Cakey Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
These chewy & cakey carrot cake cookies will win you over with their warm flavor and texture. They're like a perfect slice of carrot cake right in your hand, cream cheese frosting and all! With just the right amount of warm spices and homemade cream cheese frosting, you'll instantly be in love!You can make this dough ahead of time, the morning of if you like, just be sure to keep it refrigerated until you are ready to bake. This recipe makes about 28 cookies
Servings: 14
Calories: 358kcal
Equipment
- 1 Medium Cookie Scoop Medium (1.7 Tbsp.)
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- 2 eggs large
- ¾ cup crushed pineapple drained (about ½ of a 20 oz. can)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup carrots shredded
- 2 Cups all-purpose Flour about 9 oz.
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
Spices
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground ginger
- ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp. salt
Optional
- ¾ cup raisins
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter softened
- 2.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- crushed pecans or walnuts *Optional garnish topping
- Nonpareils or sprinkles (No artificial dyes) *Optional garnish topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. (You can start it now or while you're chilling the dough, but make sure you give yourself time to fully pre-heat)
- Line sheet-pans with parchment paper.
- Beat butter and brown sugar in a large bowl by hand or with an electric stand mixer or hand mixer.
- Add the eggs and beat till incorporated, then add the carrots, pineapple and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices and whisk to combine.
- Fold in the dry ingredients (flour mixture), and the raisins if you opt to add them, into the wet ingredients (carrot mixture) and stir until there are no more dry spots. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl really well to get every bit of flour mixed in.
- Next, for best results, Chill the cookie dough for 15-30 minutes. (You may skip this step but I find that the cookies keep their shape better and won't spread out as much if you do this.)
- After chilling the dough, use an ice cream scoop or such to scoop out about 2 Tbsp. scoops onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
- Bake cookies in your preheated oven for 15 minutes or until tops are golden and set.
- Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit for 3-5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Preferably use wire racks that you are ok for frosting the cookies on.
- Let the cookies cool completely to touch (At least 15-30 mins)
- While they're cooling you can make your frosting: Beat the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until it's a smooth consistency with no lumps. If it's too thick, add ½ Tablespoon of water and adjust to a touch more if need be.
- Frost the tops of the cookies with a generous shmear and then sprinkle some crushed pecan, walnuts or sprinkles. ( You will have extra frosting)
Notes
This recipe makes about 28 cookies using a heaping ice cream scoop holding a heaping 2 Tablespoons of cookie batter.
*Nutritional Info includes ALL the frosting in the recipe, but you most likely will NOT use all the frosting for the cookies.
Store these cookies in the refrigerator if they are out for more than a few hours due to the cream cheese frosting.
Nutrition
Serving: 2cookies | Calories: 358kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 168mg | Potassium: 174mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 35g | Vitamin A: 1983IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 62mg | Iron: 1mg