
My friend had the most beautiful Easter party yesterday. She served an exorbitant amount of delicious food and everyone gobbled it up. Her spread included asparagus-cream soup, tomato-goat cheese tarts, grilled lamb chops, baked ham, mustard chicken salad, leek-bacon-gruyere quiche, green salad, arugula-fennel-dill salad, fruit salad, penne a la vodka, and more. That doesn’t even include dessert! 🙂 She also had an egg hunt and goodie bags for all of the kids- AND party favors. Amazing!
I brought one of my favorite appetizers, Leek and Gruyere Tart with Prosciutto, and these flavor-packed cookies to contribute. My kids made Peep kebabs too. 🙂 (Some peeps ended up being roasted over a fire!)
This recipe was adapted from Martha Stewart Living. I rolled the dough in chopped raw pecans and used cream cheese instead of goat cheese in the filling. Using a large cookie scoop to ration the dough made the precise 18 cookies. They had a great consistency- chewy on the inside with a crunch from the pecans on the outside. Loved them.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 stick, room temperature, for frosting
- 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3/4 cup packed finely grated carrots (from about 3)
- 1/4 cup golden raisins, chopped
- 3/4 cup raw pecans, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons apricot jam

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, preferably on convection.
- In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown and granulated sugars, and yolk.
- In another bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
- Stir flour mixture into butter mixture to combine.
- Mix in oats, carrots, and raisins.
- Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Using a large cookie scoop, ration 18 scoops of dough. Roll the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; roll balls in pecans to coat.
- Space 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven; press an indentation into center of each cookie with the end of a wooden spoon.
- Bake until golden brown on bottoms, 10 to 12 minutes more. Re-press indentation into each cookie, as needed. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.
- In a bowl, beat remaining 1/2 stick butter and confectioners’ sugar on medium until smooth.
- Beat in cream cheese until just combined. Swirl in jam.
- Place filling in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe filling into the center of each cookie with cream cheese mixture.
- Chill until ready to serve.

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