Carrot Halwa Cookies

I love halwa.  I love all the sweet cardamom nutty goodness that leaves a long lasting aftertaste.

Halwa, however, is not very portable or easily distributable, and it's usually best after having eaten Indian cuisine.  Cookies are appropriate anytime, anywhere, are and don't need to be refigerated or heated.

So...I created the halwa cookie.  The carrot halwa cookie.  And let me tell you, I'm very happy I did since I don't have any Indian cuisine ready to eat after which it would be appropriate to eat normal carrot halwa.

Ha!
Yield 44 cookies

Ingredients:

100g (3.5oz) room temperature butter

300g (10.6oz) sweetened condensed milk
200g (7oz) finely grated carrots (about 5 medium)

1/4tsp cinnamon

8 cardamom pods, dry roasted and ground (about 2 tsp)

140g (5oz) whole wheat flour (or just 1 cup of each)

100g (3.5oz) almond powder
100g (3.5oz) chickpea flour
pinch of salt
2 handfuls raisins

toppings:

pistachios

unsalted cashews

Directions

1.  Sift together the flours, almond powder, and salt.  Set aside.

2.  In a separate mixing bowl, cream the butter and add the condensed milk, cardamom, and cinnamon.  Beat well.

3.  Get rid of your whip and switch to a wooden spoon or spatula.  Fold in the finely grated carrots.   Then add the dry mixture little by little into the wet mixture until all incorporated.  The end result should be very sticky, but not as if the dough had eggs in it.  This is eggless.  Fold in the raisins.

4.  Get your toppings ready.   Take a tablespoon sized amount of dough and kindly shape it onto your cookie sheet.  Press on the pistachios and cashews (or whatever other nuts you see fit) and repeat for the rest of the batch.  I didn't have enough pistachios so half of the batch has both pistachios and cashews, and the other half has cashews only.

5.  Bake at 185°C 350°F for about 20 minutes.  Carefully remove and let cool on a wire rack.

These were exactly as I imagined them to be.  Chewy yet structured, bursting with bits of different flavors at a time with that happy aftertaste of cardamom that lingers...