Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies

By Samantha Seneviratne

Updated March 24, 2026

  • Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
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Ready In
1 hr 10 min
Rating
4(143)
Comments
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What happens if you take carrot cake and cross it with oatmeal cookies? You get a lovely little portable snack that’s soft and tender (thanks to a bit of cream cheese in the dough), chunky in all the right places and drizzled with just the right amount of tangy frosting. Try the cookie recipe as written, or add in 1 cup of chopped walnuts or golden raisins for even more varied texture.

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Ingredients

Yield:32 cookies

For the Cookies

  • 1½ cups/180 grams old-fashioned rolled oats

  • 1 cup/128 grams all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • ½ teaspoon baking soda 

  • 4 tablespoons/57 grams salted butter, at room temperature 

  • 4 ounces/113 grams cream cheese, at room temperature

  • ½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar

  • ½ cup/110 grams packed dark brown sugar

  • 1 large egg

  • 1 cup/89 grams finely grated carrot (about 1 large carrot)

For the Glaze

  • 4 ounces/113 grams cream cheese, at room temperature

  • 2 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature

  • ¼ cup/30 grams powdered sugar

  • 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, warmed slightly

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Prepare the cookies:

    1. Step 1

      Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

    2. Step 2

      In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium, beat together the butter and the cream cheese until combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in the granulated sugar and brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes more. Beat in the egg and carrot until combined. Add flour mixture and beat until combined.

    3. Step 3

      Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Portion the dough into 2-tablespoon scoops and arrange them on the sheets at least 1½ inches apart. (You will need to bake the cookies in batches.)

    4. Step 4

      Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through baking, until the cookies are puffed and set, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks until cookies are completely cooled. Repeat with remaining dough.

  2. Meanwhile, make the glaze:

    1. Step 5

      Whisk together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Whisk in the powdered sugar. Drizzle in 3 tablespoons milk and whisk until smooth. Add additional milk until the mixture is thin enough to drizzle over the cookies but not run off completely. 

    2. Step 6

      Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies. The cookies are best the day they are baked. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
143 user ratings
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Comments

anna

Amazing cookies! Didn't have powered sugar so I left off the icing. Still delish. Mine took more like 18-20 minutes to cook.

SusannaC

Overall tasty but super chewy, maybe too chewy. Felt like I was eating half-cooked raw oats. (Maybe the sprouted rolled organic oats I used are more robust than Quaker.) Added 1 cup chopped walnuts and still only made 24 large cookies using 2 Tbs scoop (leveled, not heaping). Would have liked a lot more carrots - maybe my fine grater was too fine as they just disappeared. I think add-in raisins might result in a moister cookie than adding walnuts. Were happily eaten anyway.

Hailee

Wonderful cookies!! I added vanilla extract to the batter and icing - it just felt right & it turned out to be right!

second try

Used gluten free flour, flax egg, 1/2 almond flour, teaspoon vanilla, and 1/2 cup of oat milk in this recipe. The cookies came out soft, chewy and not overly sweet. Next time I’ll add raisins and less sugar. My cookies are not dairy free since I did use the butter:)

RunBakeEat

Halve the sugar and add 1/2 cup raisins for cookies that are “not too sweet,” and more naturally so. Baking about 20 minutes made them “done,” but toasting in the toaster oven after refrigerating made them nicely browned and crispy around the edges.

pat-s

I found these to be okay - maybe my oats were old, but they do overwhelm the carrots, and tasted to me like somewhat cooked dough though still edible. Maybe I over mixed since it was late, and wanted to try them. Since they don't spread or are more muffin-like as William suggested I baked them in small muffin pans with parchment liners, which worked well. I would not make these again, however, due to ok taste. Will try actual carrot cake next time or the recipe for carrot cake muffins.

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