I love it when a spur-of-the-moment idea works out. Like really works out.
After lunch yesterday I wanted some little sweet treat. At first I thought chocolate but my second thought was lemon and vanilla. I’ve been trying to come up with an awesome carrot cake alternative for a little while, something full of real food and serious nutrition but with all of the moistness and natural sweetness of a good carrot cake.
Carrot Cake Balls are born.
Tate ate lots of these yesterday and remarked every time that they tasted like cream cheese frosting. You can thank the vanilla and lemon zest for that one. He often finds my “sweets” not sweet enough for his palate but these got two thumbs up.
Carrot Cake Balls
Raw, can be gluten free when made with gf oats, refined sugar and flour free
Equipment needed: Food processor
Makes 12 balls
- 10 dates
- 1 cup oats
- 1 small-medium carrot finely grated
- zest from one lemon
- splash of vanilla
- pinch of salt
- ~15 almonds crushed
- Put the dates in the food processor and process until date pieces are about the size of raisins. NOTE: your food processor may sound like it hates this, mine jumps around a little at first. To help this process along or if your blades aren’t very sharp you can chop the dates before putting them in the processor.
- Add the oats and process until the oats are floury.
- Add grated carrot, zest, vanilla, and salt and process until the ‘dough’ comes together in a ball.
- Use clean hands to form a dozen balls.
- Roll in crushed almonds and store in a jar or tupperware in the fridge until devoured (or freeze for longer keeping!).
(yeah, there’s not a dozen balls there because several landed in my mouth before the camera came out…mmmmm….)
What spur-of-the-moment kitchen creation has turned out better than expected for you lately?
sounds like a great recipe – I’m going to give it a try this weekend.
my spur of the moment treats usually do involve chocolate – like cocoa with a little nut butter or some dark chocolate bark with lots of dried fruit & walnuts.
I used to eat peanut butter, honey, and cocoa a lot for a little evening treat-so good!
yay what a perfect little dessert treat! I recently made cilantro garlic fries spur of the moment and i think they turned out pretty well. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Cilantro garlic fries sound awesome, I’ve been on a big potato kick lately!
I just made these, and I added coconut oil, coconut flakes, cinnamon, and cloves and tripled the recipe. Those are seriously the most tasty healthy dessert I’ve EVER eaten. Bravo, Faith!
:)!!!!! YAY! I was thinking rolling them in coconut flakes instead of almonds would be awesome (but I didn’t have any coconut…). SO HAPPY you loved them!
I really admire your creative instinct. Kudos.
Ohhhh I want to make these!!
But can I leave out the carrot 😉
AHH! Those look so good! I need lemon zest!
Lemon zest is my new staple! It adds SO much to everything, I don’t know why it took me so long to get into it.
These look great Faith! It was lovely seeing you again on Saturday at the meet-up. I hope you had a nice visit to West VA.
Great to see you too, thanks again for the balls!
These look amazing! I can’t wait to make them!
Faith’s Carrot Cake Truffles | I Dream of Beets
[…] He eschews processed food and makes a big stink about my liberal use of sugar. When I came across Faith’s carrot cake balls, I experienced the following: heart palpitations, profuse sweat, and a desire to break out in […]
These are DELICIOUS!!! We had fresh coconut in our fridge so I grated a bit up and added it to the balls and they were so yummy! Thanks for the great recipe!!!
Glad you like them!
Hi Faith,
Just wanted to say that I am a fellow blogger and a sometimes “lurker” on your site. 😉 I had tagged these carrot balls to try as I am always looking for tasty and healthy treats. I have been helping lead a group at my local Whole Foods who are going through a 28-day Engine 2 diet challenge (vegan, no oil) and I have been demoing different easy recipes for them to try. Last night was “E-2 approved desserts” and I wanted something not chocolate to add to the roster (banana “nice” cream, flourless/eggless peanut butter choc. chip cookies & E-2 brownies) and I whipped up a double batch of your recipe as it fits the criteria for this eating plan. I thought they were really tasty and the group of about 20 LOVED them–both the taste and how easy they were to make. There are 2 nut sensitive people in the group so I rolled some in sesame seeds (thought about coconut but I was out) which worked well too. I credited you and your blog on their copy of the recipe. Anyway, I’ll stop writing a book here but just wanted to let you know what a wonderful recipe it is and to thank you for posting it. Have a great day!
Aloha,
Deb
Kahakai Kitchen
Hi Deb,
Thanks for letting me know and I’m so glad that you all liked them! I’m looking forward to checking out your blog.
I can’t wait to try these. I’ve been trying to cut out excess sugar lately, so these look like an awesome treat!
I am new to the GF usages but thought this recipe looks good quick and easy. Is it possible to use steel oats since your using a food processor instead of regular oats? Would it give the same results?
I have not experimented with putting steel cut oats in the food processor but my prediction is that they wouldn’t break down enough to become a good texture to eat raw. If you play with it let me know how it goes!
Teddy Bear Day Care – Ypsilanti » Blog Archive » Friday Brunch!
[…] Carrot Cake Balls: we got a little creative with this recipe and subbed raisins for the dates & used syrup instead of vanilla […]