Soft and perfectly sweet carrot cake cookies with a cream cheese icing! Gluten-free, dairy-free, and naturally sweetened with maple syrup. These healthy carrot cake cookies are the perfect springtime (or anytime) treat!

Carrot cake cookies with cream cheese icing on a baking sheet.

What You’ll Need to Make Carrot Cake Cookies

Oat Flour – Either homemade or store-bought oat flour will work in this cookie recipe! Oat flour replaces all purpose flour, making these cookies gluten-free.

Almond Butter – Smooth and unsweetened almond butter helps hold these cookies together. If you don’t have almond butter, you can use any other nut or seed butter you’d like. Cashew butter would make a great substitute here!

Maple Syrup – These healthy carrot cake cookies are naturally sweetened with maple syrup. The maple adds a touch of flavor, and the perfect amount of sweetness.

Shredded Carrots – Wash and peel about three large carrots, then run them down a box grater to make shredded carrots. Or, to make things even easier, simply buy pre-shredded carrots from the store for this dessert recipe!

Overhead image of carrot cake cookies on a baking sheet.

Tips and Tricks

Gently flatten each carrot cake cookie before baking. If you skip this step, they’ll bake up like round little balls. Therefore, for a more classic flat-looking cookie, give them a gentle press right before putting in the oven.
Allow your cookies to cool completely before icing! If the cookies are still too warm when iced, the cream cheese icing will melt and slide right off. (I’ve learned from my mistakes here – ha!)
These cookies are best stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. However, if you live in a warm client/are baking these in the summer – it’s best to store them in the fridge instead. If the cookies with cream cheese icing are left in too warm of an environment, the icing may melt and spoil.

Close-up image of a carrot cake cookie with a bite taken out.

Adjust This Recipe to Your Dietary Needs

Make it Dairy-Free: While the cookies themselves are already dairy-free, make a dairy-free cream cheese icing by subbing your favorite non-dairy cream cheese, butter, and milk.

Make it Vegan: For vegan carrot cake cookies, replace the egg with a flax egg, and take the dairy-free icing option above!

Carrot Cake Cookies

5 from 1 vote

Recipe by Samantha Course: DessertDifficulty: Medium

Servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

minutes

Ingredients

For the dry ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup oat flour, made by pulsing rolled oats in a blender until ground into a flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the wet ingredients:
1/2 cup almond butter, unsweetened
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (or butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
1 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, unsalted
1/4 cup raisins
For the cream cheese icing:
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened (I used non-dairy cream cheese)
3 tablespoons butter, softened (I used non-dairy butter)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk (I used non-dairy milk)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Then, in a separate bowl, add all the wet ingredients except the carrots, walnuts, and raisins, and whisk to combine.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use mix until fully combined. Then, fold in the carrots, walnuts, and raisins.
Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of cookie dough onto your prepared baking sheet and slightly flatten each ball with the palm of your hand.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. Then, transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
While cookies cool, make the cream cheese icing by adding all ingredients to a bowl and whisking until smooth and well-combined. Then, spread or pipe cream cheese icing on top of each cooled cookie.

Recipe Video

Notes

These cookies are best stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. However, if you live in a warm client/are baking these in the summer – it’s best to store them in the fridge instead.

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What You’ll Need to Make Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins

Oat Flour – You can either buy pre-ground oat flour, or simply grind oats into a flour yourself. I always make my oat flour myself because it’s cheaper, and super easy. To do this, place rolled oats into a blender and blend until a flour forms, and no large oats pieces remain.

Apple Sauce – If you don’t have any apple sauce, feel free to use 1/2 cup of mashed banana instead! Though if you do use apple sauce, please make sure it’s unflavored and unsweetened for this recipe.

Maple Syrup – These refined sugar-free carrot cake muffins are naturally sweetened with maple syrup. I love the flavor of maple syrup in these muffins, you won’t even miss the sugar. However, if you don’t have any maple syrup, you can use an equal amount of honey instead!

healthy carrot cake muffins with cream cheese icing on top and milk on the side.

Tips and Tricks

Avoid over-mixing the muffin batter! If you mix too much, your muffins will turn out tough, instead of soft and tender. Therefore, mix all ingredients until just combined, then stop.

Let these healthy carrot cake muffins cool completely before icing. I know it’s tempting to ice and eat these delicious little muffins right away. But if they’re too hot when iced, the icing will melt and slide right off. So practice some self-control, and leave them to cool for at least 20 minutes first!

These muffins are best stored at room temperature, in an airtight container, for up to three days. However, if you live in a warm climate (or are baking these in the summer), you may want to consider storing them in the fridge. If stored in a very warm place, the cream cheese icing may spoil.

Adjust This Recipe to Your Dietary Needs

Make it Vegan: While I haven’t tested this option myself just yet, you should be able to make these vegan carrot cake muffins by substituting the eggs for flax eggs! Or, use this Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer in place of the eggs in this recipe.

Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Icing

5 from 1 vote

Recipe by Samantha Course: Snacks, DessertDifficulty: Medium

Servings

muffins

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Total time

minutes

Perfect carrot cake muffins, made healthy! Gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free, yet oh-SO delicious. These healthy carrot cake muffins come together in just one bowl, in about 30 minutes!

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup apple sauce, unsweetened
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk, I used non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups oat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/4 cup raisins
For the cream cheese icing:
1/4 cup softened cream cheese, I used non-dairy cream cheese
3 tablespoons softened butter, I used non-dairy butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk, I used non-dairy milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and line a muffin tin with muffin liners.
In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, apple sauce, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla extract.
Add in the oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Mix until everything is just combined.
Then, fold in the shredded carrots, chopped walnuts, and raisins until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted down the center of one muffin comes out clean. Remove muffins from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
While muffins cool, make the cream cheese icing by adding all ingredients to a bowl and whisking until smooth and well-combined. Then, spread or pipe cream cheese icing on top of each cooled muffin.

Recipe Video

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Share it and tag @samdoesherbest on Instagram!