As soon as the weekend rolls around we start to crave baked goods and we totally blame our parents for it! Growing up, every weekend we got “treats”. It was a rare occurrence to wake up on the weekend and not have a box of donuts or a bag of fresh bagels sitting on the counter. So, baked goods on the weekends are nostalgic and just feel so right. As we got older and started our journey to becoming the best version of ourselves, we realized that these delicious donuts, bagels, muffins, and croissants made our bodies feel pretty awful. But that craving never went away! Since we are always in the pursuit of finding healthy AND delicious alternatives, we knew we had to experiment with making a donut.
We present to you the faux-nut: Gluten-free, natural and whole food based donut. You certainly won’t have any tummy aches after indulging in one of these bad boys. Well, lets be honest, you can never stop after one donut, so when you reach for that second (or even third) you won’t feel any guilt either! You get all the health benefits from oats since we used oat flour as our main base. In our Gluten-free Apple Pancakes post, we spoke about how these whole grains boast a good amount of soluble fiber called Beta-Glucan. And since this fiber is absorbed by the body more slowly it will make you feel fuller longer. Beta-glucan has also been shown to lower the LDLs aka the bad cholesterol. Oats have also been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer, heart disease and aid in weight loss.
Oats are not the only powerhouse food we used in these weekend treats. We also added some wild blueberries not only for taste but for a big antioxidant boost as well. Now if you’re wondering if there is any difference between a wild blueberry and normal blueberry, chances are you didn’t get to read our Vegan Strawberry Crumble post where we explained the two. Wild blueberries have 2x the antioxidants of cultivated (normal) blueberries, thanks to a higher concentration in the flavonoid, anthocyanin.
Now if the health benefits alone haven’t persuaded you to make these faux-nuts, we are here to tell you they are beyond delicious! We had all members of our family taste test them and they agree too!
Gluten-Free Healthy Blueberry Glazed Donuts
- Yield: makes 6 donuts 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Snack, Dessert, Recipes
Description
These donuts are baked, not fried but still delicious taste that will satisfy your sweet tooth while still staying on a healthy path!
Ingredients
To make the Donuts:
1/2 cup almond flour
3/4 cup gluten-free oat flour (make your own by putting rolled oats in a food processor or blender)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large organic eggs, whisked together in a small bowl
1 tsp. good quality vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. blueberry extract (we used Silver Cloud extract, find it here)
3/4 cup frozen or fresh wild blueberries
Glaze:
1 cup Swerve confectioners sugar or organic confectioners sugar
2 T almond milk (any milk will work), use more if you like a thinner glaze
Instructions
1.) Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients (almond flour through salt) together and stir to combine and take out any lumps.
2.) In a small bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients (eggs through Blueberry extract). Stir to combine and set aside.
3.) Toss the blueberries in the dry ingredients to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
4.) Add wet ingredients to the dry ones and carefully fold together to combine but not break up the blueberries
5.) Spray the donut pan with coconut spray and evenly fill the donut pan. Bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.
6.) Set the donut pan on a cooling rack and let them cool before putting the glaze on.
7.) To make the glaze – make sure there are not any lumps in the powder sugar and then stir in the milk. Dip the top of the donut in the glaze or pour on top. Just be sure to place something under it while pouring – this will make cleaning up a lot easier!!
8.) The glaze will soak into the donut if too thin but it is still delicious! We stored these in the refrigerator and either ate them cold or warmed them up first – either way is delicious.
Notes
*You will need a donut pan, we found ours at Target
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