These Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies are a fun twist on one of my favourite sweet treats. They are packed full of carrot, oats, pecans and raisins as well as drizzled with a cream "cheese" icing. Get the recipe below.
Using vegetables in baking
Although using vegetables in baking might seem a little strange, there are tonnes of recipes on the internet that recommend doing just this. Whether it's beetroot brownies or courgette loaf cake, we're all getting more and more comfortable with the idea of adding our veggies to sweet treats. My Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies are a fun way of adapting the classic carrot cake and using vegetables in cookies!
The cookie dough itself is pretty classic. It's made by beating together plant-based butter and light brown sugar. Once this is creamed together I add a little bit of plant-based milk to loosen it up. A mix of oats and flour brings it all together. The real flavour of the cookie comes from the mix of raisins, pecans, carrot and spice!
The grated carrot adds some earthy sweetness to the cookie and helps to keep them moist. The raisins are like little bursts of sunshine and the pecans add a satisfying crunch. Although these cookies include grated carrot I promise they are definitely a sweet rather than a savoury snack.
It might seem odd weighing out your carrot before you make these cookies but given how much the size of a single carrot can vary I recommend doing so. If you add too much carrot you risk too much liquid leaching into the dough as they cook. If you don't add enough carrot it shouldn't affect the texture too much but they won't have the same taste.
The cream "cheese" icing on these carrot cake cookies is optional and I make them all the time without it. If you've tried making cream cheese frosting before you'll know that it can often be quite runny. Luckily that's what we are after! We only want to drizzle the icing over the cookies rather than frosting the top of them completely. Any vegan cream cheese alternative will work. If you're struggling to get hold of any then a coconut based yogurt will work well too. The choice is yours!
Perfect for Easter
You can, of course, eat these cookies all year round but I think they are the perfect treat to serve up over the Easter holidays. Adding cute little royal icing carrots is also a fun touch! These cookies are also so easy to make they are a great way of keeping this kids entertained during the Easter holidays.
For more Easter recipes you can check out my archive.
The recipe
If you like carrot cake you'll love these carrot cake cookies. They are both egg and dairy free making them the perfect sweet treat for anyone following a plant based diet.
(Talking of carrot cake...you can check out my vegan carrot cake recipe here).
Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 30 grams non-dairy butter
- 100 grams light brown sugar
- 50 ml plant milk
- 100 grams oats
- 100 grams plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 0.5 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- 75 grams carrot grated
- 25 grams pecans roughly chopped
- 25 grams raisins
For the cream cheese frosting (optional)
- 4 tablespoon icing sugar
- 2 tablespoon vegan cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- In a bowl, beat together the non-dairy butter and light brown sugar until it is soft and creamy. Add the milk and beat until incorporated.
- Next add the oats, flour, baking powder and spices. Bring together into a rough dough.
- Add the grated carrot, pecans and raisins and mix well until the dough has come together and the carrot, pecans and raisins are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- Lay out a piece of cling film and roll the dough into a long sausage shape roughly 12 inches long. Wrap the sausage of cookie dough in the cling film and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours or in the freezer for 30 mins to rest.
- While the dough is chilling, pre-heat the oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4.
- Line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
- Remove the cookie dough from the fridge/freezer and cut into 12 even discs.
- Evenly space the discs of cookie dough onto the lined baking tray. Try to avoid them touching as they will spread a little while cooking.
- Cook in the centre of your oven for 18 - 20 minutes or until the cookies are cooked through and golden on the outside.
- Once cooked, leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- If decorating with cream cheese icing, beat together the icing powder, cream cheese and lemon juice until you have a smooth icing that just runs off of your spoon (add more icing sugar / lemon juice as needed until you have a consistency you're happy with).
- Drizzle the icing over the cookies before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
More cookie recipes
More vegan recipes
If you're new to vegan baking you might also find my guide to vegan baking helpful! You can give it a read here.
Leave a Reply