Baked Carrot Cinnamon Cream Cheese Squares
A dense, gently sweet carrot and cinnamon bake with a tangy cream cheese swirl, cut into squares for a high-protein snack or breakfast.
- Total
- 82 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 47 · Rest 20
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Whisking · Folding
- Sweet
- No rush
- Oven
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 180°C and line a 20 x 20 cm baking tin with parchment paper.
~10 min
-
Grate the carrots on the coarse side of a box grater into a bowl. You should have about 300 g of loose grated carrot.
~5 min
Squeeze the grated carrots in a clean cloth if they feel very wet; too much moisture makes the centre bake slowly and stay dense.
-
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar and salt for 1 minute until pale and slightly thickened. Whisk in the oil and water.
~1 min
Whisking eggs with sugar dissolves the sugar and builds air, helping the dense batter rise slightly.
Whisking Whisk briskly for a full minute until the mixture turns pale and falls in ribbons; under-whisking leaves grainy sugar and less lift.
-
Add the flour and cinnamon to the egg mixture and stir with a spatula just until no dry flour remains. Fold in the grated carrots. The batter will be thick and dense.
~4 min
Stirring just until no dry flour remains prevents gluten development, keeping the squares tender rather than tough.
Folding Use a spatula to cut down and lift up gently, stopping the moment no dry flour shows; overmixing develops gluten and makes the bake tough.
-
In a small bowl, mash the cream cheese with the icing sugar until smooth.
~3 min
-
Spread half the carrot batter into the lined tin. Dot half the sweetened cream cheese over it, add the remaining batter, then dot the rest of the cream cheese on top. Draw a knife through the batter twice to swirl.
~4 min
Swirling creates pockets of cream cheese, so each square gets tangy contrast without fully mixing the layers.
-
Bake for 35 minutes, until the edges pull away from the tin and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. If the centre still looks wet, bake 5 more minutes.
~35 min
The knife test checks that the egg proteins have set; a wet centre means the custard-like batter is still raw.
-
Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then lift out and cut into 10 squares.
~20 min
Cooling sets the structure so the squares firm up and cut cleanly instead of crumbling.
Let the squares cool completely before cutting for clean edges, and chill them for a firmer, cheesecake-like texture.