This week I am devoting myself to carrots..
Carrots were the home fronts secret weapon. The Ministry of Food propaganda machine convinced children that carrots on sticks were just as tasty as ice-creams, that eating lots of carrots helped you ‘see in the dark’ during blackouts, and that Dr Carrot would make everything better.
Carrots were also used to sweeten cakes and biscuits (cookies) replacing some of the sugar used in many recipes..
Carrot Cookies (makes 12)
- 1 tablespoon margarine (Earth Balance for vegans)
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 6 tablespoons of self-raising flour (plain flour add 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder)
- 4 tablespoon of grated raw carrot
- 1 tablespoon of water
Method
- Cream the fat and the sugar together with the vanilla essence
- Mix in the grated carrot
- Fold in the flour adding water as it gets dry
- Drop spoonfuls onto greased tray and press down a little
- Pre-heat oven to 200C
- Sprinkle tops of cookies with extra sugar
- Place in oven for 10- 15 minutes
PS Cinnamon added would be rather nice
Carolyn, can I ask when the book in the picture was originally published? I have a few of Mrs Beeton’s books on hold at the library but all the descriptions only stated their re-issue dates, not the original publishing dates.
That is actually a greetings card that I adore- looks fab doesn’t it! But the image used on it is from a cookery book published in 1890! I have a 1920s Mrs Beetons Cookery book on my desk at work 🙂 xxxxxxxxxxxx
I had a carrot week the other month… the biscuits worked better than the muffins (which were still gobbled up) and I was so pleasantly surprised… was expecting hard stringy carrot and it baked in beautifully mmmmmmm
Try this carrot cake, with no added sugar ! It’s an autherntic WW2 recipe with tweeeks from myself.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 20cm/8in spring form cake tin with baking parchment.
Ingredients:
Whisk together:
100ml oil (not olive)
3 eggs
3 tbl milk
Sift together:
159g self raising flour
4 tsp dried ground spices of choice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g fine semolina or polenta (maize/corn meal)
Stir in:
100g dried fruit & broken nuts of choice
300g grated carrots
Fold altogether
Pour into the prepared tin and spread to the sides. Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes, or until the cake is well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin. Take the cake out of the tin and peel off the lining paper. Put the cake on a board or plate.
To make the frosting, stir the 150g cream cheese and the zest of 1 orange together. Spread evenly over the cake.
For any other citrus cake simply swap the orange for the citrus fruit you prefer.
Great for the year 5 rationing lesson although very rock cake like!
RANK!!!!!!!
LOL! You didn’t like the taste of them then Bob?? 🙂
My 9yr old son tried these at school the other day & said they’re delicious so I guess I’ll have to make some. Thanks for the recipe.
i have 2 bags of carrots sitting in my fridge and need to do somethin’ with them…thank goodness for the 1940s! 🙂
i made these this morning and they’re so quick! very yummy as well. i really like them. i doubled the batch and had no issues with amounts.
i’ll be making these again for sure 🙂
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Good thing I don’t have to ration in real life! I made a single batch (well, they’re in the oven) & will end up with 6 instead of 12. Maybe after having made them & getting an idea of spread I’ll be able to handle smaller ones next time. They just looked too tiny! lol
I made some of these cookies yesterday and they are delicious! I only got 6 cookies out of this recipe myself. They are lovely and moist and you would never think they had carrot in them. I will definatly be making them again.
I made these carrot cookies this morning and I am very pleased and surprised how good they are….I used whole wheat flour and butter sub. I also used up some leftover cinnamon & sugar (from my husbands favorite cookies.(snickerdoodles). …..very pleased …Thank You so much for this blog..I am loving it. 😀
Kathleen
I had to double the batch to get 12 “good” cookies, but what a hit! So easy, so fast and the cinnamon was a great add. I can’t wait to add these to my children’s school lunches when school starts back. I am addicted to your blog. I’m going to try as many recipes as my family can stand. What a fantastic idea!
Reblogged this on creativity and commented:
I make these all the time they are amazing! If you add an extra tbsp of water the cookies spread out and become flatter in my experience 🙂
Just curious are the measurements an actual tablespoon or are they american measurements?y daughter wants to make some for her class project lookimg forward to it so dont want to mess it up ha ha
This recipe is quick and efficient and made with ingredients I have on hand regularly. Using this recipe, it is the first time I have ever tried making (and even tasted) carrot cookies. Good one! They turned out great and were eaten up right away. Thank you!
I was going to make 24 cookies, so I doubled the amounts. But in the end even with the amounts doubled, I was only able to make 8 cookies.
Sorry about that- I’ll look into that and see if I’ve made a boo boo- thanks for letting me know. C xx
These are delicious they are the best ever!! TRY THEM!!
OMG, I think I finally found it. My Nana used to make these and I loved them. I have found multiple recipes but they did not taste the same or even look the same. She would use an orange frosting on them after they cooled and I miss them so much. Can’t wait to try it and then I will be making a much larger batch.
My daughter declared she hates carrots. I recall her scarfing these cookies down when I first made them. Making a big batch tomorrow!!
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsWe made these at school and they were delicious 😋!!!!
Are these cookies meant to be chewy or snappy like a biscuit
Mine have always come out chewy… a bit cake like xx
If you want you biscuits as opposed to cookies adda little more time, try lowering the temperature. To help “shortness” use a little lemon juice to help the rising agent to work. You could also reduce the water to make the dough drier.
General rule of thumb is for:
For crisper biscuits (ie shortbreads), roll and cut thinly then baked (180-190c) for about 10-12 minutes.
For chewier cookies (ie flapjacks) cut or rolled thickly then baked ((180-190c) for about 15-20 minutes.
I also make my dough into balls and roll them in fine oatmeal before baking. I liked the cinnamon but ginger works too, as does a wee pinch of white pepper – honestly !
For chocolate and beetroot cookies take out 1 tbl flour and replace with cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and swap the carrots for beetroot, a nice variation.
If you want biscuits as opposed to cookies adda little more time, try lowering the temperature. To help “shortness” use a little lemon juice to help the rising agent to work. You could also reduce the water to make the dough drier.
General rule of thumb is for:
For crisper biscuits (ie shortbreads), roll and cut thinly then baked (180-190c) for about 10-12 minutes.
For chewier cookies (ie flapjacks) cut or rolled thickly then baked ((180-190c) for about 15-20 minutes.
I also make my dough into balls and roll them in fine oatmeal before baking. I liked the cinnamon but ginger works too, as does a wee pinch of white pepper – honestly !
For chocolate and beetroot cookies take out 1 tbl flour and replace with cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and swap the carrots for beetroot, a nice variation.
If you want biscuits as opposed to cookies add a little more time, try lowering the temperature. To help “shortness” use a little lemon juice to help the rising agent to work. You could also reduce the water to make the dough drier.
General rule of thumb is for:
For crisper biscuits (ie shortbreads), roll and cut thinly then baked (180-190c) for about 10-12 minutes.
For chewier cookies (ie flapjacks) cut or rolled thickly then baked ((180-190c) for about 15-20 minutes.
I also make my dough into balls and roll them in fine oatmeal before baking. I liked the cinnamon but ginger works too, as does a wee pinch of white pepper – honestly !
For chocolate and beetroot cookies take out 1 tbl flour and replace with cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and swap the carrots for beetroot, a nice variation.
I am only a teenager but I absolutely love 1940s. I made some of these at my primary school and it was he best thing I’ve ever had. I made some for my secondary school and they love it. This has helped me experience what I couldn’t in the modern world.
P.S my mum secretly loves them and eats them when I am out. Lol
I made these cookies today and they were very delicious. They remind me of my mother’s cookies when we were low on food she could make cookies out of anything that we had left that would settled the sweet tooth. My only changes on this recipe where I did not have margarine or butter I have less than a teaspoon of butter so I used a little lard and I sprinkled some sugar and cinnamon that my husband had for his toast on top of the cookie that’s where my cinnamon came in. I definitely would have to double for my family but it was a great quick cookie for me and I will make it again.
I love your recipes!
Good cookies that my family liked.
But 12 ? More like 4 1/2.
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Made a couple of batches of these for our VE day lonely celebration. 2nd batch was better than the first as I think I used too much water the first time. Got 12 out of each batch. Very nice, Thanks for the recipe
Made a couple of batches of these for our VE day lonely celebration. 2nd batch was better than the first as I think I used too much water the first time. Got 12 out of each batch. Very nice, Thanks for the recipe