A TRIP TO APRICOT LANE FARMS, COOKIES, + A GIVEAWAY

OCTOBER 9, 2011

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A few weeks ago, I took the kids to visit my friend Molly on her new farm: Apricot Lane. She invited me and 100 or so of her friends and we all enjoyed the scenery, organic drinks and food, and great conversation.

 

Driving up the winding road, my kids jaws(actually all of our jaws) hit the floor.  It was spectacularly gorgeous and way better than I had envisioned it in my mind.  Acres and acres of vast space, animals living freely, green – lots and lots of green with beautiful landscape.

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Molly and her husband John have lots of plans for the property and I know that everyone who shared in the days events agree that they are going to be super successful.  Molly sent out the invites and said she was going to take care of the “real food” and asked us to either bring a side or a dessert. I thought about doing both, but it being a Sunday and all, I only had the energy to do one.

A few months back I received a surprise in the mail; a copy of Gobba Gobba Hey by Steven Gdula.  I had been wanting to try a few of the recipes but never got to it.  This felt like the right time to test some of his recipes.  With it being the beginning of fall, I wanted to make something that resembled the harvest.  I settled upon the Carrot Cake Gobs with a Citrus Cream Cheese center.  After reading the recipe, the ingredients felt similar to a whoopie pie and after baking them I understood why.  These cookies are more of a cakey cookie and adding the cream cheese filling confirmed my initial instincts.

The food that day was truly amazing; Grass fed hamburgers, Molly’s raw honey lemonade, quinoa salad, lots of beans, grain salads, and an array of desserts. After lunch my kids grabbed my camera and roamed the property.  They found their way to the tennis courts and the farmers quarters and of course found the “vehicles” and the dogs.

Because we had such a great and memorable day and also because I received a lot of kudos for these cookies I want to offer a book to one lucky reader.  Not only do the recipes inspire me to want to create desserts with unique and interesting flavors but the graphics of this book makes me want to turn the pages with no intention of reading the recipe.  I merely like what each page looks like.  It feels more like a one of my required reading books from a recent graphics class.  Maybe the author was in that class with me and I didn’t even know him?  If you want to own this fun book and include it in your already bursting library of cookbooks, check out how to get your hands on it.

Thanks, Molly, for including us.  It was so great for my little family and I to get out of the “city” and breathe the open air.  I always told you – you are a visionary, and you are definelty living your dream!

How to Enter
You have until Monday, October 17th, 12 midnight PST to enter this giveaway. The Winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 2 days to respond or a new winner will be selected. U.S.A. residents only.

You can enter multiple times by leaving a separate comment for each of the following steps listed below:

• tell me what you love about the Fall season.
• go to Gobba Gobba Hey Gobs page and become her friend.
• go to The Urban Baker’s facebook page and become my friend
• become Molly’s friend on her Organic Spark Facebook page.
• sign up for my RSS feeds and receive my blog posts each week
• Stumble this post and follow me (and see who I follow) @theurbanbaker on StumbleUpon.

Carrot Cake Gobs w/Citrus Cream Cheese
yield: 34 cookies

ingredients:
for the cookies:
1/2 cup peeled, grated carrots
1 Tbsp. fresh, grated ginger
1 Tbsp. orange zest
4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups coconut sugar
4 oz.(8 Tbsp) unsalted, organic butter, room temperture
2 eggs, separated, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, room temperarture
2 Tbsp. sour cream

for the filling:
2 oz.(4 Tbsp) unsalted, organic butter, room temperature
16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. sour cream
1-2 Tbsp. fresh orange juice
1-2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2-3 cups confectiners’ sugar, sifted

instructions:
for the cookies:
• preheat oven to 350*. line your rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
• in the work bowl of a food processor, fitted with the metal blade, pulse the carrots, ginger, and orange zest. set aside.
• in a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. whisk and set aside.
• in the bowl of your standing mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar.  add the egg yolks adn mix on medium speed.
• add the egg whites and vanilla and mix to incorporate.
• add the dry ingredients then the buttermilk, alternating in three batches.  starting and ending with the dry ingredients.  add the sour cream and mix well.
• using a 1 tablespoon ice cream scooper, drop batter on to prepared parchment lined baking sheets.
• bake 4 minutes, rotate pans back to front and top to bottom and bake another 4 minutes.
• remove the gobs to wire racks and let cool completely.  they are easier to remove from the paper when cooled completely.
for the citrus cream:
• with the mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and the cream cheese.
• add the vanilla, sour cream, 1 tablespoon both lemon juice and orange juice and 2 cups of the confectioners’ sugar. beat on low speed just unitl combined.  once combined, turn the mixer up to medium and add a bit more sugar, a little at a time, must until you get the consistancy you desire. taste and if needed, add more citrus juice.
assembly:
• using a small off set spatula, spread the cream cheese frosting on the flat side of a gob.  pair with another gob its size and sandwich together.
• place on a parchment lined baking sheet and repeat with the rest of the gobs.
• place in fridge to set.
• when ready to eat, remove from the fridge, eat, and enjoy.
p.s. don’t stack the gobs.  as they are more cake like – they will kind of stick together – and we all know we don’t want that!

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