These EASY Carrot Cake Oatmeal Breakfast Bars make a quick on-the-go breakfast, snack or healthy dessert made with zero refined sugar and drizzled with a delicious maple cream cheese frosting!
You are going to love these cozy and delicious carrot cake oatmeal breakfast bars! I originally shared this recipe back in 2017, but over the years I’ve had a few complaints that the bars were too crumbly and fell apart. SO I have tested and re-tested this recipe a few times, made some tweaks and I’m LOVING how they turned out! Cake-like with great texture while still holding their shape. The maple cream cheese drizzle on top is literal icing on the cake!
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- Super easy to make all in one bowl!
- These bars are made healthier with whole grain oats, almond milk and zero butter or refined sugar.
- Enjoy these bars as a grab-and-go breakfast, as a midday snack or even a healthy dessert.
- Perfect for Easter brunch and packed with a whole cup of grated carrots!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- rolled oats – we are using a mixture of gluten-free oats along with some oat flour to get that delicious cake-like texture. See instructions below on how to make your own oat flour right at home!
- baking powder – acts as a leavening agent to help the bars rise.
- carrots – you’ll need one heaping cup of shredded carrots, about 2 medium carrots.
- egg – adds protein and gives these bars their fluffy texture and height.
- coconut oil – for additional moisture and fluffiness! Feel free to substitute with another type of oil if you prefer or even butter.
- milk – I used unsweetened almond milk in these carrot cake bars, but any type of milk will work.
- maple syrup – naturally sweetens these bars without using any refined sugar, you could also use honey or other natural sweetener.
- vanilla extract – extra boost of flavor.
- spices – a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and salt
Feel free to add in some fun mix-ins such as raisins, chia seeds, chopped walnuts, pecans or any other type of nuts that you prefer or you could even sprinkle them on top of the maple cream cheese glaze!
How to Make Carrot Cake Oatmeal Bars
- Mix ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the oat flour, rolled oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, milk, maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla and whisk until well-combined. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, add in the shredded carrots, and mix until just combined.
- Bake the bars. Pour the carrot cake batter into a prepared 8×8-inch baking pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the bars sit for 5 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make cream cheese frosting. While the bars are cooling, add cream cheese, maple syrup, milk and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can use an electric mixer) and whip on high until smooth. Feel free to add in more milk one teaspoon at a time until you have your desired creaminess.
- Prepare bars. Drizzle the cream cheese frosting over the bars once they have cooled and cut into 16 pieces. Enjoy!
How to Make Your Own Oat Flour
To make your own oat flour, you simply take old fashioned rolled oats (or instant oats) and blend them in your food processor or blender for about 60 seconds until they resemble a fine, powdery flour – and that’s it! You can of course just buy your own oat flour at the store, but this method saves you money and the flour will last up to three months in your pantry. The ratio for oat flour is one cup of oats = one cup of oat flour so it’s pretty easy to measure out.
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Prepping and Storage
To Store: You can keep these carrot cake oatmeal bars stored in a sealed, airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge. I like to store them in a single layer to prevent the cream cheese from
To Freeze: These bars freeze really well too! I recommend freezing the bars individually and just pulling them out to thaw as needed. When ready to eat, just pop them in the microwave for 3o to 40 seconds or simply thaw out at room temperature. These will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months!
More Bars You’ll Love
- No Bake Almond Butter Granola Bars
- Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Bars
- Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
- No Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Bars
- Healthier Pumpkin Bars
- Homemade KIND Bars
Hope you all enjoy these Carrot Cake Oatmeal Breakfast Bars and if you love these as much as we do, please leave ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using the hashtag #eatyourselfskinny! I love seeing all your delicious recreations!
Carrot Cake Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup almond milk, or milk of choice
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup grated carrots
For the Frosting:
- 3 oz cream cheese
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 Tbso almond milk, or milk of choice
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together oats, oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla and stir until well-combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, add in the grated carrots, and mix everything until just combined.
- Pour the oat mixture into a prepared 8×8-inch baking dish and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the carrot cake bars sit for 5 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
- While the bars are cooling, add cream cheese to a small bowl and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Add in the maple syrup, a tablespoon of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla and whisk together until smooth. Feel free to add more milk a teaspoon at a time until you get your desired consistency.
- Slice the bars into 16 pieces and drizzle the cream cheese frosting over top, enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I had the same issue as Amaryah, mine looked like granola bars. The whole oats never “blended” into the batter and definitely look nothing like yours. That being said, they were still delicious but lacked the pretty, cake-like look I was hoping for, especially when trying to entice my kids. 🙂
Made these last night and they are so good! I’m always on the lookout for healthy breakfast ideas for my 12 year old daughter who doesn’t like breakfast and and she absolutely loved them this morning – thank you!
I’m so glad you and your daughter enjoyed these! 🙂
great
Saved this recipe, and will definitely be making it soon! 😁
I’ll be making these FOR SURE!
Did you make oat flour from the oats first? In your pictures they look so delicious and cakey! I just put these in the oven, but at this step at least, it looks more like granola than cakey texture… I also tried subbing applesauce for the oil, and added chopped pecans/walnuts and some hemp and chia seeds as well! We’ll see how they turn out!
The batter will look like oatmeal/granola before they bake, mine did as well! 🙂 And no I didn’t blend the oats, just used them whole. Let me know how they turn out!
They taste delicious, but definitely don’t look anywhere as good as yours….looks like whole oats still, but who cares, they taste great! And I forgot to mention I used a “flax egg” (1 Tbsp flax meal mixed with 2 Tbsp. water) instead of the egg, so these are easily made completely vegan too (other than omitting the delicious looking topping). Thanks for the great recipe idea!
Have you tried freezing the bars?
I haven’t tried freezing these particular bars yet, but I think they would freeze pretty well! I like to wrap mine individually with plastic wrap then place them into baggies 🙂
These look so yum! Could you freeze them after baking and then reheat somehow? What would you recommend to best store/reheat? Thanks a bunch! 🙂
Absolutely! I would wrap each bar with plastic wrap then place the wrapped bar in a sealed plastic baggy to freeze, squeezing as much air out as you can. To thaw out, unwrap the bars and let them come to room temperature then nuke them in the microwave if you prefer them warmed up 🙂
Thank you. We are a busy household with 4 people going at different times throughout the day. I have purchased (gasp) processed bars like these but now I can offer better. I am curious if you have tried any fruit bars like this? I loved the ginger maple chicken but next time will use breasts instead of thighs. My group didn’t like the greasy part and we know thighs are that way.
What could I substitute for the coconut oil?
Any type of oil would be fine!
Would honey work to substitute for syrup? Or what do you suggest for a healthy syrup?
Honey would be a delicious substitute! 🙂
Amazing! Just what I was looking for.
Okay so I made these this morning after reading all of the comments. I added about a 1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut, probably closer to 3/4 -1 cup of carrots and I used silk vanilla almond milk. The only suggestions I would make is maybe make sure that the almond milk is at room temp before starting because I melted my coconut oil, let it cool but when I mixed into the rest of the wet mixture it clumped back up (maybe its just the type I used but I was kind of dumb to mix it with cold milk anyway, it was early in the morning). They aren’t quite as cake-y looking as these pictured but even with the chunky coconut oil, they are quite moist and hold together well. I will definitely be making these again and I do want to try them in muffin tins. I commented earlier asking if anyone had tried in the muffin tins before but now that I’ve made them, I think they MIGHT get a little dry. I’m going to try doubling the recipe and making them in the muffin tins next time.
These look fantastic! I am a huge fan of silk cashew milk and I am sure this would work well with it!