No-Bake Carrot Cake Energy Balls

If you love the flavour of carrot cake, these are the energy bites for you! They taste delicious and are super easy to make with just a few simple, wholesome ingredients.

Energy balls are perfect for lunchboxes, camping, hiking or any snacking on-the-go. They’re also delicious crumbled over ice cream, yogurt and smoothie bowls! You can try these Lime Coconut Energy Bites, No-Bake Cashew Coconut Balls or Cranberry Sunflower Seed Energy Balls for more flavours.

Enjoy these sweet snacks for a mid-day treat, before the gym, on a long run or road trip, or anytime! They store well so are great for meal prepping snacks for the week.

For more healthy carrot cake flavoured recipes, you might like this Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal, Carrot Cake Banana Bread or Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Smoothie next!

Ingredients

This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.

• Oats: You can use minute oats, quick oats, rolled oats or old-fashioned oats. Do not use steel-cut oats. The oats can also be mixed and matched with nuts like walnuts, almonds or pecans.
• Dates: You can use any variety of date as long as they’re soft and moist. If your dates are overly dry or you’re not sure, you can soak them in hot water for 10 minutes before using in the recipe.
• Carrot: You’ll need finely grated fresh carrot.
• Coconut: Use unsweetened fine or medium shredded, or desiccated, coconut.
• Cinnamon: Adds that carrot cake spiced flavour. Other spices that can be added are ginger, nutmeg and allspice.

Variations

• To make carrot cake energy bars, line a 7-8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper, press the dough into the pan, place in the freezer for an hour until firm and then lift out and cut into bars.
• Spices: For more carrot cake flavour, add a pinch of ginger and nutmeg to the balls. Allspice also works!
• Vanilla: Add up to 1 tsp vanilla for additional flavouring.
• Seeds: Add up to 2 tbsp ground flax or chia seeds for an extra boost in nutrition.
• Raisins: Add up to 1/3 cup raisins at the end and pulse a few times to mix them into the dough.
• Chocolate Chips: Chocolate doesn’t usually go with carrot cake but you can add up to 1/2 cup chocolate chips if you like! Add them after you blend the dough and pulse a few times to mix them in.
• Maple Syrup: I think they’re sweet enough with just the dates but if you want them a touch sweeter, you can add up to 2 tbsp maple syrup or another sweetener of choice.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Start by processing the oats into a coarse, grainy flour. They don’t have to totally broken down into a fine flour. About 20-30 seconds should do the trick.

Quick Note: You can substitute up to 1/2 cup of the oats with walnuts, pecans or almonds.

Next, add the rest of the ingredients and process into a thick, sticky dough.

Quick Tip: If the mixture isn’t forming a dough (this can happen if your dates were too dry, add 1 tbsp of warm water and process again. That should do the trick!

Now that you’ve made the dough, it’s time to roll! Use your hands to roll the dough into about 20 balls.

Quick Note: Try rolling each ball in shredded coconut, cinnamon sugar or drizzling with melted coconut butter.

Tips for Success

• It’s important to use soft, moist dates in this recipe. If your dates are dry they won’t bind the dough. Soak dry dates in hot water for 10 minutes and drain well before using in the recipe.
• Use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients for best results.
• Since the carrot will remain raw, use a fine grate on the carrot so you don’t have big, tough chunks in the bites.

Storing Instructions

• Because these have fresh carrot in them, they don’t keep as long as some other energy ball recipes. It’s recommended to store them in the freezer.
• Fridge: Store in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
• Freezer: Store in a sealed container or freeze bag for up to 3 months.
• The balls are ok at room temperature for some time if you’re taking to-go. They’ll just get a bit soft it it’s warm, so try to keep them cool. Freeze before hand for best results!