Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies

These carrot cake breakfast cookies are a handheld version of a warm bowl of oatmeal, with the flavor of carrot cake, and a deliciously healthy way to start the day.

As a nutritionist, you wouldn’t necessarily expect me to suggest cookies for breakfast, but here I am doing exactly that and I’m pretty darn happy about it! In the nutrition world, too often people use blanket, black-and-white statements to help guide people on what to eat. “This is good, that is bad, don’t eat that, eat more of this.” Although in theory that is a really great way to help teach people what to eat, it doesn’t leave much room for error and is a little too general for my liking. Fortunately, when created with care, there is nothing unhealthy about breakfast cookies at all.

When it comes to determining if a food item or a recipe is good for you, it simply comes down to the sum of its parts. For instance, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, at first glance that might seem like a lot of butter, but if it makes 24 servings, you’re actually only eating 2 teaspoons of butter per serving, which is a completely reasonable amount.

For these carrot cake breakfast cookies, I wanted to create a (healthy) cookie that could really serve as a quick and easy grab-and-go breakfast option that would actually fill you up and keep you going until lunch. So although these carrot cake breakfast cookies might seem large in size, they were actually created to replace an entire bowl of oatmeal, and when you break it all down, these cookies would create a perfectly balanced breakfast.

Based on this recipe, 1 serving of carrot cake breakfast cookies = 1/3 cup rolled oats + 2.5 tbsp. walnuts + 2.5 tbsp. shredded carrot + 1.5 tbsp. raisins + 1.5 tbsp. apple sauce +1 tsp. coconut oil or butter +1 tsp. maple syrup. All of which seem like completely reasonable amounts to me. So, serving per serving, these carrot cake breakfast cookies are an incredibly well-balanced meal, made with whole foods, and naturally sweetened, to create a sweet, soft, and crunchy on-the-go breakfast.

Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies

Author: Stephanie Kay

Made with rolled oats, walnuts, cinnamon, carrots and raisins, these oatmeal breakfast cookies taste just like a slice of carrot cake!

• Author: Stephanie Kay
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 6 cookies 1x
• Category: Breakfast
• Method: Baked
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Ingredients

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/4 cup oat flour*
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup shredded carrots (about 2 large carrots)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup raisins

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients; oats, oat flour, walnuts, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
3. Peel and shred carrots to create 1 cup of well packed shredded carrots, typically 2 large carrots or 3-4 small carrots. Set aside.
4. In a separate small bowl, combine the wet ingredients (except maple syrup); melted coconut oil or butter, vanilla extract and apple sauce. Whisk well to combine.
5. Add the carrots to the dry ingredients, stir to combine, then add the mixture of wet ingredients, and stir until everything is well incorporated.
6. Once the well mixed, drizzle in the maple syrup to help bind the dough and make it slightly sticky.
7. Add in the dried raisins and stir to ensure they are well incorporated.
8. Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to shape the cookies into large burger-like patties. You want the breakfast cookies to be big, there should be enough batter to create 6 large cookies.
9. Add cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and transfer to the oven to bake for 25 minutes.
10. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool. The breakfast cookies can be eaten immediately, stored in a tight container for up to 4-5 days, or frozen for later use.
11. Enjoy!

Notes

*Oat flour can be made by simply adding rolled oats to a food processor or blender and blending until a flour consistency if formed.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 357 calories
• Sugar: 4 grams
• Fat: 24 grams
• Carbohydrates: 29 grams
• Fiber: 5 grams
• Protein: 8 grams

Keywords: oatmeal, healthy, gluten free