This carrot cake baked oatmeal recipe is gluten-free, vegan and packed with flavor! It's almost like you're having a slice of carrot cake for breakfast!
Okay, I'm hooked. Like legit. Baked oatmeal is perhaps my new favorite way to eat oatmeal!
If you're like, “what the heck is baked oatmeal?!”, more on that later in the post. But for now, let me share why baked oatmeal is so awesome:
- it makes a giant serving in one go
- you can store it for at least a week
- all the flavors
- easy to make, easier to reheat
And like a million other reasons! I shared my vegan protein baked oatmeal a few months ago and you guys loved it, so we're back with another option in a new flavor. Today we're making carrot cake baked oatmeal and it's…everything.
Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal Ingredients
Baked oatmeal basically uses the same ingredients as regular oatmeal, it's just baked instead of cooked on the stove. For our carrot cake baked oatmeal, here's what we're using:
- Rolled oats: make sure that you old fashioned rolled oats or extra thick rolled oats. Quick oats or anything thinner won't be able to absorb the liquid and it will end up being mushy!
- Pumpkin puree: I used this for an extra kick of fiber, as well as color. Feel free to either skip the pumpkin all together or swap it with mashed banana or applesauce.
- Flax egg: this is a vegan alternative to egg and it helps bind the oatmeal together.
- Maple syrup: my sweetener of choice! Feel free to use honey instead.
- Protein powder: I use a vegan vanilla protein powder for this recipe, but I think you could leave it out and just decrease the liquid slightly.
- Almond milk: the liquid we're using, but feel free to use any milk substitute you'd like!
And that's pretty much the base. For our carrot cake mix ins, we're adding:
- Grated carrots
- Chopped pecans (or walnuts)
- Shredded coconut
- Chopped dates
- Cinnamon
How to Make Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
One of my favorite things around baked oatmeal is how easy it is to make.
STEP ONE
Soak the oats in some boiling water. This is optional but helps them get chewy and soft.
STEP TWO
Mix everything else together with your oats. You're looking for a consistency that is kind of gloopy. It shouldn't be runny!
STEP THREE
Bake it up! It takes a while – like an hour – but it's 100% worth it!
What is Baked Oatmeal?
So if you've gone this far into the post and still are confused about what baked oatmeal is, it's basically just oatmeal that's baked in a casserole dish instead of cooked on the stove. You use pretty much the same ingredients as you would for stovetop oatmeal, but it can be cut into squares and made ahead. Which in my opinion, totally rocks!
Best Types of Oats for Baked Oatmeal
The type of oats you use for baked oatmeal matter! Quick oats won't work as they're too soft and aren't able to absorb enough liquid. The types of oats you can use for baked oatmeal are:
- Old fashioned rolled oats
- Extra thick rolled oats
- Scottish oatmeal
- Steel-cut oats
How to Store Baked Oatmeal
I love, love, LOVE that this recipe can be made ahead. We've been eating it in my house for 4+ days and it's still delicious. For storing baked oatmeal, I'd recommend keeping it in the fridge. It will last at least 4 – 5 days and just needs to get reheated in the microwave.
I think you could also freeze this, but haven't personally tested. If you do end up freezing it, let me know how it turns out!
How We Topped Our Oatmeal
And lastly, let's talk toppings because I know you're going to ask!
Topping one is my “icing”. Because carrot cake needs icing. And therefore carrot cake baked oatmeal also needs icing. But since we're keeping things healthy, my “icing” is actually just melted coconut butter. It's the best!
Other toppings we added were:
- Coconut yogurt
- Peanut butter/almond butter
- Cacao nibs
- Hemp seeds
And of course what you see in the photos here: grated carrots and chopped pecans! I hope you enjoy this recipe and can't wait to hear how it goes for you. Don't forget to leave a star rating if you make it ⭐️
More Carrot Cake Flavored Recipes to try:
- Healthy Quinoa Carrot Cake
- Carrot Cake Smoothie
- Vegan Carrot Cake Quinoa Breakfast Bars
- Raw & Vegan Carrot Cake Bites
- Carrot Cake Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 2 cups regular rolled oats
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (or applesauce or banana)
- 1 flax egg
- 1/4 cup syrup
- 1/4 cup vegan protein powder
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup chopped Medjool dates
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 cups almond milk
Instructions
- Add the oats and boiling water into a mixing bowl. Allow to sit for 10 - 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, stir together the pumpkin, flax egg, syrup and protein powder. Pour this mixture over the softened oats and stir to combine.
- Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl and stir again to combine.
- Pour the oat mixture into a 9x13 baking pan. Top with additional carrots and pecans if desired.
- Bake at 375ºF for 50 - 60 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into squares (or scoop out) and enjoy.
Video
Nutrition
When replacing the canned pumpkin with banana, is it half a cup of mashed banana?
I was looking for some new breakfast recipes and I’m excited to try this!
Yep! Should be about 1 large banana 🙂
Hi Alyssa, after soaking the oats in water do i need to drain off the water? or add the water & oats into the mixture? thank you in advance and I cant wait to make this!!!! Thank-you so much!
The oats should actually absorb most of the water 🙂 So just leave it in!!
How do you prepare the coconut butter? This looks delicious!
I just melted it in the microwave with a bit of coconut oil!
I have this in the oven now!
Do you grease the 9 x 13 pan? or put parchment paper?
I ended up greasing my pan and it worked perfect. These squares are fantastic! I put less milk (only 1/3 cup) though to avoid them being to “thin” and they turned out perfect. I used a mix of steel cut oats and regular oats. I will definitely make these squares again! I use them as a healthier snack:)
Sounds delicious!! So so glad that they worked for you 🙂
Absolutely delicious and so easy to make!!!
I’m so glad you liked it!!
I have it in the oven and it’s almost at 1 hour but it’s so wet still. There’s a nice crispy looking top but inside doesn’t seem cooked at all. Any suggestions? I’m not sure what I did wrong. 🙁 It smells amazing though!
Really?! Hmm…what type of oats did you use? And how much water was left with the oats after you let them soak?
Love love love this!!! I topped with some almond butter when serving. Finishing up the last square now and already planning to make more!!!
Hooray! We need to make this again 🙂
We’ve had this for our easter breakfast (took mashed bananas) 🙂 I had it prepped in the evening and left overnight in the fridge. Got up earlier and popped it in the oven for almost an hour. Hmmmm, it smelled awesome! We’ve never had this before and the whole family was looking forward to it. And it was sooo delicious! Thank you, Alyssa! Greetings from Germany
I’m so so glad! Thanks for sharing, Anette 🙂
This is soooooo delicious!!! Thank you!
Woooohooo!
We were keepibg it in a freezer and ate leftovers yesterday as an early evening snack. Turned out great you can store it in a freezer without any worries!
Woohoo! So happy to hear that 🙂
I did it yesterday, after half an hour in the oven at 375º F, it was already toasted over so I had to reduce temperature, and after 45 minutes it was still wet, the thing is that I left it 15′ more and I decided to take it out. The thing is that it’s not completely cooked, and it’s very wet. I soaked the oats as it says in the recipe, and after the 15 minutes most of the water had been absorbed, which I decided to drain. Can i put it in the oven again to complete the cooking?.
Hi Cristina – that’s very strange, I’ve never heard of this happening before. What type of oats did you use? You can definitely add it back into the oven to continue the cooking, but I would suggest covering it with foil so it doesn’t get overly browned. I’m wondering if maybe your oven runs a little hot? Any chance you have an oven thermometer so you can see? Keep me posted!
I am thinking to try this tomorrow morning but only have quick oats in the house. Will that be okay?
I don’t think this will work with quick oats, unfortunately. They don’t absorb liquid the same way, so if you do want to try, you’re going to have to shift the liquid ingredients (less than what I call for here) and you won’t want to soak them either.
Wonderful… and so easy! Makes 8 very generous serves. Noticed that one of the pictures shows it cut into 12 but am I correct in using 8 serves/recipe for the nutritional information? This will certainly be on high rotation at my house! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
So glad you’ve been enjoying it!! And yes, I use 8 servings for the nutrition, but I cut into 12 for the photos 🙂 Sorry if that’s confusing! I just find that 12 servings are a bit small and we end up eating more than one square to get a more filling meal!
This looks delicious! I would love to try it, but I don’t have any protein powder… Is it necessary for the recipe? Thank you in advance 🙂
You can leave it out and just use a little less milk 🙂
I made these this morning and am disappointed. While the flavor is good and the ingredients are excellent I will not be making again.it is dry around the edges, moist in the center but stuck to the pan horribly. I will check out your other recipes because they usually work for me.
Strange! That’s never happened to me with baked oatmeal before. The edges are definitely supposed to be drier so that you can cut it into squares, but maybe it was the pan you used? Sorry about that!
I tried this this morning and it was perfect. Good mix of ingredients and it’s so flavorful and moist. I left out the protein powder and I served it with some warm almond milk. A perfect recipe for this cold weather. Thanks Alyssa.
YAY! So happy you enjoyed it!
Just made it, delicious and so light… yum!
Yes! One of my favorite breakfasts!
Amazing omg highly recommend it was so good! Only cooked mine for 45 min cuz I’m meal prepping it and plan on reheating and it’s so amazing! Thank u for this amazing recipe!
Thanks so much for the kind review!!
Can’t do protein powders. Any subs??
You can leave the protein powder out if you don’t want it
Is it calling for an egg or flax seed? I don’t know what a flax egg is
Flax egg (How to make flax egg) is a vegan substitute for eggs. It is made of flaxseed meal. This recipe should work out just fine if you want to replace the flax egg with a bird egg
If I use steel cut oats, no cooking is needed? I’d be surprised if you could simply pour boiling water on the oats before baking? Thank you
I accidentally used almonds instead of pecans so we will see how it comes out!
Should be just fine! How did it turn out?