I’ve recently been trying to find more healthy snacks for backpacking. After some experimenting, I came up with this recipe which uses carrots and fruit. There is also coconut and walnuts, which are both high-calorie. The result is a lightweight, nutrient-dense and great fuel for the trail.
These actually never ended up making it to the trail because we ate them all too quickly. They aren’t too sweet, so are good if you need a pick-me-up without worrying about a sugar crash. Though I do wish I would have added a bit more honey or cranberries for sweetness.
New to dehyrating?
Check out my eBook. It has over 50 nutrient-dense recipes plus tons of info on how to dry your own delicious backpacking meals.
Weight/Calorie Breakdown:
- Total calories: 1167
- Dry weight: 260g/ 9.17oz
- Calories per 1g dry: 5
- Calories per 1oz dry: 127
Ingredients:
- 140g of carrots (weighed after cleaned and peeled)
- 160g pear (1 smallish pear, cored and peeled; you could also use an apple but I had pears)
- 110g ripe banana (1 medium)
- 1 Tbsp honey (more if you like it sweeter)
- 50g walnuts
- 50g dried cranberries (or more if you like!)
- 50g coconut flour or flakes
- 50g oat flour*
*If you don’t have oat flour, use the food processor to grind oats into flour. Then remove from the food processor and follow the instructions below – the oat flour really needs to be added at the end.
Instructions:
- Grate the carrots
- Put the carrots, pears, bananas and honey in a food processor.
- Add the walnuts and cranberries. Pulse again.
- Gradually add the coconut flour and oat flour to the food processor, pulsing as you add. The mixture should be a bit chunky.
- Cut parchment paper into squares and put on your dehydrator trays. Make sure there are gaps between the parchment paper squares for air flow.
- Put a blob of the mixture onto the parchment paper.
- Shape into squares or bar shapes. The size doesn’t really matter too much but they should be uniform thickness (about ½ – ¾ inch thick) so they dry evenly. If they are too thin, they will crumble. I used a fork to flatten them, hence the lines on the cookies.
- Use a knife to smooth out the edges. This will keep the edges from crumbling off.
- Dehydrate until the mixture is completely dry. It should snap easily and no moisture should come out when you squeeze it.
- Enjoy!
Carrot cookies ready for dehydrating
Dry cookies. They look ugly but taste good!
Also read: How Much Food to Bring Backpacking
Post your comments