Carrot Cake Cookies (Crumbl Copycat!)

Love the frosted carrot cake cookies from Crumbl? Make your own copycat version at home with this easy vegan and gluten-free recipe!

After Valentine’s Day and all the pink + chocolate treats pass, you may be thinking St Patty’s or Easter is the next food affair…but all I’m thinking about Carrot Cake Season. Bundts, balls, cakes, crumbles – I’ve done carrot cake many ways already. But then I saw a carrot cake COOKIE on the infamous Crumbl Cookie menu and it looked too good to pass up as recipe inspiration. Unfortunately Crumbl doesn’t cater to the gluten-free/dairy-free/vegan crowd with its cookie recipes, but I certainly do. And oooooh did I develop I have a crazy-good copycat carrot cake cookie recipe for you!

How To Make Copycat Crumbl Carrot Cake Cookies

Crumbl cookies are known for being unreasonably large, extra thick, and extravagantly topped with all sorts of fillings and frostings and drizzles. So I set out to develop a cookie that was not only packed with the sweetness and spices of carrot cake, but also delivered that joyous over-the-top cookie experience. But at home! They took quite a few tries, but trust me this recipe is so Crumbl-esque you will think they came right out of the pink box.

The Yummiest Vegan Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Cookies

They had to be soft-baked but still rich and buttery, spread somewhat but still stay pretty thick, be dairy-free gluten-free and vegan but without sacrificing any taste. To achieve all of that, this is what you will need:

• Coconut oil + cashew butter. I really didn’t want to have to call for vegan butter in this recipe as most cake-like cookie recipes do. But it was tricky to find the right fat source to create the texture these cookies needed. Coconut oil combined with cashew butter in equal parts IS IT. The coconut oil is thin enough to help the cookie spread, but the cashew butter is thick enough to keep them moist like a cake. They work perfectly together.
• Coconut sugar. I tested quite a few different sweeteners, including brown sugar, maple syrup, cane sugar, and combinations thereof. But in the end, coconut sugar created the best flavor and rich golden color too for that matter!)
• Flax egg. I tested this recipe with two flax eggs, originally, but it was too sticky and binding. The cookies needed more spread, plus the extra water was making them gummy. So one modified flax egg ended up working perfectly, and by modified I just mean we are using a different ration of water to flax than the usual 3:1. Reducing it down to 2:1 (so 2 tbsp water per 1 tbsp flax meal) works better here.
• Gluten-free flour. I tried really hard to use almond flour in this recipe for my grain-free friends, but it just wouldn’t work. It didn’t have the structural strength, and the cookies were too crumbly and fragile. So a gluten-free flour blend works best.
• Cornstarch. To keep the cookies thicker like a cake, cornstarch adds some extra binding power and fluff. I will include some corn-free substation options later in the post…
• Spices. Cinnamon is a must, but I like to make my carrot cake a little extra special with ginger, nutmeg, and cloves too. Totally optional!
• Baking powder, vanilla, and salt.
• Grated carrots. Since this is a cookie, not a cake, extra finely grated carrots are even more important. I like to use the food processor to get a really fine grate (the actual processor, not the grating plates), plus it’s fast and consistent. Be careful not to go too long, it happens really fast. After grating while you’re preparing the rest of the dough, I recommend pressing the grated carrots between two layers of paper towel (or a kitchen towel you don’t mind staining orange!) to remove extra moisture and make sure you don’t end up with soggy cookies.
• Walnuts. I love a little nutty crunch in my carrot cake, and walnuts are the ideal mild flavored nut in my opinion. Pecans would be good too, either way toasted is best.

This cookie dough does need to chill briefly before baking, 30 to 60 minutes is perfect. I do not recommend chilling this one overnight, the cookies will not spread right. In keeping with copycat crumble style, for jumbo cookies you will need about 3 tablespoons of dough per cookie. If you go that route, you will only get about 8 cookies per batch. You can also scale it back to the typical 1.5 to 2 tablespoons per cookie, and still have a delicious carrot cake cookie experience.

Easy Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting

These cookies truly are moist and delicious enough all on their own, but the cream cheese frosting might be my favorite part of carrot cake so I cannot in good conscience tell you to skip this part. For this delightfully decadent swirly top you will need:

• Dairy-free cream cheese. Softened to room temperature. I like to use the Kite Hill brand made from almond milk.
• Dairy-free butter. Softened to room temperature. I like to use Miyoko’s for the best ingredients, but I’ve made it with Country Crock sticks before too.
• Powered sugar. This is not a health food, this is a frosting recipe. If you would like a “cleaner” option, try this recipe instead.
• Vanilla and a little pinch of salt.

Ingredient Substitution Options

There is some room for swaps and subs in this recipe so hopefully you can make these carrot cake cookies with what is already in your pantry and fridge.

1. Cashew butter → other nut/seed butters. Tahini or SunButter or almond butter would all work too, I just find cashew butter has the most neutral flavor.
2. Cornstarch → arrowroot or tapioca starch. This swap will not sacrifice anything, so feel free to swap 1-for-1.
3. Flax egg → real egg. If you aren’t vegan, feel free to use one chicken egg instead. The batter may need to chill slightly longer in this case to be easy to scoop and roll.
4. Gluten-free flour → all-purpose flour. If you aren’t gluten free, it can be subbed in 1-for-1. Just note the weight measurement is slightly different – 120g instead of 124g.

Cookie Assembly and Optimal Storage

After the cookies come out of the oven, they will need to cool down completely before you can frost and decorate them. Expect 3 to 4 hours, or you can pop them in the fridge to speed this up a bit. To create the classic Crumbl cookie swirl, you will need a piping bag. But spreading on the frosting with a spatula tastes just as good. I topped mine with a mixture of sugared walnuts and toasted coconut, neither is a must but both paired deliciously.

Just like with any cake or cookie, these will be best fresh while the cookie is as fluffy and moist as possible and the frosting is still soft and creamy. However, you can chill them even after frosting and enjoy a chilly cookie straight from the fridge. The frosting will not do well being stored at room temperature, so if you want fresh soft frosting I recommend frosting right before serving.

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