These Carrot Cake Cookies are soft, cakey, crunchy, creamy, and taste incredibly delicious. Soft and cakey cookies combined with crunchy pecans and creamy cream cheese frosting. These cookies are definitely a crowd-pleaser. No chilling time required. This recipe is easy and quick to make and turns out perfectly every time.
Because we head towards Easter, it's carrot-high-season. But hey. Why just make a cake with carrots? These cookies are my way to celebrate that time a year.
They are soft and cakey and taste fantastic. Carrots, pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, cream cheese. I think you can already imagine how delicious they are, don't you?
Instructions
Start with melting the butter in the microwave until about ½ - ⅔ melted. Then stir until fully melted. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and add brown and white sugar. Mix with a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment on medium-low speed just until combined, about 1 minute.
Then add eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture and stir just until combined.
Add all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and mix to combine.
Look out for toasted unsalted pecans or toast them on your own. Therefore place them on a parchment paper layered baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 300°F / 150°C. Stir every 5 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. If you toast your pecans, you could start with that and then start with the dough.
Fold pecans and shredded carrots into the dough until well combined.
You will notice that the dough is quite sticky and not as dry as regular cookie dough. That is supposed to be like this. These are soft and cakey cookies, not chewy ones.
Arrange 6-8 cookies on one baking sheet with about 2-3 inches space in-between. Bake one sheet after another for about 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven when they look pale, puffy, and dry.
Let cool for about 5-10 minutes until they are firm enough to move them. Then transfer them to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
In a large mixing bowl, mix room temperature unsalted butter on medium-high speed until soft and creamy, about 1-2 minutes.
Then add softened cream cheese and mix until combined. Brick style cream cheese should be room temperature for best mixing results. Spreadable cream cheese can be used straight out of the fridge. Either way, I recommend using Philadelphia cream cheese.
Sift in powdered sugar and add vanilla and stir until creamy and combined.
Spread cream cheese evenly over the bottom of 12 cookies. Then place the remaining 12 cookies on top of the cream cheese.
You could add some chopped pecans to the frosting if desired.
Top tips
- Do not overmix at any time. Just until combined at every step.
- Measure the ingredients correctly. Spoon and level the flour in the measuring cup.
- Weigh and divide the cookie batter by 24.
- Do not overbake. Remove them when they look dry and pale.
Substitutions
Well, I don’t recommend substituting anything else but the mix-ins. I tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, no egg, vegan, etc. and they all didn’t turn out as they should.
Small batch
This recipe yields 12 cookie sandwiches. However, if you don't plan to eat that many, you could divide the recipe in half. In this case, you end up with 6.
Storage
Filled cookies need to be stored in the fridge and last up to 2 days. The longer they are in the fridge, the softer and wetter they get because of the moisture of the cream cheese.
Unfilled cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. The filling needs to be stored in the fridge. That's the way I prefer to store. Just before serving, I fill as many as I want to eat. In this case, they stay fresh for 3 days.
Freezing
Although they are best eaten fresh, it is possible to freeze them for up to 3 months. Therefore, let them cool completely and tightly wrap each cookie in plastic wrap, place in freezer bags, and remove as much air as possible. To thaw them, remove from the freezer, unwrap, and let sit on the counter to come to room temperature. This takes about 1 hour.
Then make the frosting as described. I don’t recommend freezing them with the filling nor unbaked dough. Both cases have a negative impact on the texture.
Related recipes
If you love this carrot recipe, you should try the following as well:
Recipe and Video
Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
carrot cake cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted (226g)
- 1 cup granulated white sugar (200g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar (100g)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 vanilla beans* (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 3+½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (420g)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1+½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups grated carrots (240g)
- 1 cup toasted unsalted pecans** (125g)
cream cheese frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature (113g)
- ¾ cup cream cheese, softened (169g)
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted (120g)
- 1 vanilla bean* (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Microwave butter until ½ - ⅔ melted. Then stir until it's completely liquid. Transfer together with the sugars to a large mixing bowl and stir with a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment on medium-low speed just until combined, about 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla* and mix for about 30 seconds just until combined. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, and mix just until combined. Don’t overmix at any step. Fold in carrots and pecans**.
- Scoop 24 equally sized balls of dough and arrange 6-8 dough balls on one baking sheet with about 2-3 inches space in-between. Bake one sheet after another for about 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven when they look dry, puffy, and pale. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes until they are firm enough to move them. Then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
- In a large mixing bowl, using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, mix butter on medium-high speed until soft and creamy about 1-2 minutes. Add cream cheese and stir until smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Sift in powdered sugar and add vanilla* and mix until combined and creamy. If the frosting is too soft to spread, add more powdered sugar little by little (up to ½ cup). When adding more powdered sugar, you may want to add a pinch of salt to cut down the sweetness.
- Then fill the cookies and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.***
Video
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Notes
**If you don't have toasted pecans, you can easily toast them on your own. Therefore preheat oven to 300°F / 150°C. Place pecans on a parchment paper layered baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
***Filled cookies need to be stored in the fridge and last up to 2 days. The longer they are in the fridge, the softer and wetter they get because of the moisture of the cream cheese. Unfilled cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. The filling needs to be stored in the fridge. That's the way I prefer to store. Just before serving, I fill as many as I want to eat. In this case, they stay fresh for 3 days.
Top tips
- Do not overmix at any time. Just until combined at every step.
- Measure the ingredients correctly. Spoon and level the flour in the measuring cup.
- Weigh and divide the cookie batter by 24.
- Do not overbake. Remove them when they look dry and pale.
Small batch This recipe yields 12 cookie sandwiches. However, if you don't plan to eat that many, you could divide the recipe in half. In this case, you end up with 6.
Nutrition
Leslie
Hi! When you say equally sized balls what measurement are you using ? Thanks!
Sabine
Hi, I use a kitchen scale and divide the cookie dough by 24.
Claudia
Das sieht und hört sich total lecker an. Das muss ich unbedingt mal ausprobieren. Mal schauen, vielleicht isst das sogar meine kleine Tochter 🙂
Sabine
Thank you so much! I'm sure your little sunshine would love them! 🙂