“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.
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!” As Kenya will now attest, not only are these cookies gorgeous, perfectly sweet and super crunchy, they’re also packed with folates and vitamin C. They’re the kind of treats that make everyone happy. Beet that!
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.
- *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.
I used olive oil for the “oil” ingredient (would be helpful to say what kinds of oils could be used). My 2 year old ate a lot of them. I thought they tasted kind of strange, but I’m just so sick of beets I guess (we got a lot from our CSA, and for me, I can only eat so many).
Mine just stayed like loose flour and didn’t come together as dough. I still just spread it out on parchment paper and am baking it right now.
You could use the food processor with the grater attachment!
Could you put the beets in the food processor or blender instead of using the grater?
Caryn\carrot juice is a great substitute for orange color. It doesn’t have a whole lot of taste to it either
I haven’t those, but the spinach would definitely work for adding color. You might need to add a liquid, though, because spinach puree won’t come out very liquid like the beet puree does!
I made these with my 3 year old daughter and we had so much fun! Love the recipe. I’m wondering if there are any other vegetables we could use to produce a different color to make a rainbow of cookies. Like maybe sweet potato for orange or a spinach puree for green? What guidelines could you give for choosing substitutions?
[…] And Mama and I made a special kind of cookie. They were red because they were made out of beets! We’ve never made cookies like this before, so I was just as eager as Mama to try them. Six […]
Doubled the recipe using whole wheat flour and coconut oil, also added a little vanilla. It was so dry and crumbly I added 1 egg to doubled recipe so I could roll out and not have cookies falling apart. Rolled 1/4″ thick and baked 10 min. Worked out. Recently started eating more beets and love the idea of using them in cookies.
Just made these, came out pretty cardboardy. They were super dry – insanely dry as batter, so we added some applesauce – 3ish Tsp. Baked ’em up…instant red cardboard. Threw a bit of the ‘ol powdered sugar/water frosting…helped a bit. Will see what the three munchkins think tomorrow…
I made these today and they turned out lovely. 🙂 I followed the recipe as written, with the following additions: 2 tbsp sugar (added just the right amount of sweetness) and 2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce (it needed the moisture). I got about 15 2-inch heart-shaped cookies. After baking for 15 mins, the cookies were chewy and rosy pink. You can taste a hint of beet, but it’s definitely not a bad taste. I drizzled a simple sugar icing over top (1 cup powdered sugar + 2 tbsp milk of choice) to dress them up and add a hit of sweetness (since they’re for a bake sale). Will definitely make again, maybe with some cinnamon and vanilla.
[…] vegan delights were inspired by Sweet Beet Cookies from Weelicious, who finds ways to get veggies into her kids foods in such unique and creative […]
[…] too much moisture in a baked good is just a recipe for disaster. I’ve seen recipes with beets, carrots, zucchini, spinach, and avocados. Obviously sweet potatoes and pumpkins work too, though […]
Every time I have made these my beets were very very moist, like others have commented the dough was super sticky and oily. This time I tried not using any oil at all – I was going to add a bit at a time depending on the dough, but I didn’t use any, and they came out great! I used a little more than half a cup of shredded beets , basically using up everything I had grated. I also used powdered sugar to help roll them out since it was still petty sticky.. Okay, that brings down the health factor, but I figured since I had skipped the oil it was a good trade off
[…] so it’s important that I make new and fun snacks that also contain a lot of nutrition. The red beet cookies pictured above is a great example of taking home-made goodies to a new level. Now, I am not one to […]
Yes, peel and grate!