Throughout my childhood, I looked forward to Easter almost as much as Christmas. Although the holiday came with far fewer presents, the Easter Bunny still stopped by while my brother and I slept and left Easter baskets filled with goodies… Just like how Santa stuffed our stockings!
So early Easter morning, typically before the sun started peeking out over the horizon, my brother and I dashed downstairs and skidded to a stop at the kitchen table. Once Mom snapped our picture for her photo albums, we began pawing through the shiny plastic grass in our special pink (mine) and blue (my brother’s) baskets.
The Easter Bunny hid most of our treats inside of plastic eggs, so we rattled each one to guess its contents before popping apart the two halves, watching at the candy spilled out. Milk chocolate eggs, a few peanut butter cups, plenty of Starburst-flavored jelly beans (our favorite!), some chocolate kisses… And if we behaved, Mom even let us have a piece or two before church!
To make sure the Easter Bunny remembered our house (and gave us the best candy!), we always set out something for him the night before, just like with Santa. But instead of milk and cookies, we left a plate of carrots and bowl of water on the table. My brother and I thought he’d appreciate that a little more!
Yet now as an adult, I realize my family’s Easter Bunny might have enjoyed Santa’s cookies more than plain carrots… So I’m finally combining the two for our family’s Easter Bunny into these Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies! They have the same chewy texture as classic cookies but the sweetness level of muffins (just in case the Easter Bunny “taste tests” a few too many pieces of the candy meant for the kids!). And with just 74 calories, these cookies come with none of the guilt!
Think your family’s Easter Bunny would like these too? ?
This is the next installment of my clean eating oatmeal cookie recipes series! ← Have you tried any of those others yet? (The apple pie and almond joy ones are two of my more popular recipes!) Just like the other recipes, these contain no butter, refined flour or sugar… But they taste just as chewy and delicious as traditional oatmeal cookies!
To start, you’ll need whole wheat flour (or gluten-free!) and instant oats. Instant oats are also called “quick cooking” or “one-minute” oats. They’re not the same thing as what comes in those individual brown paper packets! Instant oats are sold in canisters right next to the old-fashioned oats at the grocery store.
It’s extremely important to measure the flour and oats correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. Too much of either will dry out your cookie dough and make your cookies taste cakey, rather than chewy. This is especially true of the oats because they act like little sponges and soak up moisture from your cookie dough!
So I highly recommend a kitchen scale. ← That’s the one I own and love. It’s been the best $20 I’ve ever spent! I use it to make every recipe that I share with you here on my blog (and in my Healthier Chocolate Treats cookbook!) because it ensures my treats turn out with the perfect taste and texture every time.
Instead of refined sugar, you’ll sweeten your cookies with pure maple syrup. Make sure you buy the real kind! Skip the pancake syrups and sugar-free syrups because those contain corn syrup or artificial ingredients, which we’re avoiding in this healthier recipe. The only ingredient on the label should be “maple syrup,” and it generally comes in thin glass bottles or squat plastic jugs. I’ve also bought it online here for a slightly discounted price!
To make sure these qualify as breakfast cookies (not dessert ones!), you’ll only add half the amount of maple syrup as you’d use in my dessert oatmeal cookies. To compensate for the missing liquid, you’ll stir milk into your cookie dough!
For the classic carrot cake flavor, you’ll mix in cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg, and freshly grated carrots. Don’t substitute the store-bought pre-shredded carrots! Those are too thick and dry, and they don’t soften while baking. You’ll want to grate your own carrots because they’re much juicier and have an infinitely better flavor.
Ready for breakfast? ??? 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 breakfast cookies and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Breakfast 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
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60mL) pure maple syrup, room temperature
- 5 tbsp (75mL) nonfat milk, room temperature
- ¾ cup (68g) freshly grated carrot (about 1 medium, peeled first!)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg white, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup and milk. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Gently fold in the carrots. Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Drop the cookie dough into 15 rounded scoops onto the prepared sheet, and flatten to the desired thickness and width with a spatula. Bake at 325°F for 10-13 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Instant oats are also known as quick-cooking or minute oats. They come in large canisters, just like old-fashioned oats. They are not the ones in the small flavored packets of oatmeal. To make your own, add the same amount of old-fashioned oats to a food processor, and pulse 10-12 times or until they’re about half of their original size.
For a gluten-free version, use gluten-free instant oats and the following gluten-free flour blend: ½ cup (60g) millet flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) tapioca flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) brown rice flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free blends will work as well, if measured like this.
Any milk will work in place of the nonfat milk.
Do not substitute store-bought pre-shredded carrots. They’re too dry and won’t soften during baking, and their flavor is blander compared to freshly grated carrots.
For more tips and answers to ALL other questions {including substitutions and videos!}, see my Oatmeal Cookie FAQ Page.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
View Nutrition Information
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies
♥ Healthy Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
♥ Healthy Carrot Cake Granola
♥ Healthy Carrot Cake Scones
♥ Carrot Cake Protein Muffins
♥ Carrot Cake Bran Muffins
♥ Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes
♥ Healthy Single-Serving Carrot Cake Mug Cake
♥ …and all of Amy’s other healthy oatmeal cookie recipes!
Hi! I’m just finding these after being a long time follower. Do you think there would be a way to add protein powder in place of some flour? Or a way to up the protein content without messing up the cookies? lol Thanks so much! Love your site and all your recipes!
You are so sweet, Jillian! We truly appreciate your kind words, and I’m happy to hear you’re excited to try these cookies! We’ve actually had some success substituting PEScience vanilla protein powder for the flour in our pumpkin oatmeal cookies. It made the cookie dough a tiny bit stickier, but we didn’t have to make any other modifications to the recipe, including chilling or baking times. We can’t predict how other brands of protein powders would work. They all seem to behave differently when you use them in baking. You might also want to browse our Protein Powder FAQ Page to see if there are other tips that might be helpful to you! If you decide to try to use this whey-based protein or another brand you’re familiar with, we would love to hear how it goes! 🙂
I made these cookies and although they turned out well – the way they were supposed to turn out according to the recipe – my partner said they had a weird rubbery texture and the spices were almost too strong (he thought there was some kind of cumin or curry in the cookies).
Sadly he gave them a rating of 7/10. They were also not sweet enough (and I added in chocolate chips).
Just a warning to others who might use this recipe. The only thing that saved these cookies was a cream cheese icing I made that I took from another recipe.
It means a lot that you tried our recipe, Tiffany! That sounds disappointing and not like how these cookies are supposed to turn out. They’re meant to be soft and chewy, not rubbery, and the spices aren’t meant to be overpowering either. We’d love to work with you to figure out what happened! In order to do so, we have some questions for you. 🙂
Did you make any substitutions or modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section and our Oatmeal Cookie FAQ Page? (Other than adding chocolate chips!)
Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups/spoons to measure all of the ingredients — especially the flour, oats, and pure maple syrup?
Did you use whole wheat flour or the gluten-free blend in the Notes section?
What brands of spices did you use? (We’ve found that certain brands are much stronger than others, for some odd reason, so that’s why we like to check when we hear that the spices taste overpowering!)
Did you use pure maple syrup, or did you happen to substitute sugar-free maple syrup, by any chance?
Did you use a hand-held mixer or a stand mixer to make the cookie dough? Or did you make it entirely by hand with a whisk, spoon, or fork?
How long did you chill the cookie dough?
Can you describe the cookie dough consistency before and after chilling? (It should be pretty wet, almost like stiff muffin batter, before chilling. It should be thicker but still sticky after. Does that sound accurate?)
Did you flatten them before baking? About how thick were your mounds of cookie dough?
How long did you bake your cookies?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but we’ll have a much better idea of the potential culprit (and how to fix it!) once we know your answers to all of them. 🙂
Also, one more quick note! These are meant to be breakfast cookies, with the sweetness level of muffins or scones, rather than true “dessert” cookies. We have a regular “dessert” version of these carrot cake oatmeal cookies here, and that version is twice as sweet. Perhaps that recipe might be of interest, if you were hoping for more of a “dessert” level sweetness? I wanted to mention that too, just in case!
I made these cookies yesterday. I followed your advice on measuring the flour and oatmeal and it worked great! My husband likes them which is usual for him. I replaced maple syrup with sugar free imitation honey 1:1 I found at a health food store. It worked well and it helps lower the sugar content for my diabetic husband. I am thinking about adding chopped pecans for the next batch.
I’m so happy both you and your husband enjoyed these cookies, Martha! Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know, it really means a lot! I appreciate you sharing your modifications as well. We always love to hear about which recipe tweaks work well! 🙂
Could I use oat flour in this recipe? 🙂
We really appreciate your interest in this recipe, Dubinia! We have actually included the answer to your exact question on the Oatmeal Cookies FAQ page, linked in the bottom of the recipe box! I’d love to hear what you think if you decide to try these cookies! 🙂
Maple syrup is still sugar.
We really appreciate your interest in our recipe! We apologize for any confusion the intro or blog post may have caused. When Amy wrote it, she intended for “refined” to apply to both the flour and sugar, but we realize it doesn’t always read like that!
Is there a specific sweetener that you’d like to use in place of the pure maple syrup? We’ve shared many alternatives on our Oatmeal Cookie FAQ Page (there’s a link to it in the recipe’s Notes section!), but if your preferred sweetener isn’t listed there, we’d be happy to help figure out if it’s possible to substitute that in these breakfast cookies!
As a person who loves in general oatmeal and LOVES carrot cake this combination is EPIC. My father is diabetic and can’t eat sugar and he absolutely loves them as much as I do❤️
That’s the best compliment, Katherine! I’m so happy to hear that you and your dad both enjoyed these breakfast cookies! Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know, it really means a lot! 🙂
Hi!!
I want to make this recipe tomorrow, but I don’t have maple syrup at the moment, but I have fabulous locally sourced honey, could I use that instead? I didn’t see this in the FAQ of the recipe.
Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear you’re planning to try this recipe, Mariella! I appreciate you checking the FAQs first! We actually do have that answer included, it’s the tenth question down on the Oatmeal Cookie FAQ page (you’ll have to click that link at the bottom of the notes section to open it up on a new page!) that asks about sweetener options! It can be easy to miss, though! I’d love to hear what you think of these breakfast cookies!
I made these cookies for an event at our senior center in town. We had a request for a more healthier cookie so I trued these today. I made a small batch. I did use a scale to measure the oats and flour, and carrots. This was the first time I baked with a scale. I did have to use cornstarch as I did not have xanthum gum. Comments were very favorable and every last cookie went so I did not get a chance to have one. I think it is great to be able to offer a healthier cookie as a treat. I will try this cookie again and next time, I hope to get one
We’re so honored to hear that you decided to make these cookies for your event, Geraldine! I’m bummed that you didn’t get to try one, but I’m also happy to hear that they were enjoyed! I hope you enjoyed baking with the scale as much as we do! Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know how your cookies turned out, it really means a lot! 🙂