Carrot Cake Cookies

Soft, chewy and perfectly spiced Carrot Cake Cookies topped with a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting. These cookies combine all the best flavors of carrot cake with much less effort. This is literally the best way to enjoy carrot cake in cookie form. Also, this one is a no chill cookie recipe and comes together in under 30 minutes of active time!

Do you know what is the best thing about the cookies today? These cookies aren't cakey at all to taste. Ironic right? I am saying these taste like my popular Carrot Cake, but don't bake like one! 😀 

And don't we all want that? I don't know about you but I like my cookies to be soft in the center and chewy around the edges. They shouldn't be cakey at all! Instead of eating a cakey cookie, I would instead prefer a moist carrot cake or a carrot muffin. I think you too will agree with me here!

Try this readers' Favorite Pistachio Bundt Cake Recipe next. Talking about cakes, you can't miss out on this easy 3 ingredients Lemon Dump Cake either. Find all Spring and Easter Desserts from Greedy Eats at one place.

Okay, to achieve these chewy cookies, I opted for one good'ol trick that always works. Take all the excess moisture out of your carrots and your cookies will thank you! 

Ingredients and Process overview:

Whole list of ingredients and how to make these cookies is mentioned in the recipe card below. here is a quick overview of what we are using and their possible substitutions for your convenience.

Butter: We are using room temperature butter for the best textured cookies. I also swap butter with brown butter sometimes and that produces phenomenal tasting cookies. Simply brown the butter over stove top, allow it to cool down and refrigerate/freeze it for a few minutes so that it firms up. Use that solidified brown butter at room temp. to create this cookie dough.

Carrots: Use fresh whole carrots here. Wash, dry and peel your carrots to begin with. Then grate carrots finely. Don't buy those matchstick carrots or pre-shredded carrots since they are too thick. If using baby carrots pat them dry first, since they have a lot of water in them. After grating the carrots, you will need to remove excess moisture out of them.

You can make use of a paper towel if you like. I simply squeeze the excess moisture off of them by squeezing them tightly in my palms. Let the carrot water drain out in a bowl or plate underneath your hand.

After squeezing with palms you can press them in a paper towel one time to make sure no moisture in left in the grated carrots.

Brown Sugar: Adds a lot of caramel like flavor, chewier and softer texture. Do not replace it with granulated sugar. I like to use light brown sugar for this cookie dough. It also imparts darker color to baked cookies.

Egg: Instead of one egg you can also use two whole eggs here. Also if you wish to make these cookies egg-free, add 2 tablespoons of milk instead of egg.

Spices: I think the amount of spices that I added makes for a perfectly spiced cookie. But if you prefer less spiced cookies, you can cut down the added spices by one-fourth. But again if you ask me, just blindly go by the recipe measurements. These cookies won't overwhelm you with spices for sure!

Grating and squeezing the Carrots:

After grating whole carrots using the fine grater side of a box grater, it is time to squeeze all the moisture out of those carrots. We are almost reducing the carrots to half by weight by removing excess water from them.

Like 75 grams of carrots will get reduced to around 45 grams when all the moisture is out of them.

Measure your dried carrots to make sure you don't end up adding extra moisture in your dough. This one step will make sure your cookies don't turn out cakey.

If you don't want to squeeze out extra moisture from the carrots using your hands then alternatively you can use a paper towel to do so. Spread finely shredded carrots on a plate and blot them using 3-4 paper towels or as needed to soak all the excess water out of your carrots.

Making Cookie Dough:

Making cookies dough is a breeze once you have tackled the carrots grating and drying step! The only thing you need to take care about is butter next and you are gold.

So what about butter? Number one is make sure you don't end up softening your butter too much. As this can cause your cookies to over spread in the oven since this one is a no chill cookie recipe.

If you find your dough isn't stiff or is greasy, most definitely consider chilling it!

Another thing is when beating butter and sugar together, don't aim to just combine the two. Beat them together real good till the mixture turns out super fluffy and pale. This is the texture that you are looking for without proceeding ahead.

Adding one egg to the dough will make your cookies chewier and slightly on the thinner side. If you replace one egg with two yolks, your cookies will taste slightly rich because of the fat content in the yolk.

If you add milk instead of egg in the dough, reach out for whole milk. Don't add more than 2 tablespoons for one batch of cookie dough.

You can add up to a cup of chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts to your cookie dough. I did not, since I topped them on the frosting.

Adding Nuts to your cookies:

I like to top my cookies with nuts like pecans or walnuts, but you can also bake them in your cookies if you like. The tidbits of nuts soften and create an amazing texture contrast in these cookies.

I usually take that route if I am not topping my cookies with frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting for cookies and Variations:

This one is a pretty easy and straight forward frosting recipe for cookies. Uses butter, cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Just make sure to use room temperature butter and cream cheese. Cold cream cheese and butter can form lumps in the frosting and can even split the frosting. You don't want that!

You can easily play around with the flavor of this frosting. Use brown butter instead of regular butter. Or add about a teaspoon of cinnamon to make it cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Add some maple syrup or maple flavoring to make it maple cream cheese frosting.

Or simply drizzle some caramel sauce over the frosting to take these cookies over the top!

Why did my cookies turn out cakey?

There is only one reason for cookies to turn out like little cakes. That is your dough had more moisture content than required. If you don't want cookies to turn out cakey, blot those carrots really well. Keep replacing paper towels to blot grated carrots until no water transfers on them.

Why are my cookies spreading too much?

Even though this cookie dough does not require chilling. I always recommend to test how your cookie are baking by baking just one cookie first. If you notice that cookie is spreading too much there are chances that either you accidentally let the butter soften too much. Or there is way too much liquid in your dough.

To avoid cookies from over-spreading chill that dough for about two hours in the refrigerator. Or to quicken this process up, you can form balls from the dough and chill them in freezer on a parchment paper lined tray for 15-20 minutes and bake them then.

More Spring Favorites:

Pistachio Drop Cookies

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Lemon Coconut Cake Recipe

If you liked this recipe, give it a star review. Also, tell me in the comments below, how did this turn out for you! And don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram at #greedyeatsblog Let's be friends on Pinterest and Facebook as well!

Recipe

Carrot Cake Cookies

Soft, chewy and perfectly spiced Carrot Cake Cookies topped with a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting. This one is a no chill cookie recipe and comes together in under 30 minutes.

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

US Customary - Metric

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes minutes

Total Time: 27 minutes minutes

Servings 18 Cookies

1x2x3x

Calories: 165kcal

Author: Neha

Equipment

• 1 Hand/stand Mixer
• Cookie tray
• Silicone Mat/Parchment Paper

Ingredients

• ▢ ¾ cup Butter, unsalted (softened to room temperature)
• ▢ 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
• ▢ 1 medium Egg (at room temperature)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ cup (75 gms) Finely grated Carrots (about 2 carrots, blot carrots to remove moisture and reduce them to ⅓ cup)
• ▢ 1 and ¾ cups All purpose flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Salt
• ▢ 2 and ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Ground Ginger
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Ground Allspice

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

• ▢ ¼ cup Butter (softened to room temperature)
• ▢ 4 ounces Cream Cheese Block (at room temperature)
• ▢ 1 and ½ Cups Confectioners' sugar (Can use up to 2 cups)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract (maple extract can also be substituted here)
• ▢ ½ cup Walnuts/ pecans (chopped, to decorate on top)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 deg F and line 3 cookie trays with silicone mat or parchment paper. These cookies spread while baking, so I like to bake 6 in a tray at a time. If you don't have many trays you can bake the cookies in batches.

Grating and Blotting your carrots:

• Wash, dry and peel your carrots. Grate them using the fine side of your box grater. You can wear gloves if red color from carrots transferring temporarily to your hands bothers you. That color is super temporary though.
• I like to squeeze out that excess water from the carrots by pressing the grated carrots in between my palms. Then blot them using a paper towel to get rid of any leftover moisture.

  You can make use of a strainer here if you desire. Paper towels help too. Blot using 4-5 papers or until no water transfers to paper when you blot carrots. Aim is to reduce carrots to around ⅓ cup (45 gms). This trick will make sure that the cookies won't turn out cakey.

Making the Cookie Dough:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer using paddle attachment or using a handheld mixer, whisk butter and brown sugar together until the mixture turns pale and fluffy on high speed. About 3 minutes.
  ¾ cup Butter, unsalted, 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
• Now sift in all the dry ingredients over wet. This is how I do it, you can also sift all the dry ingredients first in a different bowl and then add them here. Mix on low speed first so that the dry ingredients don't powder your face. 😉 Then mix on med speed just until combined and your dough is formed.
  1 and ¾ cups All purpose flour, ½ teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, ¼ teaspoon Salt, 2 and ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon Ground Ginger, ¼ teaspoon Ground Allspice
• Next goes in the egg and vanilla. Beat on med-high speed till the mixture turns fluffy again, for about 2 minutes. Add in the blotted carrots and combine at low speed.
  1 medium Egg, 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract, ½ cup (75 gms) Finely grated Carrots

Making the Cookies:

• If you notice your dough to be too greasy at this stage, chances are you accidently ended up working with too softened butter. This dough will need to chill for a bit so that the cookies don't over spread. You can also test bake a cookie to be sure.

  Once you are ready to bake cookies, scoop dough balls about 2 tablespoons each, using a medium cookie scoop. I bake 6 cookies on one tray at a time.
• Bake these cookies in a pre-heated oven for 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on cookie tray for about 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to finish off cooling.

  When the cookies are just out of oven and are cooling on the tray, scoot a large circular cookie cutter on the cookie's edges for a perfect circular cookie.

Making the Frosting:

• Beat room temperature butter on high speed using a stand/handheld mixer in a medium bowl till pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  ¼ cup Butter
• Add in room temperature cream cheese and continue to beat till both butter and cream cheese (for 2 minutes approx.) combine well. Now add in confectioners' sugar and vanilla and mix on low speed first. Then continue to whisk until the frosting turns light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
  4 ounces Cream Cheese Block, 1 and ½ Cups Confectioners' sugar, 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract

Assembling the Cookies:

• Spread frosting on completely cool cookies using the back side of a spoon or using a mini offset spatula. Top with chopped walnuts/pecans. Enjoy!
  ½ cup Walnuts/ pecans

Notes

Storing and Freezing Instructions:

These cookies will stay good on room temperature for 2-3 days. I do not like to refrigerate cookies as it dries them out. If you wish to store cookies for more than 3 days, opt for freezing them.

Both baked and unbaked cookies can be stored in the freezer. If freezing baked cookies, I suggest freezing them without frosting. Thaw the cookies and frost them then.

To freeze unbaked cookie dough balls, freeze them individually first in the freezer on a parchment lined tray for about 2 hours. Once the balls set super firm, store them in ziploc and freeze for up to 2 months. You don't need to thaw dough balls first, just bake them straight from frozen.

Tips for perfect Carrot Cookies:

Measure your flour correctly. Best way to take the guesswork out is to weigh your flour. One cup flour is 125 grams. If you do not own a weighing scale, I strongly suggest to invest in one.

If measuring flour without a weighing scale, spoon flour into the cup and level it out using the back of a knife. Never stuff too much flour in the measuring cup nor scoop it out directly in the cup from the flour bag/container.

Blot Grated Carrots real good. Aim to convert ½ cup of carrots to ⅓ cup, by squeezing out all that carrot water. This step ensures that cookie dough stays free from extra moisture and your cookies won't turn out cakey!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Cookie | Calories: 165kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Sodium: 135mg | Sugar: 22g

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