Carrot Cake Cookies

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.

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.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Cream unsalted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
3. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Stir in finely shredded carrots.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the carrot mixture. Mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in raisins.
6. Portion the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet using a large cookie scoop.
7. Bake for approximately 13 minutes until the cookies are puffed up and set.
8. 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.

1. Cream together softened brown butter and cream cheese.
2. 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.