Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies (Gluten Free)
My son came home from school and shared that they had made these amazing carrot cake cookies in his cooking class that day. I immediately became inspired to make a healthier version because we all love that carrot cake flavor but I’m not so crazy about the white sugar he used in his recipe in school.
Our cookies here are gluten free, refined sugar free and utilize ingredients such as oats, maple syrup, almond butter, walnuts, eggs and CARROTS! Love the veggie add in and you can’t even tell its in there for any picky eaters you have at home! We are totally incognito here! You can also add in raisins if you like! I would do 1/3 cup.
These cookies come out perfectly spiced with just the right amount of cinnamon and nutmeg – nothing too overpowering here. And the texture is cakey but definitely cookie like as well. We absolutely loved these little cookies for dessert, breakfast or a snack!
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Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup neutral oil (or melted butter)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup (or honey)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
- 1 cup grated carrots (one large carrot)
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
Frosting:
- 4 tbs cream cheese, room temp.
- 3 tbs milk (of choice)
- 1 tbs maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, almond butter, oil, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth and uniform. Add in the oat flour, oats, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix to combine. Lastly fold in the carrot shreds and walnuts. Try not to overmix.
- Using a medium size scooper, transfer about 3 tbs of the batter onto the baking sheet. Bake for 17-20 minutes. Allow to set on the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to fully cool. Once they are fully cooled then you can frost them…
Frosting:
- Whisk together the Frosting Ingredients until completely smooth. Taste and adjust if needed to your desired drizzle consistency. Drizzle it on the cooled cookies and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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Stella, I have eaten carrot drop cookies since the 50s, they are the perfect pick-me-up when you can’t or don’t want something too sweet… Your recipe is delicious as is however we were spoiled with the addition of orange essence in the icing! It is such a pleasant addition!
Hi Veneta, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe and I really appreciate your feedback with the orange extract tip. I will try that next time for sure! Thank you!
Perfect way to use up some garden fresh carrots! yummy and nutritious with the added oats
Hi Lori, I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for the positive feedback!
Is out flour just ground oatmeal??
yes it is!
Oats contain a type of gluten that some people with Celiac’s disease cannot tolerate. Therefore you can’t really label these as gluten free, even if you use gluten free uncontaminated oats. So quinoa flakes could be substituted or rice flakes or another GF type of flakes.
HI Trish, we have gluten free oats and oat flour here in the US
Wow ! That recipe has a Ton of
Carbs ! There’s 68.3 carbs in the Oat Flour, 54.8 grams of Carbs in the Cup of Oats and 28.23 Carbs in the Almond Flour. No thanks !!!
So delicious but not too sweet. Could easily eat as breakfast bar.
Hi Hannah, great feedback! Thank you for sharing!
Yum! Loved these!! I didn’t have room temp cream cheese, so that messed me up a bit, otherwise I’m keeping this recipe. Thanks!!
can this be made without nuts
i cannot have oats. what can I use as a substitute?
Try Barley flour. I usually mix barley and oats flour in my recipe to replace all purpose flour.
love every recipe I watch in this page
Hello Fatima! Thank you so much for the support!!!!
They were very tasty, but I feel like they could’ve been just a little sweeter. Also, the icing was too thin. I ended up beating in a little more cream cheese, a few tablespoons of butter and confectioners sugar to thicken it and sweeten it. Looking forward to serving them at a pre Easter gathering tomorrow!
Because the frosting/glaze contains “cheese” … do they require refrigeration ? Better to drizzle as required ???
Hi Toni, i left mine on the counter in an air tight container and they were fine. but you can refrigerate them.
I made these as soon as I saw your post. They are delicious!! My family loved them. I didn’t have any oat flour so I just used regular flour and they worked out great. 17 min was perfect. Thank you so much for the recipe and all of your cooking and baking inspiration!
Hi Winnie, That’s so great! Im so glad the recipe worked out for you and the whole family enjoyed them! Thanks for coming back to leave your kind comment!
you can make oat flour by running oatmeal through a blender until you get a good texture. My mother used to make chocolate chip cookies with 1/3 oat flour and they were so good!
I’m allergic to almonds, what can I use in place of almond butter?
Hi Delia, you can use peanut buttter, sunflower seed butter, pistachio butter, cashew butter, tahini
Is a serving considered to be 1 cookie?
Hi Stephanie, yes the nutritional info is broken down per cookie
If you’re making these for a coeliac, please use *certified gluten free oats & oat flour*; regular oats are NOT GF – theyre often cross contaminated with wheat. Also, double check whomever they’re for doesn’t react to avenin in oats, as some cannot tolerate that protein.