Perfectly sweet and spiced, these Carrot Cake Oatmeal Baked Donuts are a delicious – and gluten free – dessert for breakfast! Made with oat flour, protein powder and egg whites, they’re healthy too!

For the spot-on flavor and texture (but some added calories and fat), add in some nuts, coconut and top with a slightly-better cream cheese frosting. Gold!

Jump to Recipe

Perfectly sweet and spiced, these Carrot Cake Oatmeal Baked Donuts are a delicious - and gluten free - dessert for breakfast! Made with oat flour, protein powder and egg whites, they’re healthy too!

I don’t know if it’s just me or Quarantine or what, but I feel like the carrot cake rave is still on. And we’re way past Easter at this point!

No complaints though. I love sneaking veggies into foods in ways that I can’t taste the actual vegetable at all. I do cauliflower in my oatmeal every morning.

So in a way I guess carrot cake anything is right up my alley!

I had made a dedicated list of carrot cake dessert recipes I want to try out back when this all started, it’s quite long actually.

Why carrot cake donuts though? Coz I really wanted to use my donut pan, make a breakfast-type recipe (aka something with oats) and just couldn’t say no to Crumb Top Baking’s recipe!

Ingredients For Baked Oat Flour Protein Donuts

Oat Flour – You can get this at the store, or make some at home. To make your own oat flour, process rolled, instant or quick oats in a food processor. Do this until the oats shred and form a flour-like consistency.
Vanilla Protein Powder – This adds in sweetness to the donuts, so together with the natural sugars in the carrot, you don’t need to add much sweetener later. Rec: Quest Nutrition’s Vanilla
Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Ginger – The classics. You can just add extra cinnamon if you don’t have the other 2.
Baking Powder and Salt

Grated Carrots – Grate them from fresh carrots, not the pre-shredded one from the store. The texture is very different.
Almond Milk – Any other will do as well.
Unsweetened Applesauce – This replaces the fat in most donut recipes. Feel free to use an equivalent amount of mashed banana or sweet potato as a replacement.
Egg Whites – Drops the fat and added cholesterol!
Maple Syrup – I would recommend something sweetened with stevia or monk fruit to drop the calories.

How to make Healthy Baked Carrot Cake Protein Oatmeal Donuts

Sprinkle chopped pecans and coconut chips on the bottom of the donut cavities if using.
Whisk the dry ingredients in a large bowl: oat flour, vanilla protein powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder, salt
Add the grated carrots to the dry mix
Whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl: almond milk, applesauce, egg whites, maple syrup
Add the wet mix to the dry-carrot mix
If you’re adding the chopped nuts and chips topping, sprinkle them in the donut cavities
Divide the donut batter evenly among cavities, filling about ⅔-¾ way up
Bake for about 15 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the donut should come out clean.

Don’t forget to let them cool!

Now for that easy sugar free Cream Cheese Frosting

Reduced Fat Cream Cheese – To keep it healthy and cut down the calories. This is also known as Neufchâtel in the stores and you can find it in the same place as the regular cream cheese would be.
Almond Milk – Any milk would work here.
Vanilla Extract – To overcome the savory cheese taste.
Stevia Sweetener – You could also use a 1:1 sugar-free substitute, but I’d really recommend the stevia instead for a low calorie cream cheese frosting.

Whisk the ingredients together and then spread it on the donuts. It’s a pretty thick – but healthy – cream cheese icing, just like cake frosting.

Can I Keep These Gluten Free Carrot Cake Oatmeal Donuts?

Yes! These homemade baked oatmeal doughnuts can keep really well.

About 4-6 days in the fridge in an airtight container, with or without the frosting.

Store them at room temperature, un-frosted, for 2-3 days (airtight container). If you do put the cream cheese frosting on, then you can leave them out only for a few hours.

Do I Need A Donut Pan To Make Carrot Cake Doughnuts?

If you have a silicon or metal metal donut pan use it, – be sure to grease the metal one.

But no donut pan?

Use a muffin tin!

Here’s 2 ways to make donuts in a muffin pan:

Make little balls of parchment paper or foil, place them in the middle of the muffin cavity, and then spread the batter around it using a piping bag.
Cut a piece of foil, place it on top of your index finger, and fold down and up the sides to make a donut cavity. Then grease the inside of the foil and place it in your muffin tin. Fill the batter into the foil cavity. Here’s what it should look like:

Some Tips For Glazed Carrot Cake Donuts:

Let the dairy-free “buttermilk” form for the entire 10 minutes. You don’t want to rush this.
Use your stevia brand’s conversion chart to get the right stevia amount equivalent to the sugar specified.
Not all sweeteners are the same. Some are also a blend of stevia and erythritol so the conversion for those would be a lot different.
Be sure to grease the donut pan if it isn’t silicon.
Let the donuts cool completely before frosting them.

More Gluten-free Oatmeal Baked Desserts?