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These Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting are a MUST for carrot cake lovers! You will love the frosting. So many delicious flavors in one little cookie!
Featured with this recipe
If you are a carrot cake or a cookie fan, you are going to LOVE these carrot cake cookies! The cream cheese frosting on the top is so yummy! We have made these with raisins and without, and both ways are really good. Plus, there’s just something wonderful about taking carrots and making them into cookies. Love getting veggies in when taking a bite of delicious cookie!
Ingredients in Carrot Cake Cookies
The ingredients in our Carrot Cake Cookies are similar to the ingredients used when making carrot cake. Most are ingredients you already have on hand.
For the Cookies:
- Shortening
- Brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Milk
- Quick oats
- Flour
- Shredded carrots
- Raisins (can be left out)
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ginger
- Optional add-ins: walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips
For the Frosting:
- Cream cheese – softened
- Butter – softened
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar
Make it a Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies
Recently, Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World has offered a Carrot Cake Cookie in sandwich form. It has become a popular treat in the park. You can make it at home by spreading frosting on the bottom of one of our carrot cake cookies, then adding another carrot cake cookie on top. The bottoms of the cookie are the inside of the sandwich. The fluffier tops of the cookie are on the outside.
If you are visiting Hollywood Studios and want to find their delicious carrot cake cookie, you can find it seasonally at the Trolley Car Café.
How to Shred Carrots
This recipe calls for shredded carrots. The easiest way to get finely shredded carrot is with a box grater. Rinse and peel the carrots, then use the side of the grater with the small holes to grate the carrot. Hold the carrot at the top (thickest part of the carrot) and start grating it at the bottom. Be careful and watch your fingers.
Frequently Asked Questions
As much as you want to think the carrots in these cookies will magically make them healthy, that’s not really the case. It has all the shortening, flour and sugar that you’d expect from a regular cookie. However, with the rolled oats, carrots and raisins, this is a more filling cookie. So perhaps your craving for something sweet will be satiated more quickly. Even if they don’t, moderation will help you enjoy this yummy treat, even if they can’t be considered “health food.”
Although the name implies CARROT, there really isn’t that much carrot-y flavor. What you really taste is the rich and sweet brown sugar, the warm cinnamon, the nutty nutmeg, and the spicy ginger.
It is unsure where the exact country of origin that carrot cake came from, but it is agreed on that it had its start in the Middle Ages when sugar was scarce so the people used carrot as a sweetener substitute. It seems that carrot cake has been a treat enjoyed around the world for a long time!
Not necessarily. Due to the high sugar and fat content, it isn’t healthy by any stretch of the imagination. BUT, the good news, carrots are a good source of beta carotene, fiber, vitamin K1, potassium, and antioxidants, so maybe carrot cake has the slightest advantage over something like chocolate cake.
Read next:33+ Easy Dessert Ideas
More Carrot Recipes
Love carrots? They are delicious and colorful as a side dish, and in desserts. Buy a big bag and try some more recipes using carrots:
How to Make Carrot Cake Cookies
Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- Stand or hand mixer
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk
- 3 cups quick oats
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (1 cup carrots and ½ cup zucchini also works)
- 1/2 cup raisins optional
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 cup walnuts chopped (optional for topping)
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 3 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 to 1½ pounds powdered sugar
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with hand beaters, mix shortening, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and milk together. Scrape the sides of the bowl before adding dry ingredients.
- Add remaining cookie ingredients to the mixture and mix at a low speed until blended.
- Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls using a spoon or cookie scoop onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven. After cookies have slight cooled, place them on a wire rack and allow them come to room temperature before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Blend cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla together.
- Stir in powdered sugar until frosting is smooth and creamy.
- When cookies are cooled, spread icing on the top of each cookie and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.
Notes
- The cookie batter/dough will be wet. Be sure to use a cookie scoop or spoon when forming the dough into balls and placing them on the cookie sheet.
- Add chopped walnuts to the cookie dough for a nutty crunch.
- Add chocolate chips for a little something sweet.
I think that’s too much powdered sugar a think a typo
No, that is correct. You will probably end up with leftover frosting, but it is very good!!
It says a pound to a pound in a half of powdered sugar maybe it more like a cup to a cup in a half.
I have taken these to parties & they are always a hit!! Finger desserts are always the best & when your cookie tastes like one of your favorite desserts, you know this recipe will be saved in my favorites!
Yum! These turned out so good! Thanks!
I totally prefer these over the cake! Small, soft, & the right amount of carrot taste!
Saw the recipe this morning and made them this afternoon. They are incredible. This recipe will be added to my Christmas ones. By the way, I used gluten free all purpose flour and it worked perfectly. Thank you so much!
Great taste to these cookies. Don not try to make them larger than the tbsp that the recipe calls for or they fal apart and don’t bake as well. The frosting required about 2 cups of powdered sugar and this was more than enough for the batch, delicious!
Wow! My husband wil love these!! Thanks for sharing!