These carrot cake cookies are super soft and fluffy, and packed with shredded carrots, spices, and raisins. Topped with dairy-free cream cheese frosting, each one tastes like carrot cake, in snackable two-bite form!
My vegan carrot cake is one of my favorite treats this time of year. Sometimes I wish I could enjoy a little slice every day, but baking layer cakes all the time is a LOT, even for me. Well, now that's not a problem! A reader gave me a great idea and requested a recipe for carrot cake cookies. Cookies are much easier to bake on repeat, and they keep better than cake. You know what that means? Carrot cake cookies, all spring long!
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These aren't your typical cookies. They're soft and fluffy, like little cake bites. (If you loved my vegan pumpkin cookies, you'll dig these, too!) They also feature everything you love about carrot cake: shredded carrots (obviously!), raisins, nuts, and lots of warming spices. And for the ultimate carrot cake experience, you'll want to top each one with some of my vegan cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Non-dairy milk. Use a type of plant milk that you'd normally drink, and make sure it's unflavored and unsweetened. Soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk, and oat milk are all fine! My guide to dairy-free milk can be helpful if you're lost.
- Ground flaxseed. We'll be mixing these with the milk to create a flax egg, which is an excellent vegan egg substitute for baking.
- Vegan butter. Most grocery stores carry this in the refrigerator case, near the regular butter.
- Sugar. Make sure your sugar is organic to ensure it's vegan. Non-organic sugar is sometimes processed with animal bone char.
- Brown sugar. This should also be organic.
- Vanilla extract.
- Flour. Use all-purpose wheat flour for best results — I have not tested any other varieties.
- Baking soda.
- Spices. We're using ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Salt.
- Carrots.
- Raisins. You can leave these out if they're not your thing.
- Walnuts. These can also be omitted or replaced with other nuts, like pecans.
- Vegan cream cheese frosting. My favorite carrot cake topping! But it is optional. Feel free to skip it or try one of the other topping ideas in the variations section, below.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Prepare. Preheat your oven to 350° and line some baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2: Make the flax egg. Stir non-dairy milk and some ground flaxseed together in a small bowl. Allow the mixture to sit while you start working on the dough — the flaxseed will expand and gel.
Step 3: Cream the butter and sugars. Use your electric mixer at high speed to beat them together until creamy and fluffy, which will take about 2 minutes.
Step 4: Add wet ingredients. Now beat the flax egg and some vanilla extract into your butter mixture. Just do this until everything is combined.
Step 5: Add dry ingredients. Start with the flour, beating in about a cup at a time on low speed. When you add that last cup, sprinkle the baking soda, spices, and salt on top before beating it in.
Step 6: Add stir-ins. Stir in your shredded carrots, walnuts, and raisins. Feel free to dig in with your hands if that's what needs to happen to get everything mixed.
Steps 7 & 8: Shape and bake. Roll the dough into balls and place them on your baking sheets. Pop them into the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes, until they spread just a bit.
Tip: The cookies will initially spread slightly around the edges while keeping a small dome in the center. When that dome settles, they’re ready to come out.
Steps 9 & 10: Cool and flatten. Place the baking sheets onto cooling racks when they come out of the oven. Flatten each cookie slightly with the back of a spoon, then let them cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes before moving them directly to the racks to finish.
Step 11: Frost and serve. Optionally, top each cookie with a dollop of frosting. Let them sit until the frosting sets, then enjoy!
Variations
- Topping variations. Not into cream cheese frosting? Try my vegan vanilla buttercream frosting. You can also serve your cookies plain, with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, or dipped in glaze made from 3 cups of powdered sugar, 3 ½ tablespoons of non-dairy milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
- Extra toppings. Make these cookies extra special by including some toppings in addition to the frosting! Try pressing some shredded coconut, finely chopped nuts, or sprinkles into the frosting before it sets.
- Sandwich cookies. Instead of topping your cookies with frosting, pair them up and stuff each pair with frosting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Possibly, but I haven't tested a gluten-free version myself. An all-purpose gluten-free flour blend would be your best option if you'd like to give it a try.
Nope! This dough is on the firm side and doesn't spread out very much. Chilling it could further inhibit spreading, so it's not recommended.
These cookies will be dry if they're overbaked. Be sure to take them out of the oven once the domes on top have settled (that's as much as they'll spread). They can look deceptively underbaked at this point. Another common culprit is mismeasuring ingredients, and in particular, using too much flour or too little vegan butter.
The cookies themselves will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about three days. However, if you frost them, you'll want to store them in the refrigerator. Be careful and avoid stacking them in the storage container, as the frosting can get smushed. You can also freeze them (frosted or unfrosted) for up to three months. I like to freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet until solid, then transfer them to an airtight container for long-term freezing.
More Vegan Cookies
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- â…“ cup unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1 cup vegan butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup organic granulated sugar
- ¾ cup organic brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups finely shredded carrots (about 3 medium or 2 large carrots)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup raisins
- ½ batch vegan cream cheese frosting (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Stir the non-dairy milk and ground flaxseed together in a small bowl. Set it aside and let the mixture rest for at least 5 minutes to gel. You can move on to the next step in the meantime.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the vegan butter, sugar, and brown sugar together using an electric mixer on high speed, until the mixture is fully blended and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Beat in the flax mixture and vanilla, just until combined.
- Begin adding the flour, beating in about a cup at a time at low speed. Sprinkle the baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt over the last flour addition, then beat it in. You'll have a soft dough when everything has been added.
- Stir in the shredded carrots, walnuts, and raisins. The dough will be very thick at this point, so feel free to use your hands if needed.
- Roll the dough into balls, using a heaping tablespoon of dough for each one. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 1 ½ inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, until they've spread out a bit but still look slightly undercooked.
- Place the baking sheets on cooling racks when they come out of the oven, then immediately gently flatten each cookie with the back of a spoon.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer them directly to the racks to continue cooling. Continue baking the cookies in batches as needed, making sure to let the baking sheets cool before placing more dough on them.
- Once the cookies are cool, optionally top each one with a dollop of vegan cream cheese frosting. Allow them to set, then serve.
Notes
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Wow, exactly the combination of carrot cake and cookies I was looking for ! I followed the recipe thoroughly (even though the amount of sugar scared me a bit, but that's often the case in cookies, and without cloves because I didn't have them ), and it was perfect! At first the dough didn't seem moist enough and I was about to add more soya milk, but eventually it all came together, I just needed to be a bit patient. It's a very easy and quick recipe, thank you so much! My favourite are the walnuts and raisins in there, it combines so well with the spices, already planning to make it again : )
P.S: I didn't add frosting (I think it would have been to sweet, plain was just the right sweetness), but still want to try your cream cheese frosting!
We made two batches of these cookies. Maybe my balls were bigger, we didn't get as much as 45 cookies with one batch. They're really good with or without the cream cheese frosting. Thank you for the recipe. <3