Spiced Carrot Oatmeal Cookies — All the flavors of richly spiced carrot cake, but in cookie form! Soft, chewy, extremely moist, and not at all cakey! The cookies are loaded with oats, spices, grated carrots, and butterscotch chips!
Table of Contents
These easy oatmeal carrot cookies are supremely moist, soft, and chewy without being cakey. I like my cake to be cakey, but never cookies.
They’re loaded with texture from the carrots, oats, raisins, and butterscotch chips.
The carrot cake cookies are pleasantly spiced, and just robust enough, but not overdone. Bland carrot cake is so unappetizing, and carrots desserts like this can stand up to a lot of spices without becoming overpowered. In fact, they necessitate a heavier hand when adding spices.
These carrot oatmeal cookies are a new favorite and are some of the best cookies I’ve made all year, and I bake a new cookie recipe nearly every week. In large part due to the spices used, they remind me of a perfect slice of carrot cake, minus any cakiness, and I kept reaching for one more. One more.
They have soft, tender interiors with chewy edges. They stay moist for days and get softer the second and third day because brown sugar is hydrophilic (absorbing atmospheric moisture), rather than drying out.
Juicy raisins, oats, carrot shreds, and sweet butterscotch chips lend so much chew factor and texture. I live for those thick, dense, loaded-up cookies.
Recipe Ingredients
To make this easy carrot cake oat cookies recipe, you’ll need:
- Egg
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Spices
- All-purpose flour
- Rolled oats
- Baking soda
- Grated carrots
- Butterscotch chips
- Raisins
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Carrot Oatmeal Cookies
- Combine the egg, butter, sugars, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the spices and dry ingredients.
- Scoop the cookie dough into mounds and place on a parchment paper-lined baking tray. Chill for at least 3 hours.
- Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centers are just set.
A Note About the Bake Time
I strongly recommend baking the cookies at the lower end of the range (9 minutes). The carrot cookies firm up considerably as they cool, so don’t be afraid to pull them even if the tops look glossy and under-done. Overbaking will turn these softies in rocks, with overly browned bottoms.
Recipe FAQs
No! Rolled oats (aka old-fashioned oats) are a must. Instant oats are too powdery and would result in dry cookies.
Yes, you’re welcome to use whatever mixture of butterscotch chips, raisins, and chopped nuts that you’d like.
Sure! If you don’t like raisins or butterscotch, and prefer nuts and white chocolate, or nothing at all other than just carrots, suit yourself. You can keep these carrot cake oat cookies classic or load them up with mix-ins.
Yes, baked carrot cake cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. To thaw, place on your countertop or gently reheat in the microwave.
I don’t see why not! I’m not sure how much cream cheese frosting you’d need to make, but I bet the frosting I used on these Carrot Cake Cupcakes would work well here.
Tips for Making These Cookies
Grating the carrots: I prefer to grate the carrots by hand with a box grater using the coarsest blade. It’s three-quarters of a cup, about two medium carrots, and takes one minute. Bagged shredded carrots from the grocery store just aren’t the same and it isn’t a job worthy of dirtying my food processor.
Measuring grated carrots: I measure them by loosely piling them into a one cup measure, and as long as it’s at least three-quarters full, or a skimpy one-cup, that’s ideal.
Scooping out the dough: After the dough comes together, I highly recommend using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop to form mounds and place them on a large plate. The dough is soft and messy and being able to dig into the mixing bowl as if it were a bowl of ice cream, using a scoop, is so much neater and easier.
Storage Instructions
Store cookies airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
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Carrot Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup old-fashioned whole rolled oats, (NOT instant or quick cook)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ heaping cup grated carrots, loosely packed
- ½ to ⅔ cup butterscotch chips, or white chocolate chips (optional)
- ½ cup raisins or nuts, (optional)
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl with hand mixer), combine the egg, butter, sugars, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, optional salt, and beat momentarily to incorporate.
- Add the flour, oats, baking soda, and beat until just combined, less than 1 minute.
- Add the carrots and beat to incorporate, about 30 seconds.
- Add the optional butterscotch chips, raisins, and beat to incorporate, about 30 seconds.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons) or your hands, scoop out mounds of dough (I made 22) and place them on a large plate. Flatten mounds just slightly with heel of your hand.
- Cover plate with plasticwrap and refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days, before baking. Dough is far too soft and moist, and is unsuitable for baking until it’s been chilled or cookies will spread dramatically.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line 2 baking sheets with Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mats, parchment, or spray with cooking spray; set aside. Space dough 2 inches apart (8 per tray) and bake for 9 to 11 minutes (I recommend the lower end of that range), or until tops have just set, even if slightly underbaked and glossy in the center. Cookies firm up as they cool, and baking too long results in cookies that set up too crisp and hard with overdone undersides (The cookies shown in the photos were baked for just over 9 minutes, with trays rotated at the 5-minute mark, and have chewy edges with pillowy, soft centers).
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- As written, cookies are pleasantly spiced and robust, without being over-spiced, but dial down the amounts as written and adjust to taste if you’re particularly sensitive.
- Store cookies airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Originally published April 29, 2013 and republished March 27, 2020 with updated text.
I don’t have allspice so what can I use to replace it as with the virus going on I try real hard to stay out of the store. Any suggestions please let me know.
This
Merry
I think if you just up the amount of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg a little bit it will totally compensate for any lost flavor. You could also always play around with other spices like ginger or white pepper.
Oh, yum!
These cookies turned out awesome, although the cooking time was more like 15 minutes for me, otherwise the middles were still batter. I stuck the cookie trays in the freezer for a few minutes instead of refrigerating 😬 worked fine for me! Great recipe especially with some cream cheese frosting :) the ads on this page are truly obnoxious though and almost make it unreadable on mobile
I think that you had a longer bake time because you put them in the freezer already formed into cookies. I use a similar process when I want a molten center in a chocolate soufflé. I don’t think its truly an issue with this recipe. Ps. sry I don’t mean to be a know it all. I just want to make sure other readers don’t over bake their cookies.
Can the dough just be chilled in one bowl and then spooned out when ready to bake, or does it make a difference if they are already spooned out before chilling?
Not unless you want to chisel out rock hard dough and bend your spoon or cookie scoop :)
So form the balls, chill, bake.
These are THEEEEE best cookies!!! We made them last night to have a road trip snack for today. Well, 6 were gone after cooling 10 minutes. After that we figured we better not take the rest because they’d be gone before our driveway was cold. We bagged a few for today & put the rest in the freezer. Thank you so much, can’t wait to share this recipe with our grandkids:)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! So great that they were almost gone before they came out of the oven :) I love that you love these cookies…ME TOO! They’re one of my personal faves! So glad you enjoyed them, too!
Epic fail. So dissapointed these didn’t turn out and I followed recipe to “a tee”. Worst part? I doubled the recipe…ugh
If you give me more info I may be able to help troubleshoot what and where things took a wrong turn. When baking with fruit/veg, there are some variables to consider. I am sorry they didn’t work for you but thanks for trying the recipe.