Fall Baking-Carrot Bars

So lately the hubby and I have been obsessed with fall, coffee, sweaters, and BAKING! David is actually the baker and cook, I’m the grill master.  He’s amazing too.

So I love baked goods but not the extra calories so when we bake we try to make it as healthy as possible. So the other night I wanted something sweet that I haven’t had in a long time…carrot cake! I put in my request and he delivered! These actually turned out more to be like bars, but I’m not picky! We snagged this recipe from Pinterest.

Put your oven to heat on 350, grease a glass dish, flour, and measure the following:

• 2 & 2/3 cups of grated carrots, we threw these in a bowl and put in a hand held blender. I think next time we’ll make it a little chunkier, this made them really smooth.
•  1 & 1/3 cups of flour flour, gluten free options are available but we did a mix of wheat and white.
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple Sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of almond milk unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice, this is sort of expensive and hard to find we mixed all spice and some nutmeg together with a dash of cinnamon.
• Optional: 3/4 cup pecans. We added these because I’m a huge fan.

Combine in one bowl your carrots, applesauce, egg, milk, honey, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine flour(s), baking powder, baking soda, and your spices.

Spread in desired pan:

Then bake for 30-40 minutes!

The frosting was simply just

• 1 stick of unsweetened butter
• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• Greek yogurt cream cheese
•   1-2 teaspoons of vanilla depending on your taste

Now this isn’t the healthiest frosting ever, but I don’t eat much sweets and these bars REFRIDGERATED COVERED will last a week or so, I accidentally left ours out and it spoiled because of the dense carrots and the cake was so moist.

If you prefer a healthier frosting I also make another type with a mixture of PLAIN Greek yogurt, a dash of vanilla and cinnamon, with some agave for sweetness. There’s also one that calls for ricotta cheese, Greek yogurt, vanilla, and honey. We made it but weren’t fans.

Let me know if you like or try this! We loved it and will be making it more in the future.