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Not only are these beet cookies gorgeous, they’re perfectly sweet and super crunchy, the kind of treat that makes everyone happy. Beet that!
“I don’t like beets”! That was my darling son’s response when I told him I had made Sweet Beet Cookies. I thought sandwiching the word beet between sweet and cookie would serve as sufficient enough distraction for Kenya. Not so much. And since I never want to trick my kids into eating foods that are good for them and hope they learn to love them on their own, simply calling this recipe something like Red Cookies was out of the question.
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But if the name itself wasn’t a selling point, the site of these cookies was. As soon as Kenya actually saw them, his eyes lit up. “They’re beautiful,” he said. “I love beets!”
Sweet Beet Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup raw beets, shredded fine*
- 2 tablespoons oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
- Using your hands, add the shredded beets to the flour mixture and toss to coat.
- Add the oil and work with your hands to bring the dough together (the salt and sugar will fall to the bottom of the bowl so make sure you knead the dough well to combine everything — the outcome will be a smooth dough).
- Form the smooth, sweet beet dough into a flat disk and roll it out to 1/2 inch thick on parchment paper or a dry clean surface.
- Using a knife, cut the dough into squares or use small cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
- Bake on a Silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes.
Notes
- *You can only use RAW fine shredded beets for this recipe. Using canned beets will not work because of the thickness of the beets and they are already cooked.
Can you use beet powder in this recipe instead of beets?
Unfortunately, the texture would be off if you used beet powder to substitute the beets. I wouldn’t recommend it.
I tried to make these but ended up with a bowl of crumbs. Had to add a fair amount of butter so my crumbs could turn into a dough. I don’t see beetroots releasing enough moisture honestly.
Hi! If you need more moisture, add a touch more oil. Also, the recipe calls for oil (not butter) to keep them flaky and easy to roll out, so make sure you’re following the recipe as written. Hope that helps!
HELP! I followed the recipe and had to add 3 more tablespoons of oil- what did I do wrong???
Hi! Beets don’t release much liquid on their own, so sometimes if they’re too dry, you’ll need to add a touch more oil. You did the right thing! Hope they turned out for you.
I tried to make these but the dough was so dry. The beets didn’t let out much liquid. I added water to the mix and tried it that way. But the dough didn’t seem right. Any suggestions on what to use?
Hi! If you need more moisture, add a touch more oil rather than water. Try that out and let me know how it goes!
I just made these and, much to my shock, they were a hit with my two year old! She helped me cut them into fun shapes and was so excited to eat them!
The recipe does make a fairly small ball of dough and my dough was pretty elastic so it was hard to keep it stretched out to 1/2″ thick long enough to cut it, so I didn’t get a ton of cookies from the recipe, but it would be easy peasy to double it.
When I was mixing my dough, I started to think I wasn’t ever going to get it to come together as more than a crumbly mess, but I ended up squeezing handfuls of it at a time to get the beets to give up a little moisture and then it was easy to get it into a big ball. Thanks for the recipe. I’m thrilled to have another vegetable I can put on my “My Kid Will Eat This” list!
Thanks for the recipe! My beet cookies came out great, can’t wait to make some more before the holidays. I used melted coconut oil as my oil of choice, and changed nothing else. Might try adding peppermint next time.
I love this recipe.. My cookies turned out perfect.. I juiced beets & apples first. Then put the pulp into my vitamix. i used canola oil b/c thats what I had..
I had been wanting to try these for so long but didn’t want to use the wheat flour for my baby. I recently have been using buckwheat flour as a GF option for the family so I thought I’d give it a go … it works!
Just sub 1/1 buckwheat flour for the wheat flour and add an egg. I added an egg because the buckwheat tends to be a finer, heavier flour and I needed moisture. All my kids love them! I’ll be making these again 🙂
Delicious and Hilarious Recipe – All enjoyed the cookies including my daughter. All the adults though oddly enough hesitantly tried them and said they don’t like beets but they like these cookies. Thanks!
Made these today with my 3 year old. We had a blast making them and they turned out delicious! Used coconut oil for the oil. Did have to knead quite a bit but then dough came together nicely; very moist. Can’t imagine I could have gotten 50 cookies out of this but we cut ours into shapes. Almost ate them all in one day! My daughter started out today screaming at me “I hate beets!” After just one cookie “I like beets!” Thank you!!!