What do you get when you combine decadent carrot cake and iced oatmeal cookies? These super soft and delicious Carrot Cake Cookies!
Carrot Cake Cookies
Raise your hand if you LOVE carrot cake!
I’ll be honest, I’m more of a chocolate cake gal myself, BUT I can never turn down a slice of decadent carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. And sometimes it’s good to switch things up a bit!
These carrot cake cookies are ahhh-mazing!! They’re thick, soft, and a little bit chewy. All the flavor of a big slice of carrot cake in a much less messy handheld form. And then topped off with a generous drizzle of luscious cream cheese icing!
This recipe is also perfect if you love oatmeal cookies – it’s accurate to call them Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies. I love the texture that the old fashioned oats add!
These carrot cake cookies are BIG cookies — perfect for Easter parties, gifting, or just enjoying together with the family. Hope you love them as much as we do!
Carrot Oatmeal Cookies Ingredients
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- Butter — Be sure to use unsalted butter because we’ll be adding salt to our recipe already!
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated white sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Flour
- Baking soda
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Sea salt
- Shredded carrots — Feel free to use pre-shredded or make your own!
- Shredded coconut — We used unsweetened
- Raisins — Both regular or golden raisins would work well in our cookies
- Old fashioned oats
- Chopped pecans
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Powdered sugar
- Cream cheese — softened
- Whole milk — Or any milk you have on hand
- Vanilla extract
Kitchen Supplies Used:
- Plastic squeeze bottle
- Cookie sheet
- Non-stick silicone baking mat
- Hand mixer
- Non-slip mixing bowls
- Cookie scoop
How to Make Carrot Cake Cookies
A free printable copy of the full recipe is below the prep tips.
It looks like there is a lot going on here, but this is actually a very simple recipe, so don’t be intimidated by the ingredient list!
Start by mixing together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Slowly add eggs and vanilla until a batter forms.
Stir dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, then stir in the “goodies” — aka the carrots, raisins, coconut, oatmeal and nuts!
A cookie scoop helps ensure uniform cookie size, but you can freehand if you like. Depending on the size of your cookies, this recipe should make about 12-16 cookies. They’re BIG!
Bake for 15-17 minutes at 350°F and remove from oven to a cooling rack.
To Frost the Cookies
After baking, we allow the cookies to cool a little bit so the frosting will stick. Room temperature or just slightly warm is ideal.
Beat together the cream cheese frosting ingredients and pour into a plastic squeeze bottle.
We use a plastic squeeze bottle to drizzle our icing because it’s easy, less messy, and you can get the icing to look super pretty. However, if you don’t have a squeeze bottle on hand, you can drizzle the icing with a spoon.
Can You Make this Recipe Gluten Free?
Yep! Make these tasty carrot oatmeal cookies a gluten free treat by simply swapping out the all-purpose baking flour with your favorite all-purpose gluten free flour.
You may also want to check the packaging on your oats to ensure that they are certified gluten free.
How to Make Carrot Cake Cookies from Cake Mix
This particular recipe is from-scratch, but if you have carrot cake mix and want to make cookies with it, you totally can!
Check out our recipe to make Texas Sheet Cake cookies and make the following adjustments:
- Use carrot cake mix instead of chocolate cake mix.
- Add 1/2 cup shredded carrots.
- Use the cream cheese icing recipe in this post instead of the chocolate frosting recipe.
Voila! Now you’ve got carrot cake cookies from cake mix!
More of our favorite Easter desserts
Of course you can enjoy these carrot oatmeal cookies anytime! However, they are perfect for Easter celebrations! Here are some more of our favorite festive treats:
- Bunny Butt Pretzels
- Easter Funfetti Cookie Cake
- Nutter Butter Chicks
- Cadbury Egg Cookies
- Peeps Bunny Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Cobbler
Carrot Cake Cookie Recipe (Printable Copy)
If you like this recipe, please rate it! We’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
Equipment
- Electric mixer
- Cookie sheet and baking mat
- Plastic squeeze bottle
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake Cookies:
- 3/4 cup unsalted sweet cream butter softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans plus a handful for topping the cookies
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 5 teaspoon whole milk
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
To Make the Carrot Cake Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick silicone baking mat.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- In a separate mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy. You can use a standing mixer or electric hand mixer.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Add vanilla extract.
- Gradually pour dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, mixing as you go.
- Fold in the carrot, raisins, oatmeal, chopped pecans, and shredded coconut with a rubber spatula until well distributed.
- Place balls of cookie dough on your prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a light golden brown.
To Make the Cream Cheese Icing:
- Beat together the cream cheese, powder sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Scoop the icing into a plastic squeeze bottle.
- Drizzle icing over cooled cookies and sprinkle with chopped pecans.
- Allow icing to set before storing or serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Pin our Carrot Oatmeal Cookies on Pinterest:
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