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These Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies have all the flavors of carrot cake, but with ingredients that are better for you and a tasty cream cheese frosting!
Not only are these healthy carrot cookies gluten-free, but they’re also low in calories thanks to the addition of zero-calorie brown sugar instead of regular sugar. Top them with a cream cheese frosting, or enjoy the cookies on their own. These are the perfect desserts for a spring garden party or Easter celebration. Everyone, kids included, will love these tasty cookies.
If you like carrot recipes, you will love my Banana Carrot Bread and Orange Carrot Ginger Juice!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Just as Delicious as Real Carrot Cake: These cookies are just as tasty as a traditional carrot cake, but with way fewer calories and way less sugar.
- Only 15 Minutes to Bake: These paleo carrot cake cookies only take 15 minutes to bake, which is way less time than your average carrot cake!
- Gluten-Free, Paleo, and Low-Calorie: This recipe is way better for you than most cookies. It’s gluten-free, grain-free, Paleo, and lower in calories!
Ingredients
- Carrots: Use a food processor to pulse your carrots into fine shreds. Since these cookies don’t bake as long as a cake, you’ll need smaller shreds to ensure the carrots cook.
- Almond Flour: Since this recipe is grain-free, it uses almond flour.
- Raisins: I love my carrot cake with raisins, so I add them to the cookies. If you aren’t a raisin fan, you can skip them.
- Spices: The most notable flavors in carrot cake, aside from the carrots, are the spices. Capture that flavor using cinnamon and nutmeg in the cookies.
- Cream Cheese: One of the best parts of carrot cake is the cream cheese icing! I top my cookies with this icing to capture the flavor that I love.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Try Making Cookies with Other Veggies: Instead of carrots, try this recipe with zucchini. I also have a separate recipe for zucchini cookies with chocolate chips that you may like.
- Go Nut-Free: If you can’t have almond flour, but still need gluten-free cookies, try this recipe with gluten-free baking flour instead. Whole wheat flour can be used if you are not gluten-free. Coconut flour cannot be used for this recipe.
- Make Them Vegan: Make these cookies vegan by using a flax egg instead of a whole egg. Combine 1 tablespoon of ground flax with 3 tablespoons of water and let it set until it turns gelatinous.
- Dairy-Free Glaze: A simple switch to plant-based cream cheese in place of regular will make the glaze dairy-free without sacrificing that signature cream cheese tang.
How to Make Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies
These gluten-free carrot cake cookies come together quickly and bake in less than 15 minutes. The only time-consuming part is giving the dough an hour to chill before baking it!
- Step 1: Combine the Oil and Sugar. Add the oil and sugar to a large mixing bowl and use a hand mixer or a stand mixer to combine the two. Then add the egg and vanilla extract and mix again.
- Step 2: Add Dry Ingredients. Add the almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt to the wet ingredients and mix them by hand with a spatula.
- Step 3: Fold in the Carrots and Raisins. Use a spatula to fold in the shredded carrots and raisins until just combined.
- Step 4: Refrigerate, Scoop and Bake. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for an hour. While the dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 350°F and line your baking sheet with parchment paper. After an hour, use a medium cookie scoop to form the cookies. Gently press the cookies down a bit with your hands. Bake them at 350°F for 14-16 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
- Step 5: Make the Cream Cheese Glaze. While the cookies bake, combine the cream cheese, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla extract in the food processor to make the glaze.
- Step 6: Top with Glaze. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool. Once they are completely cool, use a piping bag and drizzle the glaze over the cookies.
Expert Tips
- Squeeze Moisture from Carrots: The carrots will release water when you shred and bake them. Be sure to drain the carrot shreds and use a paper towel to squeeze out any excess moisture.
- Chill the Dough: Don’t skip chilling the dough! If you don’t chill it, then the cookies won’t hold together and bake properly.
- Press Down Cookies: Almond flour doesn’t spread like other flours when it bakes, so use your fingers to gently flatten the cookies a bit before baking them.
- Use a Cookie Scoop: Using a cookie scoop helps you form round, uniformly sized cookies. I recommend using one for baking these cookies.
- Storing: Keep leftover cooking in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen cookies in the refrigerator for 24 hours before enjoying them.
Serving Suggestions
If you love carrot cake, you’re going to love these gluten-free carrot cookies! They have all the same spices and flavor of a classic carrot cake, but they are better for you! Take these to your next spring brunch or to the family Easter gathering. Everyone will love these cookies, so be aware that you won’t have leftovers to take home!
- For Easter, I will be making these cookies along with my hearty ham and broccoli casserole. It’s all the best traditional Easter foods combined into one dish.
- If you do Easter brunch instead of dinner, bake a low-calorie strata for the main meal and have the cookies after everyone digests.
- These cookies don’t have to be just for Easter. If you enjoy them year-round, you can use the extra carrots to make carrot cake protein smoothies, too. Then your afternoon cookie snack has some protein to actually fuel the rest of your day after you satisfy your sweet tooth.
Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe FAQs
If your cookies are falling apart, then you probably didn’t let them cool long enough. Since they are grain-free, the cookies need to cool completely before you can pick them up or transfer them to a plate.
This dough contains a good amount of moisture, which is why it’s important to chill the dough before attempting to scoop it. Chilling the dough gives the flour time to absorb more moisture, so you can scoop it, and the cookies will retain their shape.
Cream cheese melts when placed on warm cookies. If your glaze melted off the cookies, they are still too warm and need to cool for a longer time before you can ice them.
More Easy Healthy Cookie Recipes
If you tried this Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- ½ cup Olive Oil, or oil of choice
- ¾ cup Brown Calorie Free Sugar, or sugar of choice
- 1 Egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 ¼ cups Almond Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg, ground
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¾ cup Carrots, grated and moisture squeezed out
- ½ cup Raisins, roughly chopped
For the Glaze:
- 2 ounces Light Cream Cheese, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 1 tablespoon Low Fat Milk, or milk of choice
- ¼ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Using a standing mixer or hand mixer, beat the oil and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Then add the egg and vanilla extract and beat.
- Add the almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to the wet ingredients and fold in by hand. Add the carrots and raisins and mix until incorporated.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
- After refrigerating the dough, preheat oven to 350 F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a medium cookie scoop to form the dough into cookies by pressing the dough down slightly onto the pan.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges.
- While the cookies bake, mix together the ingredients for the glaze in a small mixing bowl or using a food processor.
- Transfer the cream cheese glaze into a small Ziplock bag or piping bag for baking. Snip of the end of the bag and drizzle over the cooled cookies
Video
Notes
- Squeeze the excess moisture from your shredded carrots so the cookie dough isn’t too watery.
- Be sure to chill the dough so it’s easier to scoop and maintains its shape as it bakes.
- Use a cookie scoop to keep the cookies a uniform shape and size.
- Gently press the tops of your cookies down to spread and flatten them a bit, since almond flour cookies don’t spread much on their own.
- Store your carrot cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 5 days or in the freezer up to 30 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Yes to carrot cookies! These would be fabulous for breakfast with a big cup of coffee and a veggie omelette. Haha already getting carried away! I totally get the busy weeks thing, especially with school. I’m a full-time student and what ends up happening is that you never are really able to totally relax. You can keep caught up, but there is always more studying to do. Often I just tell myself to stop and breathe!
I never even thought of them for breakfast, but you’re right. They would be perfect with coffee!
Carrot cake cookies are the best idea EVER! They’re healthy so that means I can eat the whole batch at once, right?! 😉
Definitely! Have a good weekend Sarah!
I love carrot cake, I just don’t like it when there are nuts in it. Raisins are ok and cream cheese icing is a MUST. Actually, if I could just eat cream cheese icing all day I would be set.
No nuts in these well except for the almond flour if you count that.
You’re killing it with the carrot recipes! Can you please start a delivery service?!
I can’t believe it’s already Easter… I feel like March didn’t even happen. Well, except for the whole tearing of the ACL thing. Doh. See? I deserve cookies! 😉
I would like to start something, but I would need to multiply myself. Feel better! It will be over with soon.
Hold up..carrot cake AND cookies. Like together in my mouth at one TIME?!
I think I love you. Seriously. I’mma make these!
Let me know how you like! I bet you would like the raw carrot cake even more!
You have a beautiful blog! I love the design, content and the photography!
Thank you!
With all the carrot recipes lately, I start suspecting that deep down inside you might be a rabbit. 😀
It’s possible or maybe in a former life!
I want!!! And I just happen to have all of these ingredients in my kitchen right now. 🙂
Have a great weekend, Megan! Happy Easter!
You too Blair!
A carrot cake obsession is a good obsession to have 😉
Haha, true. It could be worst!
I love anything carrot cake 🙂 I still don’t know how to get through busy times aside from reminding myself that things could be worse to get perspective!
I truly think that’s the only way you can cope.