Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies
Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies
These carrot cake cookies take everything we love about a classic carrot cake (tenderness, sweetness, and tasty carrot bits) and turn them into a cookie.
What’s our opinion on carrot cake? It feels like people either love carrot cake or can’t stand it, and there’s few people who sit in between. Personally, I’m someone who loveees carrot cake, and I love that it’s hard to make a bad one!
Even the prepared carrot cakes in the grocery stores tend to be pretty good. I’ve been known to pick up a slice from the bakery every now and then during a trip. And while I love carrot cake, sometimes I’m not in the mood to bake a whole cake, which is why I’ve now become a fan of carrot cake cookies!
These carrot cake cookies take everything we love about a classic carrot cake (tenderness, sweetness, and tasty carrot bits) and turn them into a cookie. I’ve got a love affair with cookies, especially vegan cookies, so converting a carrot cake into this vegan carrot cake cookie recipe was a no-brainer. It’s like eating a carrot cake, but in cookie form!
Even the frosting is easy to put together. I made cute little carrot designs on each cookie, and I am not one who is talented at cookie decorating at all. But making carrot buttercream designs is super easy, just like this recipe!
The most important part of any carrot cake recipe, and vegan carrot cake cookie recipe, is the carrots. I was inspired to make these vegan cookies because I had some extra pre-shredded carrots hanging out in my fridge that needed to be used up. The first time I tested this recipe, I just softened the carrots up in some warm water to bring them to life, drained them, and then chopped them up and used them in this carrot cookie recipe.
But, the second time I made this recipe I took the time to shred fresh carrots, and the difference is noticeable. You can still totally use a bag of pre-shredded carrots and hydrate them in hot water like I did, but that can only do so much. If I’m short on time or energy, I’d use the pre-shredded carrots again but if you have the time, grate the carrots yourself. Just put on a lil playlist while you do it, and you’ll be done in 10 minutes!
That’s really the only prep that you need to do for these easy carrot cake cookies. The rest of this recipe is simple and follows any other vegan cookie recipe. Once the cookies are baked and cooled, go ahead and prepare an easy buttercream frosting to ice the cookies with. Making the carrot decorations on top is optional but encouraged - and it’s easy! If I can do it, you can do it too :)
Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 c butter, softened (sub: vegan butter)
- 1/3 c sugar
- 1/3 c brown sugar
- 1 egg (sub: 1 flax egg if vegan)*
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 c flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 c grated carrots (about 1 large carrot)
- 1/4 c roughly chopped pecans
- 2 c powdered sugar
- 1/2 c butter, softened (sub: vegan butter)
- 2-3 tbsp non-dairy milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- Gel food coloring, if desired**
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Combine the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Add in the flax egg and vanilla, and beat until combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, and beat until well mixed.
- Stir in carrots and pecans.
- Using a 2 tbsp cookie scoop, scoop spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto the baking sheets. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Cool completely on the sheets.
- Meanwhile, make the frosting. Combine the powdered sugar and butter in the clean bowl of a stand mixer and beat until it starts to combine. Add in the the vanilla.
- Add in non-dairy milk 1 tbsp at a time until smooth and creamy. You may need to add more or less milk to your liking - you want to have a smooth and spreadable frosting.
- Frost the cooled cookies with the icing and eat!
Notes
*To make a flax egg, mix 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds with 3 tbsp water.
**This is the brand of food coloring I use. With gel food coloring, you only need 1-2 drops to get the full, opaque color.
To make these carrot designs on the frosting, I simply separated the frosting into three separate bowls, and mixed green and orange food coloring, respectively, into two bowls. I used a Wilton 2A tip for the white frosting, a 104 for the orange carrot, and a 352 for the green leaf. Check out my Instagram here for a video on how I piped the frostings!
I started salt n sprinkles to show that making good food is both fun and easy to do. My recipes are mostly plant-based, and always delicious. I know you'll find just what you're looking for!