Spiced Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Stuffed Cookies

It's fall so that means it's time to spice things up. These carrot cake cookies bring some coziness with toasted nuts, pumpkin spice (fun fact: this has no pumpkin but lots of yummy spices!), and a spiced cream cheese filling. They are perfectly soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside - so look no farther for your favorite fall treat (just kidding, I'll probably hop on the pumpkin cookie trend soon, but this holds in the mean time). I know the ingredient list looks long, but I guarantee that it is worth it.

Check out my handy dandy guide to units, conversions, and substitutions for those oddball ingredients (cough cough aquafaba). For more information on some of the ingredients that I'm using, see my post on A Cookie Experiment: Non-Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies where I discuss almond flour, oats, aquafaba, and coconut.

Stuffed cookies are made by first chilling the cookie dough so you can work with it without the dough turning to goop in your hands. You take a ball of dough, flatten in into a large circle, scoop some filling inside, and then seal it up. I like to roll my dough balls afterwards so they become a perfect sphere. You can also use the sandwich method where you split the original dough ball in half, make two little patties, scoop the filling in the inside, and seal the edges. Even though this can get messy, the cookie dough is vegan so you can always lick up the leftovers!

Ingredients

Makes 18 cookies

• 1/2 c + 2 T all purpose flour

• 1/2 c + 1 T almond flour (sub more all purpose flour)

• 1/2 c old fashioned oats

• 1/2 c coconut flakes

• 1/4 c white sugar

• 1/4 c brown sugar, unpacked

• 1/2 t baking powder

• 1/2 t baking soda

• 3/4 t cinnamon (1/2 t in cookies, 1/4 t in filling)

• 1/2 t pumpkin spice (sub 1/4 t nutmeg)

• 1/4 t salt

• 1/4 c + 2 T aquafaba (sub 1 egg)

• 1/4 c coconut oil (sub softened butter)

• 1/2 t vanilla

• 2/3 c carrots, finely grated, unpacked

• 1/3 c raisins

• 1/3 c pecans, chopped

• 1/4 c cream cheese

• 2 T powdered sugar

Directions

1. Soak raisins in warm water for at least 10 minutes.

2. Toast chopped pecans at 350˚F for 5-10 minutes (this makes a difference, trust me).

3. Mix together oats and coconut flaked. Lightly pulse in a blender until desired size is reached. I find whole oats and coconut too tough in cookies so I pulse them until they are coarse and visible, but not powder.

4. Mix oat-coconut mixture with all purpose flour, almond flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, 1/2 t cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and salt. Set dry ingredients aside.

5. In a large bowl, whip aquafaba until it looks like foam. Make sure to use the two beater attachments instead of the whisk attachment. If substituting with egg, lightly whisk the egg. Gently mix in coconut oil and vanilla.

6. Gently fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in drained raisins, toasted pecans, and shredded carrot.

7. Let mixture chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes until mostly stiff.

8. In the meantime, make the filling by combining cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1/4 t cinnamon. If the cream cheese is stiff, microwave for 10 seconds.

9. One the dough has chilled, scoop dough into 2 T balls (little bigger than standard cookie scoop size). Split the dough in half in your palm, flatten into circles, spoon 1/2 t of cream cheese filling onto one of the circles, cover with the second circle, and press the seams together. Roll the dough with filling inside until it forms a ball. The dough will become very sticky in this stage so make sure to start when the dough is cold and work quickly.

10. Bake cookies 2 inches apart at 350˚F for 15-18 minutes. Cookies are done when the middle is cooked but not hard, edges are golden and settled, and bottom is golden brown. The cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven and will harden as they cool.

11. Cool completely before eating.