Gluten Free Carrot Cake Cookies
These gluten free carrot cake cookies have all the same flavors of your favorite carrot cake, but in cookie form! Perfectly spiced, with freshly grated carrot and topped with homemade cream cheese frosting and caramel.
I’m obsessed with all things carrot cake. My gluten free carrot cake never disappoints and my carrot cake muffins are so good when you need a healthier sweet treat. But I love cookies so these gluten free carrot cake cookies were a must.
They have soft centers, slightly crisp edges, spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves and are topped with a simple cream cheese frosting. You can also add chopped nuts right into the cookie dough if desired!
They’re dairy free friendly, made with pantry staple ingredients and are an absolute crowd pleaser. If you love this recipe, try my lemon blueberry cookies or strawberry chocolate chip cookies next.
Before we get started…
- The frosting is totally optional here! The cookies are plenty sweet/flavorful without, but I just think it adds a little something extra. I used my homemade vegan caramel, but store bought is fine too!
- Please don’t skip chilling the dough! It’s so important to ensure the cookies don’t spread prematurely.
- The suggested bake time will yield chewy cookies. If you prefer your cookies with a bit more crunch, you can bake for a few extra minutes.
How to make carrot cake cookies
In a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds.
Add in the egg, egg yolk (so it’s one whole egg PLUS an egg yolk), and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.
Add in the dry ingredients aside from the carrots. Be sure to spoon and level the flour, don’t scoop from the bag. Fold in the grated carrot.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use a medium cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons) and scoop onto the baking sheet.
Place in the fridge to set for 1 hour, then toward the end of the hour, preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
Line a second baking sheet with parchment paper and add half of the cookies to the other. We want enough room for some spreading.
Bake for 14-17 minutes or until lightly golden on the edges and the centers look set. They will continue to firm as they cool.
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As they cool, prep the frosting. Add the butter and cream cheese to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds.
Add in the powdered sugar, then salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. If it’s too thick, you can add a splash of milk or if you prefer it thicker, add more powdered sugar.
Once the cookies have cooled completely, top with the frosting, caramel and crushed walnuts and pecans if desired. Try my gluten free carrot cake cupcakes next!
How to store
These cookies are quite soft. There really is not much of a crisp or crunch to these cookies (which I love) other than the outer edge having a bit of a crisp. You can always bake them for a couple extra minutes if you do in fact like a crisp, but they are not intended to be made this way.
If you make them without frosting, they can be stored in a container with a lid. If you make them with frosting, I find it best to keep the lid slightly ajar or store them in the fridge because of the cream cheese/butter in the frosting.
You can also make the cookies, then freeze them if you’re looking to do a little dessert prep! You can freeze them once baked (without frosting), for up to 1 month. Then just let them thaw and add your frosting and enjoy as is!
Ingredient tips
Carrots: My advice is to use fresh carrots and grate them yourself. Pre-shredded carrots are usually too dry and will not have enough moisture for the cookie dough. It takes just a few minutes to grate them yourself and is well worth it!
Butter: Make sure it’s softened/at room temperature. You don’t want either to be melted, just soft to the touch. You can use dairy free or non-dairy here.
Eggs: You need one egg and one egg yolk for these carrot cake cookies. The extra yolk will help make the cookies nice and chewy. To make these without egg/vegan, you can swap the egg+egg yolk for a vegan egg replacer. I suggest something like Bob’s Red Mill and replacing the equivalent of 1 1/2 eggs.
More Spring desserts you’ll love!
- Gluten Free Lemon Drizzle Cake
- Lemon Poppy Seed Blackberry Cake
- Gluten Free Peach Cobbler
- Strawberry Shortcake
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Gluten Free Carrot Cake Cookies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened/room temperature
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry
- 1 ¾ cup gluten free all purpose baking flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- 1 cup freshly grated carrot
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter softened/room temperature
- 2 ounces plain cream cheese softened/room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter, brown sugar and white sugar.
- Beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds.
- Add in the egg, egg yolk (so it’s one whole egg PLUS an egg yolk), and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients aside from the carrots. Be sure to spoon and level the flour, don’t scoop from the bag.
- Fold in the grated carrot.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use a medium cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons) and scoop onto the baking sheet.
- Place in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
- Toward the end of the hour, preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
- Line a second baking sheet with parchment paper and add half of the cookies to the other. We want enough room for some spreading.
- Bake for 14-17 minutes or until lightly golden on the edges and the centers look set. They will continue to firm as they cool.
- As they cool, prep the frosting. Add the butter and cream cheese to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds.
- Add in the powdered sugar, then salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. If it’s too thick, you can add a splash of milk or if you prefer it thicker, add more powdered sugar.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, top with the frosting, caramel and crushed walnuts and pecans if desired.
Notes
Comments
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These cookies are absolutely divine! Even my hubby and niece and nephew who aren’t gluten free LOVED them! While they may not be a quick recipe because of the chill time needed, they are absolutely worth the wait! Make these now, you won’t regret it!!
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Thank you, Andrea! So glad you loved them.
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