Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting | GF

Carrot cake in cookie form? Sign me up! These delicious vegan carrot cake cookies with cream cheese frosting are amazing as a decadent dessert, afternoon treat, or party food! Oh, and they’re naturally gluten-free too.

This is without a doubt the best carrot cake cookie recipe that I’ve tried and tested to date! Instead of just enjoying these cookies as is, I decided to go a step further and sandwich some vegan cream cheese frosting between two single carrot cake cookies to create these scrumptious carrot cake sandwich cookies! Boy, was I glad that I did!

While tasting like an indulgent treat, these cookies are actually loaded with nutritious ingredients such as nuts, oats, grated carrot, and warm fall-inspired spices. Enjoy them as is or alongside your favorite vegan hot or cold beverage.  

• Yields: 20 cookies (10 ice cream cookie sandwiches)
• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Baking time: 15 minutes
• Frosting chilling time: 30 minutes (only 15 extra from the baking time). 
• Total time: 50 minutes.

Ingredients for Vegan Carrot Cookies

This carrot cake cookie recipe is gluten-free, egg-free, and dairy-free. If you’d like to make it refined sugar-free too, you can replace the brown sugar with monk fruit sweetener. For the vegan cream cheese icing, add a little maple syrup instead of icing/powdered sugar.

• 1 cup quick oats, blend to flour consistency
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup walnuts or pecan nuts
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ½ cup softened vegan butter or coconut oil
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp water

Ingredients for Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

• ¾ cup vegan cream cheese
• ¼ cup icing/powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp vegan butter

How to Make Vegan Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies

Start by making the vegan cream cheese frosting, as it needs to be set in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

To make the frosting, place the vegan cream cheese, icing sugar and vegan butter in a medium bowl and mix with an electric or hand mixer. Place the frosting in the fridge for 30 minutes to harden.

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Then move on to making the vegan carrot cookies.

Preheat oven to 350F / 175C

To make the flaxseed egg, mix the flaxseed meal with water and let it sit for around 5 minutes to thicken.

Add the flaxseed egg, vanilla extract, brown sugar and softened vegan butter (or coconut oil) to a medium bowl. Stir until combined.

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Add shredded carrot and stir to combine again.

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Add baking powder, almond flour and oat flour. Mix to combine.

Fold in chopped walnuts and stir one more time.

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Prepare a large baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop around 2 tbsp of the batter per cookie onto the tray and flatten a little with the back of your spoon. Place the cookies at least 1 inch from each other as they’ll spread when cooking. This recipe should make around 20 cookies (for 10 sandwich cookies).

Bake them for 15-18 minutes or until golden around the edges.

Let them cool completely before transferring onto a plate.

Once the cookies are at room temperature, prepare the ice cream cookies by adding 1-2 tbsp of the frosting to each cookie. And then sandwiching another carrot cake cookie on top.

You can consume them straight away or freeze them for at least one hour, which will make the cookie sandwich harder like ice cream.

How to Store Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

These carrot cake sandwich cookies can be stored in an airtight container, in the fridge for around 4-5 days.

Can I Freeze Carrot Cake Oat Cookies?

Yes, you can! These vegan sandwich cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.

For easy freezer storage, flash freeze the sandwich cookies on a baking tray in the freezer for 1- 2 hours and then transfer them to an airtight container where you can stack them with parchment paper between the layers or transfer them to a Ziploc bag. 

When ready to enjoy, thaw your frozen sandwich cookies in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Or just eat them frozen!

Variations of this Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe

• If you want a simpler sandwich carrot cookie, you can omit the nuts from the cookie batter. 
• For a sweeter-tasting cookie sandwich, consider adding some raisins or dates (finely chopped) into the cookie batter. 
• Use almonds instead of pecans or walnuts if you like. 
• For a more decadent carrot cake cookie, toss in some mini vegan chocolate chips (either dark or white) into the batter.
• Use a store-bought vegan frosting instead of making your own if you prefer. 

Do I need to Chill the Carrot Cake Cookie Dough Before Baking?

No, you don’t need to chill the cookie dough before you bake a batch of your vegan carrot cookies since you want to produce flat cookies for assembling sandwich cookie treats instead of fluffy and pillowy cookies from chilled cookie dough. 

You could easily make an extra batch of this carrot cookie dough though and store half of it in the freezer for 2-3 months, saving you some time when you next get cravings for these vegan carrot cake sandwich cookies. 

Can I Make Single Carrot Cake Biscuits Instead?

Yes, there’s nothing stopping you from omitting the vegan cream cheese frosting altogether and just baking single carrot cake cookies! I have to say, though – these cookies with vegan cream cheese icing are out-of-this-world and make them a great choice for a special treat to serve to friends and family. 

Tips for Making this Carrot Cake Cookie Recipe

• If you want a sugar-free version of these carrot cake cookies then simply use something like monk fruit sweetener in equal parts. 
• You may find that these cookies need some extra help to flatten since they don’t spread very well on their own. You can use the back of a spoon or the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten them before baking. If you don’t, you could end up with slightly underbaked cookie centers. 
• You want your carrots to be grated finely. To do so, grate the carrots on the side of the grater box that has very small holes. Otherwise, use a food processor attachment. 
• A cookie dispenser helps a lot when it comes to placing your cookie batter on the baking sheet. You also need to make provision for enough space between each cookie to spread during baking. A 1-2″ space between each cookie should be sufficient.

Other Vegan Cookie Recipes to Try:

• Peanut Butter Cookies
• White Bean Cookies
• Amaretti Cookies
• Apple oatmeal cookies

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