Carrot Cake is just the best isn’t it? Fragrant, nutty, moist and delicious with yummy cream cheese frosting. These cookies are a fun little twist on regular carrot cake. They’re packed full of shredded carrot, oats, walnuts, and cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Oh and have we talked about sandwich cookies before? TWO cookies sandwiched together with delicious frosting? Sign me up!
I think these cookies are just perfect for springtime and easter (does carrot cake remind anyone else of Easter… carrots…. bunnies?). Plus, they’re an excellent way to get one of your five a day while enjoying an indulgent treat!
You’re gonna want to bake these cookies the day before you want to eat them if possible, that gives them time to firm up and become perfectly chewy on the outside but soft and melty on the inside where they meet the cream cheese frosting.
My cookies (I used two tablespoons of dough for each one) ended up quite large – for more bite-size cookies, use just one small tablespoon, rolled into a walnut sized ball, for each cookie. Or use three for giant burger sized cookies!
These carrot cake cookies with cream cheeese frosting are made in just the same way as regular chocolate chip cookies. The soft butter is mixed with the sugar and egg, and the dry ingredients (plus the shredded carrot) is mixed in. I used my food processor to slice up my carrots, and it took one large carrot to get the amount that I needed. If you have one, you can use a stand mixer to make the cookie batter, but it’s certainly not necessary.
The Cream cheese frosting recipe uses my foolproof method – it’s a little odd, but it results in the thickest, most delicious cream cheese frosting you’ve ever had!
- 100g plain chocolate (around 55% cocoa solids - I normally use tesco everyday value)
- 130g plain flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp flaked sea salt
- 125g very soft unsalted butter
- 75g light brown sugar
- 50g dark muscavado sugar (if you only have caster, use 125g caster total for the sugar)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- 250g dark chocolate chips or chunks (again I use plain chocolate, about 55% cocoa solids)
- Plus another 50 - 100g dark chocolate chips or chunks reserved for later
- 1 packet mini Creme Eggs or other Easter sweets
- Combine your very soft unsalted butter in your stand mixer, or in a large bowl, with the sugars. Mix vigorously until they're combined, and fluffy and light in colour. Next, beat in the egg and vanilla paste along with the salt.
- Set the 100g chocolate to melt in the microwave (I break it into chunks and heat for 30 seconds, then stir). Meanwhile, turn the mixer to low and add in the plain flour and bicarbonate of soda. Measure out the cocoa, and give it a whisk in the measuring bowl before you add to the mix - cocoa can be lumpy.
- With the mixer running, pour in the melted chocolate and mix gently. Fold in the chocolate chip by hand (and eat some amount of cookie dough if you're anything like me).
- Pop the cookie dough into a tupperwear tub and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
- To bake, preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3/325ºF and prepare two very large baking sheets. I line them with reusable silicone baking mat's, or you can also use parchment paper or just grease the sheets very well with butter.
- Use a tablespoon or a small ice cream scoop to grab small tangerine sized balls of dough and roll them into a ball between your palms. Pop them onto the baking sheets and then stud the outside of the dough balls with the reserved chocolate chips - all over.
- Bake for a very scant 10 minutes, and while they're in the oven, cut up your mini Creme Eggs. You'll know they're done when the top becomes crackly - they might not look completely done but they will firm up a lot when they cool. Remove from the oven and turn off, and put the creme eggs on top, pushing down gently into the cookie. Return to the oven for a couple of minutes so that the creme eggs become melty, then remove and cool completely on the tray.
Enjoy these!
I’m entering these cookies into Bake of the Week at Casa Costello and CookBlogShare at Supergolden Bakes!
x Kerry
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Stacey Guilliatt says
April 9, 2015 at 1:34 pmMmm love carrot cake, been meaning to try carrot cake cookies for ages! #recipeoftheweek
Stacey Guilliatt recently posted…Review – Organix Goodies chunky fruit bars
Diane @ Life of Di. says
March 26, 2015 at 1:54 amCarrot Cake = one of my favorites (along with any type of lemon, lavender, or pistachio cake!) I bet these are just heavenly. I’m interested in making them for Easter!
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Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake says
March 20, 2015 at 2:01 amLove carrot cake and look cookies, so these definitely look awesome! You gotta love that you get double the cookies too!
Popping over from Bake of the Week 🙂
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Amanda says
March 19, 2015 at 5:58 amThese look so delicious! Such a fun twist on traditional carrot cake!
Amanda recently posted…simple sugar cookies with buttercream
Kerry Cooks says
March 19, 2015 at 11:34 amThank you so much Amanda!
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
March 18, 2015 at 2:21 pmCarrot Cake is my all time favourite cake! These look and sound delicious x #BakeoftheWeek
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins recently posted…Sugar Free Chocolate and Strawberry Cake
Kerry Cooks says
March 18, 2015 at 2:27 pmthanks so much Kirsty!
Sus @ roughmeasures.com says
March 16, 2015 at 10:18 pmWow Kerry, these look great! What a genius idea, I love carrot cake, and cookies! Perfect match!
Lucy @ BakingQueen74 says
March 16, 2015 at 7:42 pmthese look so tasty Kerry! Carrot cake in cookie form, what a great thing.
Lucy @ BakingQueen74 recently posted…Strawberry Triple Layer Cake
Nayna Kanabar says
March 16, 2015 at 3:29 pmI am in love with these beautiful cookies since I love carrot cake.
Nayna Kanabar recently posted…Eggless Strawberry Mousse
Rachel Vagabond Baker says
March 16, 2015 at 1:08 pmCarrot cake cookies! Oh happy days!
Grating carrots for baking is the one thing I don’t grate with a processor, I tend to like the thinner shreds from hand grating, they seem to ‘melt’ into the batter. To be honest, I don’t always have access to a processor either so it’s a bit of an old habit that I’m more than happy to keep up 🙂
I made a carrot cake with my niece last week, it was so much fun. I didn’t have a muslin so I couldn’t do your cream cheese frosting method, however I used full fat Philly (as that was all the corner shop had) and it worked fine, phew! Then I made hummingbird cupcakes for my friend to take for a work thing, he went shopping and bought be back Tesco full fat cream cheese (I was raging, I asked for Philly) and, oh my god, disaster: the stuff was so wet! I was so embarrassed to send the cakes off with him, the icing was so loose. Urgh!
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Tracy says
March 16, 2015 at 10:08 amOh wow – they look great. I love the way you say it’s a way of getting your five a day in! As if justification were needed … and they actually look healthy as well.
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