Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies
Yields: 14 cookies
 
These cookies taste just like their namesake! Lots of sweet carrots coupled with the hearty oats and cinnamon makes them absolutely irresistible. Store any leftovers in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week… If they last that long!
  • 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!)
  1. 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.)
  2. Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
  3. 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.
Notes: It’s incredibly important to measure both the oats and flour correctly, using a kitchen scale or the spoon-and-level method described in the link above. If scooped from the container using the measuring cup, you’ll end up with 1.5 times as much, which will dry out your cookies and make them crumbly.

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}
Recipe by Amy's Healthy Baking at https://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2014/10/10/carrot-cake-oatmeal-cookies/