Carrot Cake Cookies

I have an unhealthy obsession with carrot cake. Case in point: I took Grandma to my favorite restaurant for brunch in DC last weekend, Founding Farmers, and I ordered carrot cake pancakes, despite the fact that I adamantly believe that pancakes (aka CAKE) for breakfast is a terrible idea for your body.  In fact, I've been known to loudly complain about this very fact in front of my entire family dad while he indulges in coffee cake or other sweets in the morning. But, love of carrot cake trumps all!

I've been meaning to try making carrot-cake-in-cookie-form for months, and finally decided on a random recipe I found online that was somewhat sketchy and had no reviews. As a result, I had to perform some major resuscitation to get this to work, which is why the recipe looks somewhat ridiculous- I know there must be a better way to achieve the same result. Bear with me on the measurements... I cut the recipe in half (sort of), and altered the ingredient list.

Ingredients:

Not pictured: lots of stuff, including a glass of red wine. 

4 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tbsp. unrefined virgin coconut oil
1/2 of an egg (aka 1 yolk plus a little white)
3/4 cup plus 1/8 cup TJ's white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup TJ's Golden Berry Blend (golden raisins, cranberries, cherries, blueberries)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup finely grated carrot
1 cup oats
2 tbsp. chia seeds
3 tbsp. water

I beat the butter and coconut oil together until most of the chunks were gone (sick), then beat in half the flour and the rest of the ingredients up through the cinnamon. I stirred in everything else and found the dough to be crumbly and disastrous. ENTER MIRACLE SEED. Chia seeds are my new love, and just in the nick of time since I am totally over flax seed. And, they have the coolest gelatinous property! After stirring in the seeds + water I was able to form cookies with the dough. I baked these at 375 for about 10 minutes:

I vowed to only eat one, but ended up eating three plus some dough. Shoot. The rest are being sent in a birthday care package to Nate, but they're mostly for his dad, who (unlike his son) always enjoys a healthy cookie!