Wholesome and flavorful, these oil-free, gluten free Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies are all the goodness of a carrot cake made into delicious, fluffy cookie. Tender oatmeal cookies brimming with grated carrots, chopped walnuts, sweet raisins, and spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. This yummy cookie is perfect on its own, but we took it a decadent step further with a tasty glaze. These sweet, guiltless treats smell divine while baking and brings everyone to the kitchen in giddy anticipation.
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Hi there, Ameera here!
We are carrot cake lovers! Chris and Katie go crazy over carrot cake too. We had them in mind when we created this recipe. These delicious carrot cake cookies are perfectly fluffy and cakelike. They are kind of a cross between an oatmeal cookie and a cake.
Mom and I were so happy! It took a few kitchen tests to perfect them, but we were determined to make it happen, and we are so happy to share them with you.
Sweetness
These cookies are lightly sweet. We wanted them to be mildly sweet as we planned to put a cashew glaze on them. They are kind of like a lighter version of an oatmeal cookie with a carrot cake twist.
They are totally delectable on their own, but the drizzle of cashew glaze goodness totally brings them to over the top decadence.
I’ll let Mom tell you more.
Hi! Robin here!
I love these cookies, they are so amazing. As Monkey said we are a carrot cake loving family so this recipe was a labor of love.
Make sure you read all the Tips for Success in the recipe notes section as there are some excellent tips to ensure your cookies come out perfect.
Freezing
If you are planning to bake and freeze them, we recommend that you do not glaze them. Cool them completely and then put them in the freezer. You can glaze them after you thaw them out.
I just love them, and I can’t wait for you to try them.
Looking for Other WFPB Cookies, check out our Christmas/Holiday Cookie Round-Up post.
If you try this tasty cookies, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
Products Used:
- Large 14 x 20 baking sheet
- Silicone pads or Parchment paper
Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 Minutes
- Cook Time: 17-18 Minutes
- Total Time: 32 Minutes
- Yield: 21 to 23 Cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Bursting with flavor, these oil-free, gluten free Vegan Carrot Cake Cookies are a delicious wholesome treat the whole family will love.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup rolled oats, chopped *
- 1 ¼ cup rolled oats, fine chop *
- ½ cup maple sugar *
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 Tablespoons flax meal
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon sea salt *
Wet Ingredients:
- 5 Tablespoons unsweetened plain plant milk – divided
- 3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup unsalted almond butter *
Other Ingredients:
- 1 cup grated carrots
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) (optional)
- ¾ cup golden raisins (or regular raisins)
Optional Topping:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Line a baking sheet with silicone baking sheets or parchment paper, set aside.
- Place 2 Tablespoons of flax meal into a small bowl, add 3 Tablespoons of plant milk, whisk, set aside.
- Place 1 cup of rolled oats into a food processer, pulse for 10 seconds, then place into a large bowl.
- Next add 1 ¼ cups of rolled oats into a food processor, process for one minute until the oats turn to flour (or almost flour), place in the large bowl.
- Then add all the remaining Dry Ingredients into a large mixing bowl, whisk thoroughly to combine.
- Add all the Wet Ingredients (including the flax meal/milk mixture) into the dry ingredients bowl, stir to mix, then add the remaining 2 Tablespoons plant milk. Mix well to combine, using your hands until the mixture forms a cohesive ball. Then mix in the grated carrots, chopped nuts and raisins. Use your hands to mix.
- Scoop up 2 tablespoons of cookie dough, using slightly dampened hands roll into a tight firm ball and place onto the lined baking sheet, then slightly flatten into a thick disk. Try to keep the cookies in similar size and shape for even baking. Repeat until all the cookies are rolled and flattened.
- Bake in a preheated 350 F oven (center rack) for 17 to 18 minutes. Remove and allow to set on baking sheet for 5 minutes to set up before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
- Optional: When completely cool, drizzle with Sweet Cashew Glaze.
Notes
Tips for Success:
- Use your hands to mix the dough after stirring in the wet ingredients. It will seem like the dough will not come together, but if you use your hands, it will. The dough should be sticky, but not overly sticky. Then mix in the carrots, raisins, and nuts with your hands.
- Cookie rolling: When making the cookies, roll the dough into a tightly packed ball. This will help when flattening the cookie into a thick disk.
- Silicone Baking Mats: We highly recommend using silicone baking mats to prevent the bottoms from overbrowning. We have not tested parchment paper lined baking sheets; however, we feel confident that parchment paper will work fine; however, instead of allowing the cookies to rest 5 minutes on the baking sheet, reduce the time to 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Baking Sheet: We used a large 14 x 20 baking sheet, then placed two silicone baking mats. We laid them vertically on the baking sheet, so that the silicone mats stuck over the edges a little. Just form the silicone mats to the baking sheet. They will stick up a little like an “L” on the wider end. This is fine. We place the side that sticks up like an “L” toward the back of the oven. If you don’t have a large baking sheet, use 2 small ones, but bake only one batch at a time.
- Cookie Scoop: We used a small cookie scoop (1 ½ inches in diameter). This helped keep the cookies uniform.
- Rolling Cookie Balls: Wash your hands in between rolling every 5 to 6 cookies so you can roll a smooth round cookie ball as some of the cookie dough tends to slightly stick to your hands.
- Almond Butter: If you refrigerate your almond butter, then remove the recipe amount and bring to room temperature to ensure that the almond butter is evenly distributed throughout the recipe. Cold almond butter tends to clump up.
*Notes Continued:
*Rolled Oats: We used Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats (Whole Grain). This will not work with instant oats. We used rolled oats for both the chopped and fine chop. We separated them so you can understand that the rolled oats are divided and processed two ways creating different textures and dimension in the cookies.
*Medjool dates and Maple Sugar: We get tons of questions about sweetener substitutions. We totally get it. Some folks want to use Medjool dates, while others want to use all maple syrup. We’ve tried these cookies using all Medjool dates, they turned out gummy. We also tried using all maple syrup, they just didn’t hold up. Honestly, the best sweetener for this cookie recipe is the combination of maple syrup and maple sugar. ***We also get a lot of questions about using coconut sugar, if your diet permits, you can substitute coconut sugar for the maple sugar. However, we have not tested with coconut sugar; many of our readers have let us know that coconut sugar works well as a substitute for maple sugar.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes 21 to 23 cookies
*Storage: Refrigerate, use within 3 days, freezes well (without the glaze).
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These made me think of morning glory muffins. But without all the sugar and fat! A lovely treat that isn’t too sweet, even with the glaze. Perfect for an afternoon coffee break.
Hi there Sandra 🙂
Yay, Yay!!! We are SUPER happy that you enjoyed these cookies! We love lightly sweetened treats like these, and we so glad you feel the same! Thank you so much for sharing your awesome feedback. We appreciate you! *hugs*
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Absolutely delicious baked and unbaked! Did not do the cashew cream as they were wonderful without. My teenage kids gobbled them up! My parrots got little nibbles and loved them too.
Hi there Darci,
YAYYYYY!!!!! We are thrilled that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed these cookies. We appreciate you taking time to write us an awesome review of this recipe! <3
-Ameera and Robin
I love these cookies with or without the glaze. I often take them to church potlucks and rarely bring any home. People will take these over cake and pie! I usually put a note on them about being gluten free and WFPB, but that doesn’t matter to most folks.
Hi there Teri 🙂
Yaaaayyy! We are so thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe and take them to potlucks! Thank you so much for sharing your awesome review with us. We appreciate you taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Absolutely delicious. I did not add the glaze as they were sweet enough for me. So yummy! Question? Have you tried baking them with convection heat vs a regular oven?
Hi the Paula,
We are thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your question. Although our oven is a combo regular oven/convection heat oven, we always use the regular oven option and have not tried the convection heat option yet.
-Ameera and Robin