Bettroot cookies!

What are these weird, bright pink cookies I hear you cry? Beetroot cookies! Yuck, some of you may think, but think again! I have used beetroot a few times in baking and I love the results everytime. Remember my beetroot brownies? I made these cookies to use up some extra beetrot from baking a beetroot cake for my Mum's birthday (I will blog that later! It is so special it deserves it's own post!). I was thinking of how to use up these 3 beets I had left over. I could've made soup, roasted them, pickled them, but no, I had to bake something of course!

The cake I made uses beetroot in a similar way to carrot, just as my pumpkin cake also does. Then I thought, beetroot/pumpkin/carrot, they're all quite interchangeable root vegetables! So I decided to adapt a pumpkin cookie recipe to make a beetroot cookie recipe!

Recipe

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup beetroot puree
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of hazelnuts
• 1 cup dried sultanas

1. Preheat the oven to 350f, gas mark 4.

2. Beat the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy.

3. Add the egg, vanilla extract and beetroot puree.

3. In a seperate bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, spices and chopped nuts. Add to the rest of the ingredients, folding together slowly.

4. Fold in the sultanas, then drop onto a lined baking tray with a spoon, and bake for approx. 10-15 minutes.

My friend saw this photo and said it looked like raw, bloody beef burgers! Tastes so much better when cooked though :)