• Preheat oven to 350 deg F and line 3 cookie trays with silicone mat or parchment paper. These cookies spread while baking, so I like to bake 6 in a tray at a time. If you don't have many trays you can bake the cookies in batches.

Grating and Blotting your carrots:

• Wash, dry and peel your carrots. Grate them using the fine side of your box grater. You can wear gloves if red color from carrots transferring temporarily to your hands bothers you. That color is super temporary though.
• I like to squeeze out that excess water from the carrots by pressing the grated carrots in between my palms. Then blot them using a paper towel to get rid of any leftover moisture.

  You can make use of a strainer here if you desire. Paper towels help too. Blot using 4-5 papers or until no water transfers to paper when you blot carrots. Aim is to reduce carrots to around ⅓ cup (45 gms). This trick will make sure that the cookies won't turn out cakey.

Making the Cookie Dough:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer using paddle attachment or using a handheld mixer, whisk butter and brown sugar together until the mixture turns pale and fluffy on high speed. About 3 minutes.
  ¾ cup Butter, unsalted, 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
• Now sift in all the dry ingredients over wet. This is how I do it, you can also sift all the dry ingredients first in a different bowl and then add them here. Mix on low speed first so that the dry ingredients don't powder your face. ;) Then mix on med speed just until combined and your dough is formed.
  1 and ¾ cups All purpose flour, ½ teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, ¼ teaspoon Salt, 2 and ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon Ground Ginger, ¼ teaspoon Ground Allspice
• Next goes in the egg and vanilla. Beat on med-high speed till the mixture turns fluffy again, for about 2 minutes. Add in the blotted carrots and combine at low speed.
  1 medium Egg, 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract, ½ cup (75 gms) Finely grated Carrots

Making the Cookies:

• If you notice your dough to be too greasy at this stage, chances are you accidently ended up working with too softened butter. This dough will need to chill for a bit so that the cookies don't over spread. You can also test bake a cookie to be sure.

  Once you are ready to bake cookies, scoop dough balls about 2 tablespoons each, using a medium cookie scoop. I bake 6 cookies on one tray at a time.
• Bake these cookies in a pre-heated oven for 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on cookie tray for about 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to finish off cooling.

  When the cookies are just out of oven and are cooling on the tray, scoot a large circular cookie cutter on the cookie's edges for a perfect circular cookie.

Making the Frosting:

• Beat room temperature butter on high speed using a stand/handheld mixer in a medium bowl till pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  ¼ cup Butter
• Add in room temperature cream cheese and continue to beat till both butter and cream cheese (for 2 minutes approx.) combine well. Now add in confectioners' sugar and vanilla and mix on low speed first. Then continue to whisk until the frosting turns light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
  4 ounces Cream Cheese Block, 1 and ½ Cups Confectioners' sugar, 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract

Assembling the Cookies:

• Spread frosting on completely cool cookies using the back side of a spoon or using a mini offset spatula. Top with chopped walnuts/pecans. Enjoy!
  ½ cup Walnuts/ pecans