Carrot Sandwich Cookies with Orange Cream Cheese Filling

These rich and perfectly sweet Carrot Sandwich Cookies with Orange Cream Cheese Filling are super soft and beyond delicious. You will love them.

I got an abundance of carrots in my CSA box.  Should I have peeled them, chopped them, and left them in the refrigerator for my family to have an available healthy snack?  Maybe.  Should I have whipped up a healthy side like a carrot salad or roasted them?  Perhaps.  Or should I have transformed them into an ultra soft sandwich cookie with a delectable cream filling?  Yeah, you’re getting to know me quite well, aren’t you.

I knew I wanted to make something sweet but I wanted something different than your traditional carrot cake.  These cookies are like two bite carrot cakes, but better.

I’m not gonna lie.  The batter was super sticky and you have to use your hands to make them into nice little circles.  But again, if you’re getting to know me, you know I’m not afraid to make a mess when I cook if it means getting to like the batter right off my fingers.  I teach my foodie-in-training kids well, you know.

This is what they look like when they come out of the oven.  These cookies are unbelievably soft.  If you like a cookie with a crunch, I’m afraid you’ll have to move on.

A real professional-quality piping bag is on the long list of kitchen items I someday hope to buy.  But in the meantime, a good old plastic sandwich bag with the corner snipped off does the trick.

Because I have OCD when it comes to food, I lined my cookies up with like-sized cookies so that both sides of my little sandwiches were even.  Then I arranged them on the cooling rack with their partners.  Then, I evenly distributed the cream filling so that each cookie go the right amount. Being neurotic with things like this brings me great pleasure.  I make no apologies for my crazy behavior.

Because… the end result is what you see below.  And these cookies were GOOD.

Carrot Sandwich Cookies with Orange Cream Cheese Filling

These rich and perfectly sweet Carrot Sandwich Cookies with Orange Cream Cheese filling are super soft and beyond delicious. You will love them.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 14 minutes

Total Time: 29 minutes

Author: Krissy Allori

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 2 cups shredded carrots packed
• 3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup packed brown sugar divided
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg beaten
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling

• 4 ounces cream cheese*
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup powder sugar
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper.
• Place shredded carrots in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of brown sugar over carrots and stir to coat. Allow to sit for at least 15 minutes to make the carrots tender. You should get at least 1/4 cup of brown liquid that drains out. Discard liquid and set carrots aside.
• Melt 4 tablespoons butter in small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon orange zest and 1 teaspoon vanilla. When butter cools, but is still liquid, add egg and whisk mixture.
• In large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, salt and baking soda. Stir to combine. Add sweetened carrots and egg mixture. Use hands to mix and form dough into bowl. Dough will be very sticky.
• Divide dough into two equal portions. Using half the dough, make 14 balls of equal size on cookie sheet in three rows of 5-4-5. Use fingers to flatten each ball into circles that are about 1/4 inch thick.
• Bake in preheated oven for about 14 minutes or until set. Allow cookies to rest on hot baking sheet for an additional 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Repeat with second half of dough.
• To make the filling, add 4 tablespoons cream cheese and 2 tablespoons of butter to bowl of stand mixture and beat with paddle on medium high speed for about a minute until light and fluffy. Add powder sugar, orange zest and vanilla. Scrape down sides and mix on low for about 30 seconds until well combined.
• Match cooled cookies into pairs of like sizes. Either spread filling with a knife or add filling to a plastic bag and cut the corner off to squeeze it out. Distribute filling evenly onto 14 cookies, placing filling on flat side of cookie. Top with second cookie, flat side against cookie.

Notes

* The store was out of regular cream cheese so I used light. Normally not a fan but it worked just fine with these cookies. Now I can say they're 100% healthy! {sarcasm}

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