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Are you craving carrot cake but don’t have time to make it? Try these quick and easy vegan carrot cake cookies with dairy-free cream cheese icing. They have all the same sweetness and spices of carrot cake but in a bite-sized portion. They’re soft in the middle and chewy on the edges, just like a cookie should be.

This recipe makes 40 carrot cake cookies.

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Carrot Cake Cookies
• Cream Cheese Icing
• Tips and FAQ
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Video
• Nutritional Information
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

I was on the phone with Izzy once, and she mentioned she was making carrot cake cookies. I was skeptical, but then I discovered The Little Blog of Vegan’s carrot cake cookies and realized how delicious they were. This recipe is inspired by Holly’s.

Ingredients you need for Carrot Cake Cookies

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 1 cup (227g) vegan butter
• 1 ½ cups (324g) organic, vegan, or raw sugar
• 2 teaspoons (9g) vanilla extract
• ¼ cup (60ml/60g) non-dairy milk
• 3 ¼ cups (422g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon (14g) baking powder
• 1 tablespoon (9g) ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons (5g) ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon (2g) ground ginger
• 1 ½ packed cups (150g) of grated carrots
• 1 cup (156g) vegan chocolate chips (optional)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• ½ cup shredded coconut (optional)

How to make Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies

prep time: 20 min | bake time: 16 min

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

Mix 1 cup (227g) vegan butter and 1 ¼ cups (270g) vegan sugar using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix for 2-4 minutes.

Mix 2 teaspoons (9g) vanilla extract and ¼ cup (60ml/60g) non-dairy milk into the butter and sugar. Mix until fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape as much of the fluff off the whisk attachment as you can.

Fold in 3 ¼ cups (422g) all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon (14g) baking powder, and spices by hand with a baking spatula. The spices are 1 tablespoon (9g) ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons (5g) ground nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon (2g) ground ginger. Mix until just combined. As soon as you no longer see any dry ingredients, stop mixing.

Fold in 1 ½ packed cups (150g) of grated carrots by hand with a baking spatula. It takes me about 15 minutes to make this cookie dough.

Fold in optional ingredients by hand with a baking spatula. Optional ingredients include 1 cup (156g) of vegan chocolate chips, ½ cup chopped walnuts, and/or ½ cup shredded coconut.

Scoop the cookie dough onto 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper. Leave a little room between each scoop for them to spread when they bake. I used the #30 (2 tablespoon) scoop.

I made 5 rows and 4 columns so I could fit all 40 cookies into the oven in one batch. If your trays are smaller than mine, you might need to bake these cookies in 2 batches. It takes me about 5 minutes to fill both trays with 40 balls of cookie dough.

Bake for 16 minutes.

Remove the trays from the oven, and set them on a cooling rack.

Cool the cookies on the baking tray for at least 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Serve or make a vegan cream cheese icing to drizzle on them.

Ingredients for Vegan Cream Cheese Icing

• ½ cup (4oz/113g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
• ½ cup (60g) organic powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon (4g) pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon (15g) nondairy milk or nondairy creamer

How to Make Cream Cheese Icing for the Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies

prep time: 12 min

Mix vegan cream cheese using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 2-4 minutes.

Sift in organic powdered sugar, and mix again.

Add vanilla extract, and mix again.

Mix in 1 tablespoon (15g) plant milk to get it to a drizzling consistency.

Drizzle over the cookies using a piping bag fitted with a Wilton small round tip 3 or a decopen.

Add optional vegan sprinkles. I used pink bunnies because bunnies eat carrots, and for some reason that felt right. I guess I’m ready for Easter all year long.

Questions and Answers

Can I use less sugar than the recipe calls for?

I have made these with only 1 cup of sugar, and they still tasted good. They were more of a snack or a breakfast cookie, rather than a dessert cookie, but still delicious.

Can I make this cookie dough on a different day than when I bake them?

To split the work into 2 different days, you have 2 options. You can make the cookie dough and transfer it to a container with a lid and leave it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

Alternately, you can take it a step further and scoop all the cookies onto the baking sheets and chill those. No matter which you decide to do, you’ll want to add an extra 2 minutes to the baking time.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Vegan Butter: I usually use organic whipped Earth Balance, but I used plant-based Country Crock butter for the ones pictured here. Sometimes, I also make my own. If you avoid soy, I recommend buying the soy-free Earth Balance or using coconut oil.
• Sugar: You can use any organic, raw, or vegan sugar in these cookies. These include sucanat, coconut sugar, demerara, and evaporated cane juice. Just be careful of conventional granulated sugar, because it’s sometimes not vegan. If you’re trying to avoid sugar, replace the sugar in this recipe with date sugar.
• Vanilla: If you’re out of vanilla extract, you can omit it. If you have vanilla flavored plant milk, use that for the ¼ cup (60ml/60g) non-dairy milk, and that should help. If you want to get creative, substitute the vanilla extract with another flavor or extract.
• Nondairy Milk: Use any variety of vegan milk that you have in your fridge or pantry. You can even use water in a pinch.
• Flour: Do you avoid gluten, or have friends or family who are gluten free? Substitute the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend to make these cookies gluten free.
• Baking Powder: I recommend non-aluminum baking powder, but if you don’t have that, use whatever you have. If you’re out of baking powder, replace the tablespoon (14g) of baking powder in this recipe with 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
• Spices: I use cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in this recipe. If you don’t have those, you can try using pumpkin pie spice instead.
• Carrots: This ingredient is non-negotiable. If you want to use less or more than the amount I suggest in this recipe (1 ½ packed cups/150g of grated carrots), then please measure with your heart. To be honest, when I’m not developing recipes for this website, I rarely measure anything, haha.
• Optional add-ins: I’ve made these cookies all different ways. One of my favorites is to add 1 cup (156g) vegan chocolate chips, ½ cup chopped walnuts, and ½ cup shredded coconut. You can add any or all of these based on your preference and what ingredients you have on hand. I think next time, I might try adding tiny pieces of candied ginger.
• Vegan Cream Cheese: I used a half a block of Simply V cream cheese for the cookies pictured here. If you avoid soy, this is a great vegan cream cheese for you to buy. I’ve also made these with Miyoko’s cream cheese. The cream cheese doesn’t have to be at room temperature either. That’s just a recommendation so you don’t add too much nondairy milk or nondairy creamer.
• Powdered Sugar: I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook. But, I only say organic on the ingredients that need to be organic to be vegan. You can learn more about which powdered sugar brands are vegan in my post titled is powdered sugar vegan?.

Video

Nutrition Facts

This nutritional information is for one serving. I’m assuming that a serving is 1 cookie with icing. If you choose to skip the icing, these will all likely reduce.

• Servings: 40
• Calories: 131
• Fiber: 1g
• Saturated fat: 2g
• Total fat: 5g
• Cholesterol: 0mg
• Sodium: 94mg
• Sugars: 10g
• Total Carbohydrates: 19g
• Protein: 2g
• Calcium: 29mg
• Potassium: 21mg
• Iron: < 1mg

Comments or Questions?

If you make this carrot cookie recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like easy cookie recipes like this one, you might also like my coffee chocolate chip cookies. They can be made without the chocolate chips too if you’re looking to save money. Another super easy cookie recipe I have are my funfetti chocolate chip cookies. They are super cute to give someone and require very little effort.

If you’re trying to use up carrots, you should make my vegan carrot cake. It definitely takes more time than these cookies, but it’s such a fun way to celebrate. My easy carrot soup is another way to use up a lot of carrots since carrot is the main ingredient.

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