Two weekends ago, my mom started craving carrot cake. She talked about it at lunch, mentioned it at dinner, and finally caved at 9 pm and drove to Safeway to pick up a slice. When she arrived home, she grabbed a fork, plopped down in her favorite armchair, and slowly savored every bite, stopping with enough left to finish the following day.
Although Mom bought me a slice of my favorite 6-layer chocolate cake at the same time, I couldn’t help but stare and hope with all of my fingers crossed behind my back that she’d offer me a taste. That cream cheese frosting… Those soft streaks of carrot… The tender cinnamon cake… It looked mesmerizing!
Despite enjoying every last morsel of my chocolate piece, I couldn’t get carrot cake off of my mind. I pictured that square during every run (since my path went past the same grocery store) and whenever I stuck my head into the fridge for fresh fruit and veggie snacks.
I seriously contemplated baking my own again, but knowing that my self-control flies straight out the window with any type of cake, I went with the next best thing…
Cookies! These Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies blew me away, and not just from their built-in portion control. The cozy oats, the comforting cinnamon, the soft carrots… Pure bliss in every bite!
I based this cookie dough off of the most popular recipe on my site: my blueberry oatmeal cookies. Have you tried them yet? Hands down, they’re the BEST oatmeal cookies I’ve ever eaten. They’re soft, tender, chewy—everything a cookie should be—and countless readers have said nobody believes that they’re lightened up and made without butter, refined flour or refined sugar!
For this version, I swapped out honey for maple syrup because I love its sweet woodsy flavor in my carrot cake, and I also added more cinnamon (it’s a carrot cake staple!) and carrots. Lots of grated carrots. I used one smallish medium carrot, but if you have a larger one and a little extra leftover, throw that in too. It won’t hurt the cookie dough at all!
There are two very important parts of this recipe.
1) Measure the oats correctly! Do not scoop them directly from the canister. Instead, measure them like flour with the spoon-and-level method. Scooping results in 1.5 times as many oats. Since those oats act like little sponges by soaking up all of the moisture in the dough, adding extra will completely dry out your cookies and leave them crumbly.
2) Chilling is mandatory! It gives the oats time to soak up some moisture and helps reduce spreading. If you skipped chilling, the cookie dough would flatten thinner than a pancake while in the oven and create one huge cookie blob on the baking sheet. Not good! So avoid cookie blobs and chill your dough. Just 30 minutes—that’s it!
To ensure the cookies stay soft and chewy, we’ll underbake them ever so slightly. Just by a hair! Pull them out when the centers still feel a little underdone, and let the cookies cool for a full 10-15 minutes on the warm baking sheet. This allows the centers to finish cooking through without the outsides turning crisp and crunchy. The cookies will stay soft for an entire week—if they last that long!
I tried hoarding these Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies, but that didn’t stand a chance around my hungry sweet-toothed family. Every time I walked by the counter, another one had mysteriously disappeared from the jar!
Oh well, at least we’re getting our veggies in… Right? 🤓 And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 😊) I’d love to see your oatmeal cookies!
My newly released Healthier Chocolate Treats cookbook is full of sweet and healthy recipes like these oatmeal cookies! Buy your own copy here!
| Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies | | Print |
- 1 cup (100g) instant oats (measured like this and gluten-free if necessary)
- ¾ cup (90g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120mL) pure maple syrup
- ¾ cup (68g) grated carrots (about 1 smallish medium, peeled first!)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup until thoroughly incorporated. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the carrots. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. (If chilling longer, cover with plastic wrap, ensuring it touches the entire surface of the cookie dough.)
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Drop the cookie dough into 14 rounded scoops on the baking sheet. Flatten slightly using a spatula. (The cookies don't spread very much!) Bake at 325°F for 12-15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
To make your own instant oats, pulse 1 cup of old-fashioned oats in a food processor 5-8 times.
For the gluten-free flour, I used as follows: ½ cup (60g) millet flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) brown rice flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) tapioca flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends (like this one!) will also work, if measured like this.
Melted margarine may be substituted for the coconut oil or butter. Regardless of which is used, be sure that the egg is at room temperature before whisking it in. A cold egg added straight from the fridge would rapidly cool the fat source, resulting in small blobs of semi-solid coconut oil, butter, or margarine.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the pure maple syrup.
If the cookies are still really flimsy after cooling on the baking sheet for 15 minutes and threaten to break apart, let them cool completely on the baking sheet. That won’t let them crisp up too much, and they’ll still stay soft for an entire week!
For all other questions regarding the recipe, including ingredient substitutions, please see my Oatmeal Cookie FAQ + Video page.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
unfortunately they turned out dry and bland. I followed the recipe exactly and took your advice on the flour and oats. They definitely didn’t have much moisture when I was scooping them onto the pan. DIdn’t spread at all.
They are OK, but I would have liked them to be sweeter. I think I will make a thin creamcheese icing and dip each of them in that.
That sounds disappointing Marcia! How did you measure the flour and oats — with measuring cups or a kitchen scale? The dough should be very wet, so if it wasn’t, then there were probably too many oats. What did you use for the sweetener? Did you reduce the amount at all?
I just made these and they’re great! I used regular flour since that’s all that I have. I also did half honey and half maple syrup, and I had some leftover fig spread (a tablespoon or two) so I added that in. I ended up with bigger cookies (12 instead of 15) and had to cook them longer which is typical for my oven anyway. They’re the perfect flavor and nice and soft/chewy. Next time I’ll probably try them with raisins or apples…I think it’s a very versatile recipe! Reading through the comments it seems like so many people have been able to adapt it – the sign of a great recipe! Thanks! It’s a winner!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies Andrea! That really means a lot to me that you’d call it a winner — thanks for sharing that with me! 🙂
Absolutely yummy!! I shared these with 3 friends and my parents! So happy to have found you! I made them as posted. Turned out perfect! So good!
Oh my goodness, thank you SO much for your sweet comment Rebecca!! I’m thrilled that you loved these cookies, and it means the world to me that you shared them with so many of your loved ones. Wow!! That’s the best kind of compliment — I’m honored! 🙂
Tried these carrot cake cookies tonight in search of healthier option sweets I could share with my little kiddo. I followed the recipe to a T and was so sad when I scrolled down and read that I should have pulsed my old fashioned oats before making the batter! I thought I had ruined them. To my pleasant surprise they still turned out fantastic!! We could hardly save any because everyone in the house was gobbling them up! Thank you so much and I love oil forward to trying more of your recipes 🙏🏼
I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed these cookies Katrina! That truly means a lot to me. 🙂 I’m so excited to hear what recipe of mine you try next!
I cannot have any oil, butter, or eggs.
Can I swap out a flax egg for the egg? What about applesauce for the oil?
Please respond to my email.
Thanks so much for your help!😉
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe LouAnn! I don’t have much experience with flax eggs, but I know that Ener-G will work! My brother is allergic to eggs, and that’s our favorite egg substitute. It works perfectly in nearly all of my recipes, including this one! In my recipes, if you choose to use Ener-G, you’ll need 1½ teaspoons of Ener-G + 2 tablespoons of warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of butter or coconut oil for each egg yolk. Can you have margarine or any other fat? If you substitute applesauce for the butter/coconut oil, the cookies will taste cakey and slightly gummy. The small amount of fat is required to get the proper texture! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try these cookies!
I can’t eat anything that has sugar, honey or syrup in it. Could I use powdered stevia and how much?
Your recipe sounds very appealing.
Felicity
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe! I’ve actually covered this on my Oatmeal Cookie FAQ Page, which is linked to in the Notes section underneath the Instructions. It can be easy to miss! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think if you try these cookies!