Soft, buttery, gooey brown sugar bars so sinfully melt-in-your-mouth delicious…
You’ll swear up and down they MUST BE terrible for you…
But with a secret healthy ingredient and over 17% of the RDA for Vitamin A packed into one bar, they’re actually not at all!
You will be completely shocked to find out the secret ingredient in these gooeylicious brown sugar gooey bars…
And I promise no one will ever guess!
Are you ready for the secret ingredient?
It’s carrot! Yes, really! Just like in your favorite carrot cake, the powerhouse carrot adds sweetness and moisture to these gooey bars, and you’ll never, ever know!
Side Note: Here’s a list of all my recipes that contain carrots.
Brown Sugar Gooey Bars
Adapted from Almond Butter Brownies
Brown Sugar Gooey Bars
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup jarred baby food carrots OR steamed and pureed carrot (80g)
- 1 cup almond butter OR allergy-friendly alternative
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour (I have had success with spelt, white, sorghum, buckwheat, and ww pastry) (50g)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut, optional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200 F, grease an 8-inch baking pan and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, gently heat the almond butter if it is not already stir-able, then stir in the pureed carrot and vanilla. Set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the baking soda, cinnamon, salt, flour, and sugar (and coconut, if using). Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, then keep stirring. It will seem dry at first, so break up the nut butter and stop occasionally to scrape it off the spoon. It will eventually get gooey like cookie dough. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, and smooth down evenly with a spoon or spatula. Place in the oven, close the oven and immediately increase the temperature to 350 F. Bake 14 minutes. When you take the bars out, the top will look set but they will still be undercooked underneath. This is okay! Let them cool for at least 20 minutes, during which time they’ll firm up.
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Mmm, looks great!! I wonder how sunflower butter (instead of the almond butter) would affect the taste? I have a daughter who can’t have nuts. I guess I’ll just have to try it and let you know 🙂
These look delicious! Anything with chocolate is always good, though — especially when it’s from your blog.
So cool that you were able to “sneak” in the healthy ingredient, too! Will have to try — although they may not even make it into the baking dish with me around. =D
Caitlin!! Did you use regular butter???? Like the yellow stuff? comes from cows?? Girl you have to use almond butter or peanut butter, NOT just regular butter- butter. Try it again 🙂
Sadly, I felt I had to add extra sweetness (1/4 c brown sugar) as the almond butter added a bitterness that I knew wouldn’t get past my kids. Any suggestions to fix this for next time? (I had the same issue with the equivalent brownies)
have you tried cashew butter ? I find it more mild tatsing and similar in texture. Perhaps that would help ?
oh wow these are delicious and so velvety ! They crumbles a lot but I coulnd’t wait 20 minutes for them to cool so I guess this one is on me 😛 I ran out of almond butter so I used WOW sunflower butter, which is much less runny than almond butter, and I used gluten-free flour, which makes everything more crumbly, so perhaps that also explains it. However, the taste and texture were amazing, and that is what counts ! Thanks for such a great recipe !
These were surprisingly crazy good! So good in fact that both my son and husband loved them AND asked me to make them again. Soo, back to the store I went, but I accidentally bought cashew butter instead of almond butter. Will baking these with cashew butter affect the taste? Thanks!
They will have a different flavor but still be just as good 🙂