One Recipe at a time...: Carrot Cookies with Orange Frosting

Easter is coming! I wanted to make some kind of cookies to send to Myles in an Easter package. I remember one of the girls at work made carrot cookies several years ago. Her name is Olivia - we had 2 employees named Olivia, so we called her "Big O" because the other Olivia was a short Asian girl so she was "Little O." Since then, both of them have left Smiths. Well, Little O still works on some Sundays, but I never work Sundays, so I never see her.

Anyway, I googled a recipe for them, but they don't seem very popular. I finally found one with delicious looking pictures, and made it. As I was making it, I decided to look for Big O's recipe. I knew she gave me a copy of it. So I found it, and compared the 2 side by side. I decided to make them both. and a good thing too. The one's on the internet turned out gross! I found the recipe at Thirtyhandmadedays.com . She talks about how her mom always made these when she was a kid and how she got the recipe after her mom came and babysat while she was out of town. I told Ryan about it and he said maybe it was all nostalgia- you can't beat the taste of nostalgia. I think she just made some mistakes when copying the recipe. The biggest problem is that her cookies turned out really BITTER - That means too much baking soda. Also they are FLAT - Also too much baking soda- they puff up too fast and then fall. Do not make those!! Make this recipe instead! Olivia's recipe had baking powder and an extra egg. Here is her recipe:

Carrot Cookies from Olivia Wilkinson
1 c shortening (part soft butter)
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c mashed cooked carrots
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c shredded coconut

heat oven to 400 degrees. Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and carrots. Blend in baking powder, salt and flour. Stir in coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until no imprint remains when touched lightly. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Cool. Frost with orange buttercream.

I followed the recipe exactly - except used all shortening and left out the salt. I think next time I might use some butter instead of shortening and cut back on the baking powder. I don't think it needed quite that much. Also I might add some vanilla- the other recipe had vanilla and that seems like it would be good. In fact, I found a recipe at Genius Kitchen that is more like Olivia's recipe and has vanilla in it. The recipes I've tried from Genius Kitchen have been good, so it's probably a safe bet. I didn't used Olivia's recipe for Orange buttercream but here it is:

Orange Buttercream
3 Tbsp soft butter
2 Tbsp grated orange peel
1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice

Blend butter and sugar. Stir in peel and juice. Beat until smooth.

For my frosting I used all the peel and juice from 1 orange. I added about 2 to 3 Tbsp butter and LOTS of powdered sugar. Mine made more of a glaze. The other recipe's frosting was more glaze like. Then you frosted the cookies while they were still warm. Here are some pics:

Cookies from the internet recipe.
Three of them are stacked in the back-
They are SO FLAT!