Healthy Carrot Cake Bars

By Suzanne Anderson March 28, 2023 27 mins read 131 Views

These Carrot Cake Bars are made with healthy, wholesome ingredients and have all the traditional flavors of your favorite carrot cakes. For a sweet finish, drizzle with our homemade cream cheese frosting. Enjoy for breakfast or dessert throughout the year.

We love carrot cakes, especially when spring and Easter are around the corner. We have everything you need for carrot cake lovers: these vegan and gluten-free carrot cake bars, these raw carrot cakes bites, these carrot cake cookie sandwiches and these fluffy vegan carrotcake pancakes.

You can also check out our complete list of Vegan Desserts to Try this Spring as well as our top 22 Vegan Holiday Recipes. You're sure to find something for your holiday table.

The Key Ingredients That You Will Need

Oats For the best texture and consistency, we recommend old-fashioned rolled oatmeal. Gluten-free rolled oatmeal should be labeled on the bag. This will prevent cross contamination.
Peanut flour-Peanut Flour is made by grinding roasted nuts to a thick paste and then pressing out most oil until you have a dry flour. This gives the bars a pleasant nutty taste while remaining gluten-free. Anthony's Organic Peanut Flour is available on Amazon if peanut flour is not readily available in your local grocery store. You can also substitute an identical flour for the almond flour.
Walnuts We love chopped walnuts in traditional carrot cakes so we decided to add them to these healthy bars. If you don't like walnuts, you can substitute them with chopped pecans or omit them altogether.
Chia egg – This egg substitute can be made by mixing 1 tablespoon of chia seed with 3 tablespoons water until it becomes gelatinous. The process for making a flax egg is similar to the one used in making a flax egg.
Medjool Dates - In an effort to keep these bars as healthy and as nutritious as possible, we added pitted and packed Medjool Dates to sweeten them. They make perfect, chewy carrot cakes bars and have a similar flavor to brown sugar.
Applesauce-Another source for natural sweetness in this healthier variety. Use unsweetened applesauce without added sugars for best results.
Carrots Without fresh carrots, a recipe for carrot cake bars would not be possible! These bars are different from other dessert bars because the carrots add moisture to the recipe and provide the classic flavor that we love.

Equipment required

8x6'' baking dish
Parchment paper
Mixing bowls
Food processor
Wet spoon or spatula
Whisk
Use a cutting board or a sharp knife

How to make Carrot Cake Bars

Make the chia eggs. Mix the chia seeds with water in a small bowl. Allow the mixture to thicken for about 15 minutes.
Combine the dry ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
Puree the dates. In a large food processor, combine the dates, applesauce and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
Add in remaining ingredients. In the same bowl of a food processor, combine the oat flour and flour mixture with the chia eggs. Process again until uniform.
Add the raisins and shredded carrots. The moist carrot cake dough should be returned to the bowl where the dry ingredients were added. Mix in the raisins, shredded carrots, and flour until you have a cookie dough consistency. This is easiest to do when you have clean, wet hands.
Pour into a baking pan. Once the mixture is well combined, press into the prepared baking dish.
Bake. Bake the carrot cake bars for 22-24 minutes in the oven. Cool the carrot cake bars at room temperature before removing them from the oven.
Make the simple cream cheese frosting. Mix the powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Next, add the vegan cream cheese and lemon juice to the bowl.
Sprinkle the chocolate on top. After the carrot bars cool, cut them into bars. Then drizzle cream cheese frosting on top. It is easier to use a spoon or a pipette.
Serve. This carrot dessert can be enjoyed at room temperature or chilled.

Serving Suggestions

These carrot cake bars are a great choice for breakfast, snack, or healthy dessert. Enjoy it with a tall glass homemade almond milk, a side dish of fresh fruit, or as you prefer.

These carrot cake bars are delicious, but you might also like these spring-inspired treats: Golden Milk Cinnamon Rolls and Gluten-Free Lemon Poppyseed breakfast cookies.

Instructions for Storage

These carrot cake bars can be stored in an airtight container for up to one week in the fridge. You can freeze the bars.

Do not use cream cheese frosting if you freeze. Follow the recipe to the end and let the bars cool completely. Wrap the bars tightly in plastic wrap or other reusable wrap once they have cooled to room temperature. Place them into a freezer bag. This will protect the bars from freezing and preserve their amazing flavors. These bars can be frozen for up to three months.

Frosted carrot cake bars can be thawed in the refrigerator until softened.

Here are more homemade dessert bars you might like:

Creamy Lemon Rosemary Bars: The best vegan lemon bars made with fresh lemon juice, lemon zest.
Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie bars - These dessert bars can be made in minutes, are vegan, and are oil-free.
Peanut Butter Squares: A quick and delicious dessert recipe, ready in 30 minutes.
Vegan Cheesecake Brownies – Delicious brownies with a layer cheesecake. It tastes as good as it sounds.
Classic Vegan Brownies - This is one of our most loved recipes! These fudgy bars are irresistible!

Let us know what you think about this recipe by commenting below. + Tag @sweetsimplevegan or @consciouschris if you upload photos to Instagram. We love seeing your photos!

Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Bars Recipe

Author: Jasmine @ Sweet Simple Vegan
Total Time: 39 minutes
Yield: 10 bars

Print Recipe

Description

Ingredients

Dry

2 cups gluten free rolled oatmeal
1/4 cup peanut flour
1/4 cup walnuts chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt

It is a wet environment

1 chia "egg" (1 tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp water)
Half cup organic Medjool dates. Pitted and packed
1/4 Cup unsweetened organic applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup grated carrots
2 tablespoon raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting (optional, but highly recommended)

1/2 cup organic sugar powdered
2 tablespoons Vegan Cream Cheese (we used Kite Hill).
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup unsweetened almondmilk (+ more if needed to thin)

Cook Mode Stop your screen going dark

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Line a small 8x6" baking dish with parchment paper.
Prepare the chia eggs in a small bowl or cup. Mix the chia seeds with water. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Set aside.
Add the dates, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and applesauce to a food processor. Blend until all ingredients are well combined. Combine the dry ingredients with the chia eggs and process until smooth. (see notes)
Mix the shredded carrots and the dough together in the bowl. Mix everything with your wet hands until it is uniform. You will get a cookie dough consistency.
Place the dough in a lined baking dish. Press it down with a spatula, or a wet spoon to seal the edges.
Bake for 22-24 minutes. Allow it to cool completely.
Prepare the frosting while you wait. Mix the powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl. Mix everything until smooth. Add more almond milk if necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Set aside.
After the bars cool, transfer them onto a cutting board. Once you have cut your bars to your preferred size, Ours were cut into 10 pieces. As desired, drizzle the cream cheese frosting on top.
Place it in an airtight container. Keep it in the fridge for at least 5-7 days.

Notes

You can make the bars more chunky by not adding the dry mixture to the food processor. Instead, place it in a large bowl and continue with the rest of the steps.
For baking, we used a Pyrex 6 cup dish.
All frosting is included in the nutrition facts.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 24 minutes

You will love these Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches if you like this recipe! Click on the image to see

Nutri Fox provides nutrition facts label

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored. This page could contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Sweet Simple Vegan!

Sweet Simple Vegan's first article was Healthy Carrot Cake Bars

By: Jasmine Briones
Title: Healthy Carrot Cake Bars
Sourced From: sweetsimplevegan.com/vegan-carrot-cake-granola-bars/
Published Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2023 19:03:00 +0000

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How To

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