Healthy Carrot Cake Bars

These Healthy Carrot Cake Bars are a secretly healthy treat! Full of carrot cake flavors, but made without refined sugar, flour, and oil!

Tis the month of Carrot Cake. And we are starting off this celebration with Healthy Carrot Cake Bars. Cakey, moist, and full of carrot flavor without all the stacking, icing, and fussing involved in a towering carrot cake. Just pure, simple, and delicious.

But the question: Are you a carrot cake lover? Are you good with the vegetable/dessert thing going on in this classic slice? Like what are the carrots even doing in dessert!? Sounds questionable to you? Or are you a FANATIC about the stuff?

I am the later. There is something about the spicy cake and moist crumb from all of that carrot action that I crave. Plus, carrot cake just sounds healthier. It is the same as when I tell myself that the towering, cinnamon sugar sprinkled, muffins at my favorite coffee shop are healthy, cuz, MUFFINS. Even if they are just cupcakes in disguise...

HowEVER! These bars really are on the healthier side. They are gluten free and vegan, of course, but they are also free of flours, refined sugar, and oil! Magic: Healthy Carrot Cake Bars.

It all starts with a can of beans. White beans make up the bulk of this batter, and you must trust. These Healthy Carrot Cake Bars taste GOOD. Good as in the non-gluten free, non-vegan, non-healthy humans in my life LOVED these bars, and were shocked when they learned they were healthy. But not shocked enough to stop at seconds ;)

The beans are undetectable in this recipe, so long as you pulverize them in your food processor before baking, lest you have the unfortunate and tragic, almost scaring, occurrence of bitting into a chunk of bean in your bar. So pulverize away and the beans will completely disappear into the batter, adding needed moisture and structure to these bars.

With all the spices, the sweet maple syrup, and the grated carrot, you won't taste them a bit, but the dreamy texture they lend will have you thanking your lucky stars that you took the baking with beans plunge.

Healthy Carrot Cake Bars

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 9 servings 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: gluten-free, oil-free, vegan

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Description

These Healthy Carrot Cake Bars are a secretly healthy treat! Full of carrot cake flavors, but made without refined sugar, flour, and oil!

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Ingredients

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• 1 can cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
• ¾ cup gluten free rolled oats
• ⅓ cup coconut sugar
• ⅓ cup honey OR maple syrup
• ¼ cup almond butter OR peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup finely grated carrot
• ¼ cup raisins (optional)
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Add the beans, oats, coconut sugar, honey, almond butter, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves into a food processor fitted with the S blade. Process until smooth, about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary.
3. Add in the baking powder and soda and process until mixed through. Transfer the dough to a bowl and fold in the grated carrots, raisins, and walnuts. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

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Notes

 If you are not a lover of things like raisins and walnuts in your carrot cake bars, may I suggest the wise substitution of chocolate chips in this recipe?