Chewy Carrot Cake Cookies

I have several carrot filled recipes on the blog. My Carrot Loaf Cake and Carrot Cake Muffins are my favorite ones. They’re cozy, easy to make and ready for sharing with friends and family. These chewy carrot cake cookies are a wonderfully delicious addition to my blog I know you’ll love just as much as I do. I know you’ll love this recipe because: 

• You love cozy variations on classic desserts. These chewy carrot cake cookies are such a fun twist on carrot cake. I personally love to sandwich two cookies together with the cream cheese filling, but they look and taste equally amazing with brown butter cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle of chopped nuts (just like crumbl carrot cookies).
• Layers of flavor and texture. These carrot cookies are incredibly soft and chewy, with flecks of oats and all the cozy flavors of carrot cake. The brown butter in the cookie and cream cheese frosting brings a nutty, toasty flavor that makes these the best carrot cake cookies ever. 

This carrot cake cookie recipe requires only a handful of pantry basics to make. Here’s what you’ll need.

Carrot Cake Cookies

Dry ingredients: Gather flour, baking soda, salt, ground spices and old fashioned or rolled oats. 

Wet Ingredients: Gather softened brown butter, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg and an egg yolk and vanilla extract.

Here are my recommended substitutions to make these wonderfully chewy soft carrot cake cookies:

• Brown Butter: I highly recommend taking the time to brown the butter. The extra layer of flavor takes these carrot cookies to a completely different level. If you don’t want to brown the butter, make sure to use 1 cup (226 g) softened unsalted butter for the cookies and ½ cup (113 g) softened unsalted butter for the cream cheese frosting. 
• All purpose flour: To make this blueberry sour cream cake gluten free, use a good 1-1 gluten free flour. I recommend using the one from Bob’s Red Mill.
• Baking Soda: A double acting baking powder is the best substitute for baking soda. The final texture of the cookie will be different, but it will still be a delicious cake cookie! For this recipe, use 2 ¼  teaspoons baking powder in place of the baking soda. 
• Ground Spices: This carrot cake cookie recipe is full of the perfect blend of aromatics to make these cookies really shine. Feel free to use 3 teaspoons of Pumpkin spice, chai spice or apple pie spice  in this recipe.
• Light Brown and Granulated Sugars: A blend of both sugars is what is recommended for these chewy cake cookies.  This recipe hasn’t been tested using alternative sugars. However, I love using maple sugar as a refined sugar free option in my other cookie recipes. Maple sugar bakes very similarly to light brown sugar. 
• Eggs: This recipe has not been tested without eggs. 
• Vanilla Extract: This gives a lovely background flavor to these cookies.
• Old Fashioned Oats: I love the texture of rolled oats, so that’s what I used in this recipe. Quick cooking oats can also be used if needed. Just keep in mind that the final texture of the cookie will be a bit different. 
• Grated Carrots: I highly recommend grating carrots instead of buying ones that are already grated. I like to use the smaller holes on a cheese grater to grate the carrots for these easy carrot cake cookies.

Learn how to make carrot cookies in a few easy steps!

1. In a sauce pan or pot, melt the butter on low heat until the butter to begins to foam. Once it starts to foam, whisk or stir the liquid butter frequently. The butter will begin to smell nutty and very fragrant. Once the foam has subsided, the butter should have some brown, lightly toasted bits floating at the bottom. Pour the brown butter in a heat safe bowl to cool for about 15 minutes at room temperature. Transfer the butter to the fridge to solidify to a softened butter consistency. This takes about 60-90 minutes. 
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ground spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg), baking soda and salt until well combined and set aside.
3. Cream the brown butter and light brown and granulated sugars together on medium speed until well combined, about 1-2 minutes. On low-medium speed, beat in the egg, yolk and vanilla extract about 20 seconds before adding the next. Gently fold in the shredded carrots.

4. On the lowest speed setting or by hand, mix the dry ingredients to the wet until just combined. Stir in the oats until just combined. Cover the carrot cake cookie dough to chill in the fridge for 2 hours. 
5. Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C) for about 20-30 minutes before baking the cookies. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Pull the cookies out to room temperature 10 minutes before you’re ready to bake. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop about 2 tablespoons (30 g) cookie dough, roll them into balls and place them about 3-inches (8 cm) apart on the baking sheet. The cookies will spread while baking. Bake the cookies for 10-14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are set and golden brown. The centers will look puffed up.  Cool the cookies on the hot baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to fully set.

6. Cream together cooled and softened brown butter with the room temperature cream cheese until creamy and well combined, about 4-5 minutes on low speed. Stop and scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in the sifted powdered sugar ½ cup (60 g) at a time, beating each addition of powdered sugar until incorporated. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl as needed. Once all the sugar has been added, mix in the vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon (15 ml) milk and salt. Beat on high until the buttercream is fully incorporated and desired consistency. If the buttercream is too thick, add an additional 1-2 tablespoon (15-30 ml) milk of choice, beating until well incorporated.
7. Using a small offset icing knife, spoon or piping bag with piping tip of choice, apply the desired amount of frosting to the top of each carrot cake cookie. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top if you like.

Freeze the cookies: Place the cookie dough balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet, place the baking sheet into the freezer and freeze until the cookie dough is frozen. Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and place the frozen cookie balls into a ziplock bag. Cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months. 

Thaw the cookie dough: Transfer your desired amount of frozen cookie dough balls onto a lined plate or baking sheet. Allow them to thaw overnight in the fridge. Bring the cookie dough balls to room temperature before baking.

Store baked cookies: Once the cookies are frosted, they should be stored individually wrapped in wax paper or lined with wax paper if storing in layers, in an air tight container in the fridge or freezer. Unfrosted carrot cookies can be stored at room temperature for 3-4 days or at least a week in the fridge.

• Sour Cream Cookies
• Birthday Cake Blondies
• Funfetti Sandwich Cookies

If you try this Carrot Cake Cookies recipe please rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Doing so helps other readers decide if this is a great recipe to bake. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using @olivesnthyme so I can see what you’re baking! Happy Baking! - M