Carrot Cake Cookies
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You know I love carrot cake in any shape or form. From the OG cake to bread to cupcakes to now cookies! Yeah, that’s right, Carrot Cake Cookies are so good, moist, chewy and delicious, one bite and you’ll wonder why you’ve never made them before!
Want more tasty cookie recipes? Try my Easy Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Snow-Capped Lemon Cookies, and Zucchini Cookies with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.
How to Make This Recipe
Ready to make carrot cake cookies? These take less than 40 minutes! Crazy!
Making the Cookies
- First, go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, very lightly grease a baking sheet or (and this works better), line with a nonstick baking mat. (not pictured)
- Now take out a medium-size bowl and whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. (photo 1)
- In a separate, large bowl combine the butter and the sugars and then mix them together for 2-3 minutes, or until it is light and fluffy. (not pictured)
- To the butter/sugar mixture, add in the vanilla and eggs and mix, then stir in the grated carrots. (photo 2)
- Now, take the dry ingredients and add them to the wet ingredients (stirring until they are just incorporated and there are no more streaks of flour). Be careful not to over-mix the batter. (photo 3)
- Drop the cookie batter by the spoonful (I used a large cookie scoop, about 2 tablespoons) onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them at least 2-3 inches apart. (photo 4)
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown and the tops look dry. Allow the cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. (photo 5)
Making the Frosting
- You can start making the frosting while cookies are cooling. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Then, once the butter is melted, start stirring it over the heat for about 2-4 minutes longer, or until the color changes from pale yellow to a deep golden-brown. Remove the butter from the heat.
- In a large, clean bowl combine the cream cheese with the browned butter and mix well.
- Gradually mix in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, till it’s completely incorporated. Then, mix in the vanilla and milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency (the icing should be fluffy and easily spreadable). (photo 6)
- Frost the carrot cake cookies only when they have completely cooled.
- Store the carrot cake cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Why This Recipe Works
So easy — 40 minutes (or less!) till you have these babies in your mouth. That’s from start to finish, icing and all. You certainly can’t beat that!
So delicious — If you love carrot cake anything, then you’ll love these carrot cake cookies. Just the right amount of sweet and cinnamon, plus they are buttery, and carrotty and that icing — heaven!
Perfect amount of carrots — As much as I love carrot cake, I admit, sometimes there can be too many carrots. These carrot cake cookies are not overloaded with carrot taste. They have just enough — only 1.5 cups, which spread out perfectly among the batter so as not to be too overwhelming.
Unique — When was the last time you had a carrot cake cookie at Easter brunch or a potluck or bake sale? I’d wager to say maybe never? Easy enough to make and take on the road with you, and just different (and delicious) enough to make them the hit of the party!
Expert Tips
- A note on the carrots: My advice is to be sure to use fresh carrots and grate them yourself. Pre-shredded carrots are too dry and will not have enough moisture for your cookie batter. Trust me on this! You will regret using pre-shredded carrots.
- When using butter that is “room temperature,” this does not meet completely softened. It means it should be still somewhat firm to the touch. Using butter that is too warm (or beginning to melt) will cause your cookies to spread too much.
- Feel like your carrot cake cookies aren’t complete without nuts? Add a ¼ to a ½ cup of chopped pecans or walnuts to your batter (depending on how nutty you like your cookies). Or you can sprinkle some chopped nuts over the top of the frosting while it’s still wet for just a hint of nuttiness and a lovely frosting garnish!
- Do not microwave the cream cheese or the butter to soften. You will end up with melted/too soft butter and/or cream cheese that will end up making your cookies flat or your cream cheese runny.
- If they’re not room temperature, you can quickly soften the butter by adding hot water to a dish or bowl that can fit over the top of the butter. Let the hot water sit in the dish for a few minutes, then dump out the water and turn the dish upside down on top of the butter. The heat from the dish will soften it.
- To soften cream cheese, remove it from all packaging and cut it into tiny cubes on a plate or cutting board.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Craving all the carrot cake everything? Me too! For other ways to incorporate these wonderful flavors, check out my recipes for Moist and Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Carrot Cake Bread, and Carrot Cake Cupcakes.
Did you make this recipe? FANTASTIC. Please rate the recipe below and be sure to tag me on social when you share a photo on social – I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 cup butter, room temperature (should still be slightly firm)
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups finely grated carrots, about 4 medium carrots
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4-6 tablespoons milk, as needed
Instructions
The Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Very lightly grease a baking sheet or (better yet) line with a nonstick baking mat.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl combine butter and sugars and mix for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Mix in vanilla and eggs, then stir in grated carrots.
- Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just incorporated and there are no more streaks of flour) don't over-mix.
- Drop spoonfuls of cookie batter (I used a large cookie scoop, about 2 tablespoons) onto prepared baking sheet at least 2-3 inches apart.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until edges begin to brown and tops look dry. Allow to cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
The Frosting
- While cookies are cooling, prepare the frosting. In a small sauce pan melt the butter over medium-low heat. Once melted, stir over the heat for 2-4 minutes longer until color changes from pale yellow to deep golden-brown. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl combine cream cheese and browned butter and mix well.
- Gradually mix in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until completely incorporated. Mix in vanilla and milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached (should be fluffy and easily spreadable).
- Frost completely cooled cookies. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
If i make these a day before and decide to frost them the day of, can i store both the cookies/ and frosting in the fridge or will the texture of the cookies get weird?
They should both be fine in the fridge 🙂
I followed the recipe as written and the cookies were cake-like. They also baked weird and didn’t turn out looking like cookies.
Cookies were good, but could use some more carrotiness. Frosting was not creamcheesy enough, and there was waaay too much of it. I made about 28 cookies and still had 3/4ths of the frosting left.
To the author; please translate recipe into weights instead of volume!
Looks delicious, so excited to try this out!! Would parchment paper work just as fine?
I’m sure it’ll work 🙂
Great cookies and easy recipe to follow. Anything carrot cake is not my wife’s favorite and she didn’t think she would like them. The first bite convinced her otherwise. Thank you for a winner!
So happy to hear that you both enjoy these! 🙂
Can they be frozen?
Yes, you can actually freeze them frosted and unfrosted! If you decide to freeze them frosted, however, I would recommend that you chill them in the fridge for 6-8 hours so the frosting is firm. You can then wrap the cookies well and place them in an air tight container or bag 🙂
These were good, not as much carrot cake taste as I thought but I love they were so fluffy and easy to make. I baked them for a bit longer between 14 to 16 minutes. I used one cup less for the frosting as I wanted more of a glaze effect. The browned butter cream cheese frosting really makes these shine. This makes a lot of cookies so I am freezing half for later snacking. Thank you for the great recipe!
I used a different cream cheese frosting for these (just because I already had some made), and I sprinkles some walnuts on the icing. They were AMAZING. They are more on the cakey side, and easy to underbake, but if you get them right they’re kinda like little moon cakes.
Hi there! I want to make these this weekend, do you know if I can use a gluten free 1:1 flour or a whole wheat flour?
I’m sorry, I haven’t tested these with gluten free flour. I would sub for 1:1 ratio, however, if I were to test this out. If you try it, I would love to hear how it goes!
Hi! Is it safe to leave cream cheese frosting out at room temperature like suggested? If no, do the cookies survive in the fridge?
You can store them either way.