Imagine the flavour of carrot cake but with the texture of a cookie! These carrot cake cookies are crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside and topped with cream cheese frosting.
Grated carrot, chopped walnuts and mixed spices give these cookies that classic carrot cake flavour. The best part of all… this is a no-chill cookie recipe. You can make and bake carrot cake cookies in less than 30 mins.
About these Carrot Cake Cookies
- TASTE: the warm embrace of mixed spices, with a hint of sweetness from the carrots and tangy cream cheese frosting. Not forgetting that rich, caramel-like flavour of the cookie dough!
- TEXTURE: crisp on the outside, soft and chewy in the middle with a little crunch from the walnuts.
- EASE: quick and easy to make. There’s no chill time for the cookie dough so you can make and bake these carrot cake cookies in less than 30 mins.
- PERFECT FOR: spring, summer, autumn, winter… carrot cake cookies are a year-round elite sweet treat!
How to make carrot cake cookies
The best part about these cookies (aside from how amazing they taste!) is that you don’t need to chill the cookie dough overnight, they can be prepped and baked in less than 30 minutes! Here’s how to make them:
- Beat the butter and two sugars
- Mix in the egg and vanilla
- Fold in flour, mixed spice and salt
- Fold through grated carrot, chopped walnuts and orange zest
- Drop spoonfuls onto a lined baking tray
- Bake for 10-12 minutes for a crisp outside and a gooey inside
- Shape with a round cutter to make the cookies perfectly round and extra thick (more on this later)
- Top with cream cheese frosting
Make a brew and tuck in. You’re now in carrot cake cookie heaven!
Shaping the carrot cake cookies
This baking hack will make sure your cookies look the part as well as taste the part. Shaping your cookies only adds an extra 20 seconds of work but will transform the appearance of your cookies by making them perfectly round, and improve the texture by making them extra thick and crackly on top.
To shape your cookies you will need a large round cookie cutter (mine is 10cm diameter). Once the baking time is up, whip your cookies out of the oven and pop the baking tray on a wire rack. Immediately run the cookies around the inside edge of the cutter in a circular motion. It’s important to do this whilst the cookies are warm and soft so they that can be easily shaped. That’s it! You know how perfectly round cookies with a little extra thickness.
You won’t want to skip the cream cheese frosting!
You don’t have to top your cookies with frosting but trust me, they will taste even MORE delicious with it! Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting go hand-in-hand, they’re a match made in heaven. Plus it really won’t take you any time at all and you only need 3 ingredients to make the frosting: butter, icing sugar and cream cheese. Here are a few handy tips when making cream cheese frosting:
- Use full-fat cream cheese (Philadelphia is my go-to) – low-fat alternatives will make your frosting thin and runny
- Keep the cream cheese in the fridge until you need to add it to the bowl – this will keep the frosting thick
- Sift the icing sugar first to remove any lumps – cream cheese frosting should be smooth and creamy
- Use a hand-held electric whisk – every time I’ve made this frosting using a wooden spoon/spatular it turns thin and runny, but using an electric whisk has worked for me every time. Don’t ask me why haha 😅
- Spread or pipe the frosting on top – I used an open star nozzle to get that swirly rose effect.
Equipment used to make carrot cake cookies
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Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
For the carrot cake cookies
- 140 g Unsalted butter at room temperature
- 100 g White caster sugar
- 150 g Light brown sugar
- 1 medium Egg at room temperature
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 300 g Self-raising flour
- 2 tsp Mixed spice
- 0.5 tsp Salt
- 1 medium Carrot grated
- 1 medium Orange grated zest only
- 100 g Walnuts Chopped
For the cream cheese frosting
- 100 g Unsalted butter
- 200 g Icing sugar
- 100 g Philidephia Cream Cheese
- Ground cinnamon/mixed spice for dusting
Instructions
Start by making the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) and line two large, flat baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- Beat the butter and two sugars together until smooth and combined.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, stir the flour, mixed spice and salt together to combine. Tip into the butter mixture and fold everything together to form a cookie dough.
- Add the grated carrot, grated orange zest and chopped walnuts. Fold into the cookie dough.
- Drop large tbsps of cookie dough onto the baking trays (you should get 16 in total) leaving 8-10cm between each so they have room to spread out. I normally bake 4-5 cookies on each baking tray at a time.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until golden on the outside and pale and soft in the middle. Don't worry if the middle still looks under-baked, this is how they are meant to be and the cookies will carry on baking as they cool down.
- Place the baking tray on a wire rack and immediately run a large round cookie cutter around the cookies to make them perfectly round.
- Leave the cookies on the baking tray to cool completely.
Now make the cream cheese frosting
- Beat the butter until really soft and pale in colour.
- Sift in the icing sugar and beat again until smooth.
- Now take the cream cheese out of the fridge, add it into the bowl and gently fold the mixture together until the frosting is smooth and combined. Be careful not to overdo it, as it can quickly become runny.
- Either spread or pipe the cream cheese frosting on top of the cookies (I used an open star nozzle to get that lovely rose-swirly effect).
- For the finishing touch, dust with a little cinnamon or mixed spice.
- Serve and enjoy! Your carrot cake cookies will last at room temperature for up to 1 day or in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
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