You will fall in love with these carrot cake cookies! The soft, chewy cookies are packed with finely grated carrots, and flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg and frosted with brown butter cream cheese frosting. This cookie recipe is the perfect dessert for springtime, Easter, or anytime!
Ingredients for Carrot Cake Cookies
Carrot cake cookies
- Unsalted butter: Room temperature, softened butter.
- Light brown sugar + granulated sugar: For sweetness.
- Eggs: Large eggs room temperature.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract for a hint of vanilla flavor.
- Carrots: Very finely grated carrots. The finer the better! See “tips” for more information!
- All-purpose flour: For structure.
- Baking soda + baking powder: Leavening agents to help the cookies rise and spread.
- Salt: Brings out all the flavors of the cookies.
- Cinnamon + nutmeg: Warm spices create the perfect carrot cake flavor.
- Raisins: Raisins and a bit of extra sweetness and chew. You can omit if you prefer.
Brown butter cream cheese frosting
- Unsalted butter: Browned, cooled, and softened. Check out this blog post on how to make brown butter. For this recipe, the brown butter needs to be solid, but softened.
- Cream cheese: Room temperature.
- Powdered sugar: Also known as confectioners’ sugar or icing sugar.
- Salt: To contrast the sweetness in the frosting.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract adds amazing floral vanilla flavor.
Tools & Supplies for Making Carrot Cake Cookies
How to Make Carrot Cake Cookies
Carrot cake cookies
To make the carrot cake cookie dough, I recommend using a hand-held electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Here is the basic breakdown of the steps.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Cream unsalted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Stir in finely shredded carrots.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the carrot mixture. Mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in raisins.
- Portion the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet using a large cookie scoop.
- Bake for approximately 13 minutes until the cookies are puffed up and set.
- Remove from the oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Brown butter cream cheese frosting
To make the frosting, I recommend using an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.
Before you get started with making the frosting, you need to make brown butter. Check out this blog post to learn how to make brown butter. For this recipe, you will need solid brown butter that is softened.
- Cream together softened brown butter and cream cheese.
- Add powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are well combined.
Frost the carrot cake cookies with brown butter cream cheese frosting. You can use an offset spatula to apply the frosting or pipe the frosting with a piping bag fitted with your favorite piping tip. If desired, sprinkle on some chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans) for extra flavor and crunch.
Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe Tips
Finely shredded carrots
To get the best texture, you will want to use very finely grated carrots. I recommend using a food processor to pulse the carrots until they are very fine. The finer the shred, the more the carrots will melt into the cookies. If you have a box grater, be sure to go with the finest shred.
Brown butter
Brown butter gives the cream cheese frosting a toasty, nutty, caramel flavor. You will want to make the brown butter ahead of time so the melted butter can solidify. Be sure to check out this blog post on how to make brown butter to learn what to do! Be sure the brown butter is solid but soft when you start making the frosting.
Even, round cookies
To bake up uniform-size, round cookies, use a large cookie scoop. This scoop size contains about 3 tablespoonfuls of cookie dough, which is the perfect size for this recipe! Immediately when the cookies come out of the oven, use the back of a spoon to gently shape the cookies if they aren’t perfectly round.
Storing and serving
The carrot cake cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 2 to 3 days. The cookies are best served at room temperature for the best taste and texture.
Click here to see a quick video on how to make carrot cake cookies! Follow Cake Me Home Tonight on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more recipe videos and baking tutorials!
Carrot Cake Cookies
Equipment
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup finely shredded carrots see tips section
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ cup raisins
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter browned, solid but softened (see blog post)
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp heavy cream
Additional Ingredients
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional
Instructions
Carrot Cake Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Prepare baking sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
- Add in eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined and smooth. Stir in finely shredded carrots.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix on low speed until combined. Fold in raisins, if desired.
- Portion the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet pans with a large cookie scoop. Bake the cookies for approximately 13 minutes until puffed up and set.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream together softened brown butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
- Add in powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. Mix on low speed until combined and then increase the speed to medium and whip for a minute or two. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cooled cookies. Add a sprinkle of chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired.
Notes
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