Do you like carrot cake? These Carrot Cake Cookie Bars are a quick and easy treat to serve after Easter dinner.
The other day I was shopping at Walmart, and I came across this season's newest M&M flavor. They created a white chocolate carrot cake M&M.
Now you either are an A person who decided immediately that it sounds nasty, or you are a B person who is intrigued and want to give it a try. I am usually a B person with most new flavors, unless they are sour. Sour candy gives me the heebie geebies! Just can't do it!!!
Anyway, I instagrammed a picture asking opinions on this new flavor, and sure enough, the results were about half and half on whether you guys would try these too. Of course being a B person, I brought them home with me.
I'm sure you are wondering how those M&M's taste. Let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised. The white chocolate has enough cinnamon and nutmeg that it just gives it a very spicy taste that I actually liked!!!
I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the M&M's, until I was looking through some old recipes from last year. Does anyone else remember these Oreo Coconut Gooey Cake Bars? Right away I knew that is how I wanted to use the new candies.
And lucky for me, I had picked up a few different flavors of cake when they were on sale. There was a carrot cake in my cupboard just waiting to be used. Bars like these are so easy to make, especially when you rely on a mix. I know some people are against cake mixes at all cost, but I am not one of those people. Cake mixes are my friends when it comes to cookies and bars!
Let's start with these cookie bars. You will first mix up your dough by combining some softened butter, and an egg with the carrot cake mix. The sticky dough will get pressed into the bottom of a greased pan. Then the fun begins.
You need to decide on what kind of toppings you want your bars to have under the gooey sweetened condensed milk. One of my favorite cakes is a carrot cake, so I knew I wanted to incorporate those types of ingredients in the gooey cake bars.
I spread some pineapple preserves over the dough that was in the pan already. Then I sprinkled on walnuts and coconut. To get this gooey bar, you will use an entire can of sweetened condensed milk. It bakes down into all the layers to create one glorious bar. The carrot cake M&M's get added to the top right before going in the oven.
These carrot cake magic bars are quite sweet, so I would recommend cutting them into little squares. I actually cut each of these bars in the pictures into 4 smaller bite sized pieces after I took pictures. Of course that didn't stop me from eating 4 of them at one time. So much for trying to be better at portion control.
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Recipe
Carrot Cake Cookie Bars
These easy Carrot Cake Cookie Bars are loaded with pineapple and nuts. This makes a great Easter dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 carrot cake mix
- 1 stick of butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup pineapple preserves
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup Carrot Cake M&M's
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix until a soft dough forms.
- Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Spread the pineapple preserves over the dough. Sprinkle with the walnuts and coconut.
- Drizzle the condensed milk over the top. Sprinkle with the M&M's. Bake for 35 minutes.
- Let cool completely before cutting into 24 squares.
Notes
*If you can't find the carrot cake M&M's, you could substitute white chocolate chips.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 198Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 104mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 1gSugar: 19gProtein: 3g
Other fun ways to eat Carrot Cake
More Carrot Cake goodness
Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls from Crazy for Crust
Carrot Cake Muddy Buddies from Something Swanky
Carrot Cake Shooter from Kitchen Meets Girl
Nettie Moore
Hi Jocelyn!
Thank you for contributing! I appreciate all the shares and comments on this Parade Post. https://parade.com/995182/nettiemoore/best-carrot-cake-dessert-recipes/
Nettie
Deb
I did come back to this and make the recipe exactly as written except for using pecans instead of walnuts because that is what I had open. Loved them! And I think they even got better the next day after sitting. Will be making these again! Thanks.
Deb
So I haven't made these yet, and I usually never comment until I make something, but I had to tell you that these were the inspiration for my Easter dessert. I actually was going to make these after reading this blog post and went to Walmart and searched high and low until i found what must have been the last 3 bags of carrot cake m&m's in the store! I still wasn't sure I would love them, so I only bought 2 bags, but once I tasted them, I wish I had taken them all. Now I know. Back in the kitchen, I realized my over stuffed pantry does not have pineapple preserves (note to self - check all the ingredients in the recipe, not just the star player). I then continued on with the theme of your recipe and made the exact carrot cake base, and then on the top did the classic gooey butter cake (cream cheese, egg, vanilla, powdered sugar, butter) and mixed almost the full bag of m&m's in. All except the taste testers ;-). Now it is Easter day, and the end reaction was "Ohhhh myyyy...." as peoples eyes rolled back in their head in pure delight. My brother told my Dad "this is the best carrot cake you will ever taste". I do still have the other bag of the carrot cake m&m's and it is on reserve to do your posted recipe, but wanted you to know that you led me down the path to a true winner. If you have stashed a bag of the m&m's, try it the super gooey way (took 40 minutes to bake in my oven) and I bet you'll love it. If you like it, claim it as your recipe - I'm not a blogger, and would love to see you write about it.
Cheryl
I saw these M&Ms in the store & thought YUCK. But I should have known some brilliant bloggie friends would come up with yummy ways to use them!
Kat
So I actually MADE these!! I was looking for someone in the comments saying how good they were or whatnot, and there were so few! Argh! ANYWAY.
I used Duncan Hines Decadent Cake Mix... I picked out the raisins because I wasn't sure how they'd go with the M&Ms and nobody in my family (besides me) likes raisins with carrot cake -_-
ANYWAY. I had to cook it like... TWICE as long! It was crazy! And on top of that, the cake like puffed up to like twice the height! o_O It was nuts. I used the right size pan and everything. Even the directions on their box said 35ish mins... I have no idea why it took so long!
I loved the pineapple and walnuts! I'd have added even more. haha.
I also chucked on some chocolate chips on half, just to see... And that was suuupperrr tasty.
And just because I'm such a glutton, I made some cream cheese frosting mixed with whipped cream... and get this... cut the cake in half horizontally (Yep. It's that thick) and put it in the middle. Also an awesome addition.
Basically, I feel no wrong can be done with these. haha. They're delicious! I fully endorse the chocolate chips on top though, even with the carrot cake M&Ms.
It's probably because my stupid cake like, doubled in height, but I'd have added more of all the toppings! Anyhoo. Delicious recipe! 😀
Jocelyn Brubaker
I am so glad to hear it turned out ok and that you loved the taste. Nice addition of chocolate chips 🙂 Gooey cakes and magic bars never look done at the 35 minute mark. You just have to trust me that they are done and let them cool completely before cutting into them.
Kat
It was still actually still liquid at 35 minutes when I stuck a fork in it! Was the longer cooking why it puffed up so much? It tastes really good and not over or under done... It did sorta deflate though after cooling. So about 55-60 minutes seemed to work... but I have no idea why. What's a good consistency for a bar out of the oven, though? And what cake mix do you recommend? Maybe it had something to do with that, because I had to add water to re-hydrate the carrots it came with (and raisins, which I didn't include). But I want to make these again for Easter ^_^ I just don't want to risk it so much guess work... plus the color bled off the M&Ms because they were in there so long, which wasn't very pretty. =\
Jocelyn Brubaker
Yeah the mix I used didn't have extra water for the carrots. The carrots were tiny bits that were just in the cake mix. I'm guessing that's why it was still liquid. But it will look runny after 35 minutes because of the sweetened condensed milk...they do set up after cooling. I'll have to go to the store to see what brand I used for the cake mix.
Jocelyn Brubaker
Hey, Kat! I just happened to look at this again and saw that there is a picture in the post of the ingredients that I used. The cake mix I used was from Betty Crocker. 🙂
Karren Haller
I was browsing through linkys and found your blog on Keeping It Simple Crafts. Visiting you blog I chose your recipe to share on mine. Hope you don't mind. Have a great week
Mackenzie
What a FUN recipe! I love that you included those delicious carrot cake M&Ms! Awesome!
Mackenzie 🙂
Averie @ Averie Cooks
I just saw these on Pinterest and whoa, you outdid yourself! I love both carrot cake AND magic bars- perfect marriage. And with pineapple jelly no less. Delish! I used to make cake bars like this all the time with a can of sweet cond milk poured over a cake base. I loved those early days on my blog. EASY! I need to do more of that 🙂
Windi Fleming
The carrot cake magic bars were good. I substituted white choc. chips and semi-sweet choc chips for the carrot cake m's (since they don't sell these anywhere in my area) I also substituted peach preserves for the pineapple (they didn't sell this in my area). They were different and delish! Next time I'll use brownie mix instead of carrot cake, for a different twist. 🙂
Jocelyn Brubaker
It sounds like you created a winner recipe! Love the substitutions you made and I bet the brownie mix will be awesome!!