Easter Bunny Carrot Cookies

With Easter arriving this coming Sunday, all of the cooking shows, websites, and blogs are focusing on egg-and-bunny themed desserts. I've seen cakes, brownies, cookies, trifles, and cupcakes that have been coated in pastel colors and shaped to form various Spring creatures. I, of course, find all of these treats adorable. I think that as a new Easter tradition, instead of simply coloring eggs, I'm going to begin making egg-shaped Rice Krispies treats, dipping them in fine chocolate, and coating with pink and lavender and blue sprinkles.

What I've also noticed (it's difficult not to, really) are pages of recipes focusing on Spring ingredients: Spinach! Asparagus! Rhubarb! The list of fantastic seasonal produce is a long one, as I've pleasantly begun to discover, based on the local farmer's markets. I decided that I could come up with an unbearably cute Easter dessert, one that would be too pretty or too precious to actually eat. Or instead (as if I had to make a choice between one and the other...) I could make something that incorporated some of the flavors of the season. In that vein, I took a cue from the Easter Bunny and decided to make a carrot-based dessert.

I found this recipe for Carrot Cookies, and I slightly modified some of the ingredients, and substantially lowered the sugar amount, allowing the vegetable and the pineapple to lend their flavors more than they would have otherwise. I like how the cookies turned out: light and fluffy. Very Spring-like, indeed. The only thing I would have done differently would be to experiment more with the spices; I think these could have benefited from a stronger kick of spice. Regardless, these are the perfect cookies to serve next to the towering rabbit cake or the Easter-egg colored frosted brownies on Easter day.

Carrot Cookies

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups quick oats
¾ cups dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrots
½ cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, salt, and oats. Mix well with a whisk.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugars. Add butter to mix.
Add eggs and vanilla and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add carrots, pineapple, and nuts and blend until combined.
Add flour mixture and blend at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake 14-15 minutes, but do not brown. Cool completely on wire racks.

Rice Krispies Tiffins

When I was in Ireland a few weeks ago, I fell in love about a dozen times over the course of the trip — with the landscape, with books, with one or two of the Irish boys I met. Of course, I also fell in love with a dessert: specifically, the simple, delectable Tiffin slice: a baked bar of shortbread, caramel, and chocolate. I tasted several of these while I was there, and though they may be on par with a brownie or a blondie in America, to me, they were just exotic enough to declare them a grand “discovery.”

I hadn’t thought about the Tiffin slice in days (with my birthday this past weekend, I’ve recently been seduced by the more local treats of cupcakes and chocolates), but then I was wondering what my next dessert would be. With the Fourth of July approaching, I wanted to do something fun and light-hearted, but without decorating a cake as a flag or cutting out star-shaped sugar cookies. Although I have no barbeque plans, my mind jumped to typical picnic desserts, and with a display of marshmallows in the supermarket, I decided that it has been much too long since I’ve made Rice Krispies Treats. Right up there with apple pie and S’mores, these easy bar desserts are, in my opinion, another staple of American family cuisine. What kid didn’t sample these growing up, at picnics or birthday parties or school bake sales?

And even though their straightforwardness is a major aspect of their appeal, I felt the need to dress these up a little for the holiday weekend. Enter the Tiffin slice: caramel and chocolate rarely, if ever, detract from the quality of a baked good, and so it seemed clear that the Rice Krispies Treats would only benefit from these additions.

I almost wish I could bring these to a bbq, or maybe start my own impromptu bake sale in the park with a tray of these treats: they just look too good not to be on display.

Rice Krispies Tiffin Treats

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. margarine or butter
1 (10 oz.) package regular marshmallows - or -4cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies® cereal
1 (8 oz.) jar caramel ice cream topping
3 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated. Using buttered spatula, press mixture evenly into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Place the tray in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to cool.
2. Once the Rice Krispies treats are cool, warm the caramel topping in a small saucepan over low heat until the consistency is smooth and spreadable. At the same time, place 1 cup chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt in the microwave for 1 minute, then stir to completely melt chips. Repeat for the next 2 cups. Or, melt chocolate over the stove in a double boiler.
3. Spread the warmed caramel topping over the cooled Rice Krispies so that the treats are covered with a thin layer. Then, spread the milk chocolate over the caramel for a slightly thicker layer.
4. Decorate with candies, nuts, or other toppings.