CARROT CAKE COOKIE SANDWICH with CREAM CHEESE FILLING
Submitted by grizzlybiscuit on March 21, 2005 at 1:37 am

I saw this in the April '2004 issue of Gourmet Magazine and thought Wow! Why haven't I seen this before now!! If you love Carrot Cake this is a no brainer.

Step 1
1 cup + 2 Tbs. unbleached AP flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Step 2
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 large whole egg

Step 3
1 cup coarsely grated carrots
3 oz. chopped lightly toasted walnuts
1/2 cup (2.5 oz.) raisins

Step 4
1 8 oz. package light cream cheese
1 Tbs. honey
1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice or to taste
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets or half sheet pans, and line them with parchment. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Pull out your cream cheese to warm up.

Cream all ingredients in step 2--except for the egg--on medium speed for about 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Then add the egg and mix for 1 more minute. Then add ingredients in step 3, and mix 2 minutes longer.

Now turn off the machine, and fold in step 1 ingredients by hand until just combined.

Portion out your cookie dough (1 1/2 Tbs. cookie) onto both baking sheets (approximately 13-14 cookies per sheet), and bake 12-16 minutes, until done. You won't have to worry too much about the cookies being too dry, because of the cream cheese filling, but try not to overcook them just the same. Once out of the oven, let the cookies rest for 2 minutes, and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Now combine the ingredients in Step 4--the cream cheese and the honey, lemon juice, vanilla and salt--in a small bowl. Blend until smooth.

Combine the flat sides of 2 cookies with a little filling in between.

Yield: somewhere around 13 cookies. These should be against the law!!! lol