No Bake Freezer Carrot Cake Bars
These No-Bake Freezer Carrot Cake Dough Bars are an easy and healthy dessert that will satisfy your carrot cake cravings. Plus, they’re gluten-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, AND shaped like carrots for a fun and delicious treat finished with a white chocolate drizzle.
Servings: 25
Calories: 134kcal
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup rolled oats
- 1 ⅓ cup walnuts chopped or halved
- ½ cup pecans chopped or halved
- 1 cup carrots shredded
- ⅓ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 10 Medjool dates softened in hot water for 10 minutes, if needed
- ¼ cup raisins
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅓ - ½ cup white chocolate chips or vegan white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place rolled oats in a food processor and grind until it turns into flour. Pour into a bowl.
- To a now empty bowl of a food processor add the walnuts, pecans and shredded coconut until coarse flour-like texture. Don’t process too long at this stage. Add oat flour and process a couple times to combine.
- Add shredded carrots, maple syrup (if using), dates, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- Process until sticky dough forms. You may need to scrape the sides of the food processor bowl with a spatula a couple times. The dough should be uniform but not completely smooth. Visible small pieces of carrot and nuts are fine.
- Remove the dough from the food processor and form a ball.
- If cutting out carrot (or other) shapes with a cookie cutter, place the dough ball on a piece of parchment paper. Place a second sheet of parchment paper on top of the ball, flatten with your fingers and roll with a rolling pin to about ½ inch thick. If it’s very sticky, you can use a very light sprinkle of coconut flour or arrowroot or tapioca flour.
- Place the rolled out dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up. In the meantime, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the freezer, cut out 10-12 shapes and place on the prepared baking sheet. Place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- If making bars, line an 8x8 inch baking pan with parchment paper and transfer the dough in the prepared pan. Use your fingers or the back of a measuring cup to smooth out the dough. Place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- For the topping, melt white chocolate chips (or prepare icing of choice) in a microwave safe bowl in 20-second increments, place melted white chocolate in a small ziplock bag, cut the tip off and drizzle on the cold carrot cake bars. Place back in the freezer for 15 minutes for the chocolate to set. If you’re making the bars in the cake pan, drizzle the white chocolate on the frozen dough before cutting into squares. Allow the chocolate to set (in the fridge or freezer) and then cut into squares or rectangles.
- Serve right away or store in an airtight container lined with parchment or wax paper (on the bottom and between layers of bars) in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
Store the carrots bars in the freezer for best texture. To serve, take a bar out of the freezer and let thaw for a few minutes.
Raisins can be skipped and replaced with 1-2 more dates.
Walnuts can be swapped for almonds, or you can use more pecans and fewer walnuts, if you like pecans. Whatever nut combination you use, you should have a little less than 2 cups of nuts total.
To make these bars vegan, use vegan chocolate chips or make a classic sugar icing instead of white chocolate drizzle.
Nutrition
Calories: 134kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 54mg | Potassium: 168mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 873IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1mg