Easy Vegan Carrot Cake Bites Recipe! These Spiced Carrot Cake Balls Need just 8 ingredients and 15 minutes. No refined sugar or oil. Roll in coconut or dress with vegan cream cheese glaze. Vegan Glutenfree Grainfree Soyfree Raw option Jump to Recipe
I can’t wait for some sunny Springy days! Meanwhile, I am making batches of these refreshing and quick Carrot Cake Bliss Balls! I made this carrot cake ice cream with roasted carrots and walnuts way back when and loved the roasted carrot flavor in it. The carrots in these balls are roasted for a bit to enhance the flavor, the get sweet and add a baked cake like profile. The carrots then get processed with the rest of the ingredients to make a dough that is shaped into balls or bars. Even with the baking, it takes just 15 mins of active time! Walnuts, spices, dates and coconut flour make these a fudgy spiced delicious treat. These would be no bake if you use raw carrots.
These Carrot Cake Energy Bites are Easy, taste like carrot cake, are grainfree, oilfree, are naturally sweetened and are ready within minutes! Lets make some.
More Sweet Snacking from the blog
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls with Rice Krispies
- Seedy Chocolate Snack Bars
- Golden Sesame Balls
- Mojito Energy Balls
- Banana nut Bars
Step by Step Photos
Pulse the walnuts in a processor
Add the carrots, dates, spices and vanilla and pulse again. Then add the flours and pulse to make a dough.
Shape using a scoop or your hands, then roll in shredded coconut.
How to make Carrot-Cake like Carrot Cake Bites
How to make Carrot-Cake like Carrot Cake Bites - Roast the Carrots! Roasting makes them sweeter and adds a baked like flavor to the bites. If in a hurry, you can directly use raw carrots.
- Cover the dish with parchment while baking. This helps cook the carrots faster and prevents drying out.
- Pulse the larger nuts before adding the rest of the ingredients. This ensures a smoother texture.
- Use soft dates or a combination of dates and raisins or dates and sugar.
- Add lemon zest for a fresher flavor.
- Dress with just coconut or a vegan cream cheese glaze for more decadent cake like balls.
Vegan Carrot Cake Bites Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (256 g) chopped carrots
- 3/4 cup (87.75 g) walnuts
- 15 soft dates (regular size), use 2 less if using large medjool
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) ginger
- 1/8 tsp (0.13 tsp) nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
- 1/4 cup (28 g) almond flour add more if needed
- 3 tbsp coconut flour
- 2 tbsp shredded coconut for coating
Instructions
- Chop the carrots into 2 inch pieces. Add to a baking dish, cover the dish with parchment (optional) and bake for at 400 deg F (200 C) for 20 to 25 mins(longer time for fatter carrots). (You can skip this step and use raw carrot, you will need a few tbsp more almond flour later).
- Add walnuts to a food processor and pulse to chop into an even coarse mixture
- Add the roasted carrots, dates, vanilla, spices and salt and process until the mixture is well combined and doughy.
- Add the almond and coconut flours and pulse again to combine. (You can also add other ingredients such as chia seeds, some vanilla protein powder etc instead of some of the almond flour)
- If the mixture is too sticky, add a few tbsp more almond flour and 1 tbsp more coconut flour and pulse. Taste and adjust flavor with a tbsp of coconut sugar or maple syrup for sweeter if needed, or add more spices.
- Shape into balls and roll in shredded coconut. Alternatively, drizzle some vegan cashew cream cheese frosting or, 3 tbsp coconut butter mixed with 1 tbsp of maple syrup, a good pinch of lemon zest and cinnamon.
- Store refrigerated for upto a 5 days or freeze.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Katherine says
March 15, 2019 at 11:29 pmThese sound delish! When you say ‘dates’, do you mean the large medjool dates or the standard size date?
Richa says
March 15, 2019 at 11:58 pmregular size. if using large medjool, use 13-14.
Mary says
March 16, 2019 at 6:49 amI don’t understand the roasting of the carrots. You actually cov6e the carrots with parchment paper??? Or you place parchment paper on a baking sheet ??
Richa says
March 16, 2019 at 7:50 amSorry, yes you cover them so that they dont dry out and also cook faster. i’ll add that note. you can bake them uncovered as well.
Aina says
March 16, 2019 at 12:46 pmmmm they look delicious! Are there any alternatives to dates? other sweeteners with fewer fructose? Thanks in advance 🙂
Richa says
March 16, 2019 at 1:48 pmyou can use coconut sugar or other sugar or a combination of dates and sugar, or maple and coconut sugar, or maple and stevia. You might need a tbsp or so more almond flour depending on the sweetener used. add 1 tbsp sweetener and 1 tbsp flour at a time till it is sweetened to preference and the mixture is not too sticky dough.
Galit says
March 19, 2019 at 12:30 pmThank you, Richa! This is a great recipe- I baked the carrots longer, toasted the walnuts, used the lemon zest and cardemon
Richa says
March 19, 2019 at 12:40 pmawesome!!
Pooja Hansaria says
March 21, 2019 at 5:11 amHi Richa!
Hope you are doing good! Please take it as a personal thanks for all your lovely recipes. Have tried quite a few of them and they have always got lot of joy and happiness on the table.
Would like to know if you use alternate sweeteners? Which ones and how can one substitute them in your recipes. Are they actually good like stevia powder and erythritol?
Jaggery doesn’t work. It completely changes the taste. Then once i substituted erythritol in your pumpkin bread. The taste was fine but the bread lost all its moisture.
If you can explain your findings about using sugar and how to handle it since we do lot of healthy baking and cooking as a family. Your breads etc are a favorite in my daughters lunchbox.
Awaiting your response and guidance.
Regards
Pooja
Richa says
March 21, 2019 at 3:27 pmThanks!
A combination of sweeteners would be a better option, so here for eg, you could use dates and jaggery, or half jaggery and half stevia /erythritol so that the jaggery flavor is not as pronounced. Also add more spices, and that will overall mask the jaggery flavor.
In baked breads cakes too you want to use a mix of volume/moisture sweeteners such as sugar, jaggery powder, dates, ripe bananas etc in combination with the stevia or erythritol. Just stevia or erythritol add sweetness but not the moisture and volume you would get from the sugar which the recipe is depending on. So use a combination, so that you get some of that moisture and te rest of the sweetness is from artificial sweetener.
Rhea says
March 22, 2019 at 4:26 pmAnother delicious recipe and a nice healthy dish that satisfies my sweet tooth 🙂
Keep up the great work, Richa! 👍🏼
Richa says
March 22, 2019 at 6:20 pmthanks!
Pooja Hansaria says
March 26, 2019 at 5:46 amHi Richa!
Thanks for your response on sweeteners and their substitution. However would like to know your views on -Are they actually good like stevia powder and erythritol? I feel very confused.
I read a lot on plant based diet, vegan diet etc. But they all use sugar. I did a plant based workshop so they advocate only date powder and syrup. Doesn’t work out every time and then you have to make it.
In India it is very difficult to find raw sugar which you or anyone else mention. The one I got from an organic store did not work out at all. Also there is lot of confusion on flours like we don’t get spelt or unbleached white flour in India. So most of the time I use recipes of gluten free blend.
Posing these questions to you to seek clarification and solution to have a healthy lifestyle at home. We bake a lot. Please do not think it is anything specific to your creative dishes. We love it the way they are.
Need guidance.
Regards,
Pooja
Lien says
March 27, 2019 at 4:31 pmWould you mind giving the carrot quality in gram or ounce? Cup measuring seems not quite accurate. Thank you so much!
Richa says
March 27, 2019 at 6:15 pmits there. See below the ingredients, theres a link to US customary and metric. Click metric and ingredient values convert to gms and ml. about 260 gm of carrots
Lien says
March 27, 2019 at 6:53 pmOh great! Sorry I missed that feature. I just made it this morning and my little girl loved it. Thank you so much!
Lien says
March 27, 2019 at 6:54 pmDefinitely 5 stars
Richa says
March 27, 2019 at 8:12 pmawesome!! thanks!
i’ll move it above the ingredients to be clear
Arika says
June 5, 2019 at 2:37 amSalut et bonne journée, tout ses chers lecteurs! I used cashews and pistachios instead of walnuts, and cardamom in place of ginger, and a mixture of a bit of date paste, more than a bit of maple syrup and some beetroot and coconut sugar..:-) And it was all heated up and blended quite thoroughly before adding it in. It’s quite a varied mixture of sweetners, but it works like magic. And of course, the vanilla and sea salt are a must. As a final touch, if I may add, I augmented the overall ‘la saveur de tout’ by adding 1 3/4 tbsp of cocoa butter. It’s simply not the same without it. Merci.
Richa says
June 5, 2019 at 10:10 amthe additions sound great
trish says
April 9, 2019 at 5:43 pmlooks wonderful! however I can’t use the coconut flour 🙁 is there a glutenfree option? Maybe just more almond flour?
thanks
Richa says
April 9, 2019 at 5:59 pmyup, just add more almond flour. Chill before shaping, so its not too sticky.
Les says
April 11, 2019 at 12:22 pmThese are fantastic! I think I am going to make this for Easter. This would make a great plant based ‘sweet cheese ball’ served with graham crackers. I hope to shape it like a bunny like the cakes I’ve been seeing with a fluffy tail. Thanks so much for this great recipe!❤️
Richa says
April 11, 2019 at 1:48 pmgreat idea!
Sharim Afnan says
May 4, 2019 at 6:30 amDo you think I could add vanilla protein powder instead of the almond& coconut flower mix? Or at least sub one of them? Thanks!
Richa says
May 4, 2019 at 8:18 amyes you can sub the coconut flour
Alfheidur says
June 12, 2019 at 10:38 amGreat recipe!
I tried it with raw carrots, because I haven’t got an oven at home, but im curious to know if i could possibly steam the carrots and dry w paper towels afterwards for a similar result to the baked ones?
Richa says
June 12, 2019 at 10:57 amyes you can steam them, let them air dry and cool completely then use
Priya says
June 19, 2019 at 12:06 pmAbsolutely delicious! Followed the recipe and they turned out perfect. They actually taste like a healthier drier version of carrot halwa. Love it and will definitely be making more of them. Thanks Richa for sharing your creative yummy recipes. 🤗
Richa says
June 19, 2019 at 12:08 pmawesome!! add more cardamom and they will taste even more like halwa.
Samina says
July 18, 2019 at 2:00 pmI made this amazing carrot cake bliss balls. I added a table spoon of maple syrup. The taste is absolutely delicious and frozen one is even better.
Richa says
July 18, 2019 at 2:18 pmyay!
Maneesha says
April 9, 2020 at 5:48 amAmazing recipe, Richa! They really DO taste like carrot cake!
Keren says
April 18, 2020 at 7:27 amDelicious! I made them with soft prunes and ground sunflower seeds instead of almond/coconut flour because that’s what I had. I will make these again.
Sylwia says
April 26, 2020 at 7:12 amMade them yesterday- soo good! The consistency is on point and the taste really resembles that of a carrot cake. Another great recipe! Thank you, Richa!