morning glory breakfast cookies

No time for breakfast? Grab a couple of these carrot, fruit, and nut cookies and take breakfast with you. The dough for these soft cookies is sticky, so an ice cream scoop works best for forming the cookies. Although the ingredient list looks rather long, most of these are items that are likely to be on hand.

makes 20 cookies cookie making 20 minutes cookie baking 350 degrees, two baking sheets for about 20 minutes each

cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup finely grated or chopped peeled carrots (2 or 3 carrots)

¾ cup grated peeled apple (1 apple)

1 cup raisins

½ cup shredded sweetened coconut

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar, and orange zest until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until blended, about 1 minute. Mix in the carrots, apple, raisins, coconut, and walnuts. The batter will become quite liquid from the moist carrots and apples. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated. The dough will be soft and sticky.

Using an ice cream scoop, preferably, or measuring cup with a ¼-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2½ inches apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the bottoms are browned, the tops are pale but firm, and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cookie comes out dry, about 20 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust the cooled cookies with powdered sugar, if desired. The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.