Well, friends, I wanted to have this post out in time for Easter, but the moon very rudely decided that Easter would be in March this year, and I just wasn’t prepared for those kinds of celestial shenanigans. Oh well, at least it will be up for next Easter!
I like carrot cake quite a bit, so it actually surprised me that I have almost nothing related to carrot cake on this blog. In fact, at least as of this writing, the only other carrot cake treat I have is my carrot cake donuts. Don’t get me wrong, those are delicious, but I’m always looking for new twists to old classics.
I’ve also been making a lot of things with oatmeal recently, and I had the thought; why not make a carrot cake oatmeal cookie? All of the softness and lightly-spiced taste of carrot cake, a bit more substance to turn it into a cookie, and a nice dollop of cream cheese frosting on top! I thought it sounded great, so I made some.
You know what? It tastes as good as it sounds. Oats add a bit of texture that is a little unexpected at first, but it’s nothing that would get in the way of enjoying the cookies. Really, it’s a lot like eating the tops of carrot cake muffins (now there’s an idea…) so you already can envision what you’re getting.
A couple of notes about this recipe.
- Carrot cake often has walnuts in it. I’m not a fan of walnuts and substitute pecans, which go great, but you can feel free to use walnuts if you prefer them.
- I use my own cream cheese icing recipe for these cookies, which is the same one I use elsewhere on this site. If you have a recipe you prefer, feel free to use it instead, it won’t impact the cookies.
- When I baked these, some of them spread out a lot more than others. I have no idea why this happened — they could be side by side and it would still happen — so make sure to leave space between them when you bake.
That’s basically it! This recipe makes about two dozen cookies (25 to be precise) so they can feed a whole family gathering or last for quite a few days if you’re on your own.
Tried them out? Let me know how they turn out in the comments below!
Oatmeal Carrot Cake Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Sheets
- Stand Mixer
- Piping Bag Optional but recommended
- Cookie Scoop
- Parchment Paper
- Grater
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- ¾ Cup Flour
- 1½ Cups Oats
- 1¼ Tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Cinnamon Or pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ Tsp Nutmeg
- ½ Cup Butter Softened
- ¼ Cup Brown Sugar
- ½ Cup White Sugar
- 2 Eggs Large
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Large Carrot Grated finely
- ½ Cup Toasted Pecans
For the Cream Cheese Icing
- 5 Oz Cream Cheese
- 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Milk
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Flour For thickening
- 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Grate your carrot as fine as you can. It's also helpful to squeeze out some of the juice so your dough doesn't get too runny later.
- In a bowl, mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until it's light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and eggs one at a time, and mix well.
- Add in the dry ingredient mix, carrot, and pecans, and mix together. The resulting dough will be quite wet.
- With the cookies scoop or a spoon, dole out balls of dough about two inches apart on your baking sheet. Using a thumb or spoon, press a divot in the center of each, to hold your icing later.
- Bake for about 11 minutes. The edges should start to brown.
- Let the cookies cool for about ten minutes. If necessary, re-press the divot to ensure it's there. Finish cooling as necessary.
- Make the icing by beating the cream cheese until it's smooth. Then, add in the milk, cinnamon, and vanilla until combined. Add powdered sugar slowly while mixing, and add in the flour at the end.
- Fill a piping bag (or just use another spoon) to fill each cookie divot with icing. The piping bag makes it look nicer.
- Top with a light sprinkle of more cinnamon and enjoy!
Lucky enough to be able to pair these cookies with hot chocolate. I highly highly recommend for anyone interested in a nice treat for a cool spring day. Excellent with hot chocolate, would be interested to see what it is like when paired with hot apple cider.