I present to you my Spiced Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches with fluffy cream cheese frosting and gooey miso caramel. These carrot cake cookies are soft, tender and spicy from the ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. The sweet and salty miso caramel really makes these Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches a game-changer. I love that they also freeze incredibly well, giving you cookies on the go, all the time.

When I first imagined these cookies, I imagined crispy but gooey miso carrot cookies with a light cream cheese drizzle. I kept getting a soft and chewy cookie, which though were delicious, was not what I envisioned. I decided I didn’t want to waste it and thought I could make these into cookie sandwiches. Cream cheese frosting was an easy pick, but I wanted more miso flavour, which is why I made miso caramel. Sometimes my recipes don’t always turn out to when I envision them, but sometimes they turn out even better! I can definitely say I am really proud of these Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches and hope you enjoy them!

Soft and Chewy Carrot Cake Cookies

The key to getting soft and chewy carrot cake cookies is simply from the grated carrots. You need a fine balance of wet ingredients to dry ingredients, otherwise, they won’t hold their shape. I finely grated one large carrot using a microplane zester and squeezed the excess liquid out. You’re left with around 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup of grated carrot and it adds enough moisture and flavour to these cookies!

I tend to use brown butter a lot because it adds such a complexity of flavours. If you’re new to brown butter, you can read about it in my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe or read this interesting article about the Science of Making Brown Butter from the Science of Cooking website. I think the extra 15 minutes spent making brown butter is always worth it in the end :). I also added miso into the cookies to again, add more complex flavours. Miso adds depth and umami though it’s not necessarily distinguishable in your final result.

Lastly, how you bake these Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches are important. If you bake your cookies immediately they will spread giving you a flat and oily cookie. Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes before scooping, and another 30 minutes once scooped. As the cookies bake, they will puff up a lot, so when the cookies are around 70-80% cooked (at the 10-minute mark), remove them from the oven and tap the entire tray on a safe counter. These will deflate the cookies but still give you good height and texture. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 3-4 minutes or until the edges are browned. I tap the cookies once more when they are done baking and let them cool completely.

Miso Caramel

I think one of my biggest fears, when I started baking, was making caramel. It’s such a versatile treat made with simple ingredients, but it can be tricky caramelizing sugar. Caramel is simply made from heating sugar. When you heat sugar, sucrose starts to break down into many molecules creating a complex, and aromatic flavour. In this recipe, we are making a caramel sauce, which is a combination of sugar, butter and cream. I added miso and vanilla in the caramel to further develop the flavour and to create a sweet, salty, and umami caramel sauce.

Start by adding 1/2 cup of granulated sugar into a pot with high sides. You want high sides so that when the caramel starts to bubble, it won’t splash back at you. Over medium heat, let the dry sugar heat up. As it starts to melt, swirl the pan to distribute the sugar. Do not whisk as this will cause crystallization and create even more clumps. In the beginning stages the sugar may look a bit clumpy, but remember do not whisk!

As the sugar starts to melt, you’ll see it change colour from a light golden to an amber colour. When the sugar is 95-100% melted and has a deep amber colour, remove the pot from the heat, and using a whisk, whisk whatever remaining clumps. I whisk at this point because the melted caramel will dissolve the small clumps. Add in 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter and 1 Tbsp of low sodium white miso and thoroughly whisk in, for around 30-60 seconds. The mixture will bubble up immediately, so be careful not to burn yourself!

The last step is to return the mixture to the stovetop over medium heat and slowly add your warm heavy cream while constantly stirring. The mixture will begin to boil, and you want to cook it for around 3 minutes while whisking until the caramel reduces by half. Add in your vanilla extract at this point, so all the flavour doesn’t evaporate while cooking. Transfer to a bowl and let the caramel cool and thicken before using.

Tips to a Smooth and Chewy Caramel

1. Don’t mix the sugar while it’s melting: I find that when you mix sugar as it’s melting, it starts to clump easily and crystallize. Instead, swirl the pan while it’s melting and when it’s 95% melted, with a few small clumps of sugar, then mix it in with a whisk.
   
   
2. Caramelize to a dark amber colour: The colour of caramel will dictate its flavour and depth. The darker the caramel, the more depth, but if you cook it too much, you risk burning it. I aim to caramelize to a dark amber colour before removing it from the heat so that I have a foundation for flavour. The caramel will lighten up once you add everything else so don’t worry too much if the dark amber looks intimidating! Just be careful you don’t cook it till it’s brown or black, cause then you’ve burnt it and need to start all over.
   
   
3. Use warm heavy cream: Adding in warm heavy cream tends to minimize the amount of splatter from the caramel and also mixes in more smoothly. Simply warm up your heavy cream in the microwave for 20 seconds prior to adding it to the caramel.
   
   
4. Reduce the caramel: To get a soft and chewy caramel, you need to cook down the caramel after adding the heavy cream. At first, it will look very runny. But as you continue to whisk while cooking, it will bubble and begin to thicken. After cooking for around 3 minutes, the caramel should have reduced by almost half, and be thick like maple syrup. As the caramel cools, it will thicken even more, giving you that perfect chewy caramel.

Looking for other recipes with miso? Try my Brown Butter Miso Cookies on the blog.