These delicious carrot cake cookies have all the flavours of carrot cake, in cookie form. And a dollop of cream cheese icing, as well!

carrot cake cookies on cooling rack

These lovely little carrot cake cookies are a family favourite. as they have all the wonderful flavours of carrot cake, in cookie form. And they even have a delicious dollop of cream cheese icing on top, too!

These cookies have a wonderful soft interior, with a lightly crispy outside and have wonderful texture and flavour from the rolled oats, nuts, carrots and raisins. And of course, that bit of cream cheese icing is always a good thing. These are nice this time of year, as the flavours just seem to fit the Fall. They are especially nice as an afternoon treat with a cup of tea :)

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Ingredients and Substitutions

Carrots – For best results, be sure to finely grate the carrots. If using a box grater, don’t use the largest holes, but rather the second smaller side, to produce a fine shred.

Cook’s Notes

Be sure to chop the pecans and raisins very finely. For the raisins, you are more adding over-all raisin flavour, so by finely chopping, you are spreading the flavour throughout, rather than adding in whole raisins here and there.

Finely chopped pecans are best for rolling the dough in, so you don’t have big pieces of pecans hanging off the sides :)

In my oven, the cookies take the full 13 minutes for the second part of baking, or even a minute more than that sometimes, to start to get golden.

While it’s tempting to load up these cookies with the delicious cream cheese icing, keeping it to a little dollop makes for nice flavour balance, plus it makes it much easier to store these cookies if most of the icing is tucked away in the indentation instead of sticking above the cookies too much. You may not use all of the icing.

This recipe will deliver 12 lovely cookies, which will keep really well in an airtight container for several days. I like to store them in a single layer in a larger, shallow container, to keep the icing intact.

carrot cake cookies on cooling rack

Get the Recipe: Carrot Cake Cookies

These carrot cake cookies have all the flavours of carrot cake, in cookie form! Complete with the dollop of cream cheese icing. 
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Prep Time: 50 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 12 cookies

Ingredients

For the Cookies:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, reduce to 1/4 tsp if using salted butter
  • 3/4 cup old fashioned, large-flake rolled oats
  • 3/4 cup carrot, very finely grated, packed, from about 1 large carrot
  • 2 Tablespoons raisins, very finely chopped

For rolling:

  • 3/4 cup pecans, very finely chopped

For icing:

  • 2 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 2 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/4 - 1/3 cup icing/confectioners' sugar

For garnish:

  • 2 Tablespoons pecans, very finely chopped

Instructions
 

  • *Note: Grate carrots very finely. If you are using a box grater, don't use the largest holes, but the second largest, to make a finer shred. Likewise, be sure to very finely chop the pecans and raisins.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar and egg yolk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon and salt. Stir the dry mixture in to the butter mixture until combined. Mix in the rolled oats, carrots and raisins. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350F. (regular bake setting/not fan assisted)
  • Roll chilled dough in to 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll balls in chopped pecans and place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2-inches apart.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and using a the bottom of a measuring tablespoon, press in to cookies to make a crater/indentation in the middle of each cookie. Return cookies to oven and bake a further 10-13 minutes, or until starting to turn golden in spots. Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  • Prepare icing by beating together the butter and cream cheese. Beat in 1/4 cup of the icing sugar. Taste and add a bit more icing sugar, if you'd like it a little sweeter. Using a piping bag with a round tip (or simply use a small spoon to place it), pipe a small dollop of icing in the indentation of each cookie. Sprinkle icing with a bit of finely chopped pecans.
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Snack
Author: Jennifer Maloney
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 238kcal, Carbohydrates: 26g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 18g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 51mg, Sodium: 122mg, Potassium: 115mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 12g, Vitamin A: 1775IU, Vitamin C: 0.6mg, Calcium: 27mg, Iron: 1mg
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