept coming back to — the ones I kept thinking about for the Set the Table girls’ gift tins — were these carrot cake breakfast cookies: warmly spiced, sturdy enough to stack in a mason jar, and the kind of thing that feels like a hug at seven in the morning. They’re not Mama’s cookies. They’re not anybody’s cookies but mine. And that, right now, is exactly the point.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 14 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt until evenly combined.
Whisk the wet ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated. Fold in the grated carrots, raisins, walnuts, and shredded coconut if using. The dough will be thick and moist.
Scoop and flatten. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Use the back of the spoon or your palm to gently flatten each cookie to about 1/2-inch thickness — these don’t spread much on their own.
Bake. Bake for 12–14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the edges are set and the tops are just golden. Do not overbake; they firm up as they cool.
Cool and store. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Nutrition (per serving)

Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies — Baking Something New to Call My Own