Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
You’ll love how these carrot cake cookies with cream cheese frosting are so soft and fluffy and easy to make! They’re flavored with your favorite carrot cake spices and topped with my delicious Cream Cheese Frosting. One of the best cake flavors of all time, now in a cookie! Perfect for Springtime or Easter celebrations!
Spring time brings with it so many beautiful and delicious things to enjoy! Carrot Cake goes hand in hand with all things Spring, especially at Easter time! Carrot Cake has always been a favorite in our family – the rich, fluffy cake, full of yummy spices and topped with a creamy Cream Cheese Frosting! It’s an irresistible treat!
Turning this all-time favorite Spring cake into a cookie, makes it easier to put together and serve! It’s fluffy and cake-like, but also a bit chewy. Your family will love this seasonal cookie and want you to make it again and again!
Ingredients for Carrot Cake Cookies
- All purpose flour is the base for a fluffy cookie
- Baking Soda acts as the leavening agent in the cookie dough
- Salt enhances flavor
- Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves give this cookie the perfect carrot cake flavor
- Unsalted butter creamed with brown and granulated sugars make cookies light and fluffy. Brown sugar makes the cookies chewier and keeps them from spreading too much when baked.
- It wouldn’t be carrot cake without the carrots! Grated carrots provide flavor and moisture to the cookie dough.
- Chopped walnuts are optional. I love the texture and nutty flavor they add to these cookies! If you have a house divided on whether or not to add nuts to the cookies, make the cookie dough without nuts and sprinkle them on top of some of the cookies (for those that like walnuts).
- Cream Cheese Frosting – you can find my favorite recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting HERE.
How to make Carrot Cake Cookies
- Prepare your dry ingredients first: in a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set them aside while you get the wet ingredients combined.
- To the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. With the paddle attachment, cream together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until the butter and sugars are fully incorporated. Add the eggs and mix on medium speed until fluffy, about one minute. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed – you don’t want any chunks of butter or sugar left hiding in the dough.
- On low speed, gradually add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. The cookie dough will be fairly thick at this point. Avoid over-mixing as it will cause your baked cookies to be too dense. Add the carrots and walnuts and mix until just combined.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Baking with cold cookie dough will keep the cookies from spreading too much when baked.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare baking sheet by lining with silicone baking mat or parchment paper. I love using a silicone baking mat for cookies – it helps keep the cookies from spreading, and it prevents the bottoms from browning too much. It also makes for an easier clean up.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Using a cookie scoop, divide cookies into 2 Tablespoons in size and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. You can find my favorite cookie scoop HERE.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges start to brown and the tops of the cookies are set.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before continuing to cool on a wire rack.
- Top with my Cream Cheese Frosting and more chopped walnuts (optional).
- Enjoy!
These are the perfect cookies for a Springtime treat! I like to tint some of my cream cheese frosting with orange and green gel food coloring and pipe on a cute little carrot for a fun Easter cookie!
Time Saving Tips
There are a couple of things I like to do to save myself some time when it comes to baking cookies from scratch
- If you want to prepare the cookie dough ahead of time, or have some leftover after baking, scoop the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and place the entire pan in the freezer. Once the cookie dough is fully frozen (about 24 hours), remove it from the freezer and place the frozen cookie dough in a ziplock bag. Store it in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, place the frozen unbaked cookies onto prepared baking sheets. Allow them to thaw about 30 minutes before baking in a fully preheated oven. Bake as usual.
- Freeze baked and cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Remove them from the freezer and let them thaw for about 2 hours before frosting.
Storing your Carrot Cake Cookies
These cookies are so yummy, it’s highly unlikely you’ll have any leftover! But in the event that you do, you can store your cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They can be left at room temperature, but if you are uneasy about the cream cheese frosting going bad, you can refrigerate them in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Sometimes when they are refrigerated, the cookie can dry out – that’s why I usually keep them at room temperature.
To be safe, only frost the cookies you know you will be enjoying. Store the Cream Cheese Frosting in the refrigerator and frost leftover cookies as needed.
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Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Cookies
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter cubed
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, plus more for topping – optional
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pound powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon milk for thinning the frosting
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
- To the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. With the paddle attachment, cream together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until the butter and sugars are fully incorporated. Add the eggs and mix on medium speed until fluffy, about one minute. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- On low speed, gradually add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Avoid over-mixing. The cookie dough will be thick. Add the carrots and walnuts (optional) and mix until just combined.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare baking sheet by lining with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Using a cookie scoop, divide cookies into 2 Tablespoons in size and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges start to brown and the tops of the cookies are set.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before continuing to cool on a wire rack.
- While cookies are cooling, make the Cream Cheese Frosting. With an electric mixer, whip together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and powdered sugar until smooth. Add enough milk to thin it to a spreadable texture.
- Spread cream cheese frosting on top of each cookie. Add more chopped walnuts if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Scoop cookie dough onto baking sheet and place in the freezer. Once the cookie dough is fully frozen, remove from the freezer and place in a ziplock bag. Store in freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, place frozen unbaked cookies onto prepared baking sheets. Allow them to thaw about 30 minutes before baking in a fully preheated oven. Bake as usual.
- Freeze baked and cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Remove from freezer and frost after thawing.
Nutrition
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