Spiced Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookie Brittle

So in my last post I was rambling on and on about my process of how I create recipes...

Well I forgot to mention one other thing. Every once in a while I stumble across a new creation by accident. Okay, more like half of the recipes I've ever made. This usually happens on Sundays, after being lazy all day and not knowing what to do with my life, so naturally I start messing up our kitchen (literally, spices, graters, vegetable discards, egg shells, and piles of baking soda

everywhere).

It all starts out like how I describes in my last post, but then it doesn't turn out and I basically add the most random ingredients and try some crazy things because, I mean, how much worse can it get?

Now in all honesty, the majority of the time, these little experiments don't turn out at all.

But on some very rare occasions, like this one, I'm luckily enough to come up with something that my parents nibble on so much they end up yelling at me for making it... After yelling at me for destroying their kitchen, of course.

Onto the cookies. These didn't start off as something completely different than the finished product, they were literally supposed to be Spiced Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies... maybe just not the brittle part.

A couple of years ago, I walked into my best friend's house, instantly smelling the warm buttery scent of fresh baked goodies, to find a plate of oatmeal cookies sitting on the counter.

I've always been a sugar cookie (with tons of sprinkles) kinda girl, but let me just say, that changed the day I first ate these cookies. I still will forever love my sprinkle-loaded sugar cookies, but I now have a special place in my heart for oatmeal cookies.

Not just any oatmeal cookies, though. These cookies were so thin, and crispy, they just melted in your mouth into a pile of sugary, buttery oatmeal deliciousness. I was seriously

obsessed

.

A couple of days later I went back to my friend's house, and my beloved oatmeal cookies were gone.

Which was not okay... so my friend and I whipped up a batch, and I couldn't believe what was all in these magical cookies.

It was literally just oats, sugar, butter, and the slightest bit of flour. 

They were so simple to make but somehow, every time I bit into one, I got the same feeling I get when I take the first bite of my grandma's gingerbread cake she only makes at Christmas time (which is possibly my favorite thing about the Holiday season). They just kept getting better and better.

Last Sunday was one of those lazy trial and error baking days for me. After a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and throwing out 2 other failed experiments, I suddenly got a major craving for those oatmeal cookies. Of course, my stubborn self had to make up my own recipe and refuse to call my friend for the exact measurements.

And before you know it, I was standing in the only clean spot on my kitchen floor, covered in flour, hands sticky with the wonderful combination of brown sugar and melted butter, holding a tray of what looked like baked oatmeal gone wrong.

This is when the experimenting comes in.

I remembered this amazing Brownie Brittle I had bought from TJ Maxx one time. It was like a thin, crispy brownie-cookie hybrid.

The oatmeal cookies I had before were almost like brittle, so how could turning them into full on brittle possibly be a terrible idea?

Well it wasn't. It turned out to be the second best decision I had made all day. The first was obviously eating that pint of Ben & Jerry's...

Okay, enough with the rambling, here's the long awaited cookie brittle recipe. By the way this is pretty much a "brittle" recipe for dummies, so there shouldn't be any excuses to not make it...

Spiced Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookie Brittle

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated carrot

• 1 cup old fashioned oats

• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

• 1 tsp. baking powder

• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter- unsalted

• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

• 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper

• 3 tbs. sweetened condensed milk

• 2 tbs. full fat coconut milk

• 1 tbs. unsweetened shredded coconut

• 1 1/12 tsp. course sea salt

• 1/2 tbs. coconut sugar (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350º.

Start by mixing the sugar, vanilla extract, and butter together in a bowl until fully combined. Add the carrot, oats, 1/4 cup coconut, flour, salt, and spices (excluding the course sea salt & coconut sugar) and fully combine. 

Grease and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the mixture evenly (about 3/4 inch thick) across the baking sheet leaving some room around the edges. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the mixture has spread out and has started to brown.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or until cooled.

While waiting for the brittle to cool, whisk the condensed milk, coconut milk, and 1 tbs. shredded coconut together. Drizzle over the completely cooled brittle. Sprinkle with sea salt and coconut sugar. Place back in the oven at 300º for another 30-40 minutes. It should be semi-hardened but still soft and chewy in the middle of the pan. Cool completely on the baking sheet in room temperature until the whole sheet is set and hardened. Break into pieces and eat up!

                                                                                                                       XOXO

                                                                                                                                  -Cecilia A.