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This Delicious Vegan Donut Recipe Calls for Nothing but Healthy Pantry Staples

Tehrene Firman

March 24, 2020

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Photo: Feasting on Fruit

Making your own donuts sounds complicated enough that you might think it's a dessert you're better off buying from a bakery. Fluffy, delicious, and topped with a smooth glaze, they're basically mini works of art. But whipping up a dozen without leaving your own kitchen isn't as hard as you'd think, and nearly all the ingredients you need for a vegan donut recipe are already right in your pantry.

Typical bakery donuts are made with white flour, fried in hot oil, and loaded with white sugar. Tasty... just not exactly healthy. But Natalie Thomas, creator of the healthy food blog Feasting on Fruit, shared a paleo and vegan donut recipe on Instagram that has super creative ingredients and swaps. Instead of white flour, there's coconut flour. And instead of eggs, it's the nut butter that serves as the binding ingredient to make the donuts light and moist.

"The texture is pure magic. Soft fluffy magic," says Thomas. "These coconut flour donuts are date-sweetened, too. I wasn’t kidding on that whole unconventional donut ingredient list thing: no grains, no oil, no refined sugar."

While these donuts are already delicious plain and don't even require the glaze, it's super easy to make. It's simply a mix of frozen blueberries, coconut butter, maple syrup, and non-dairy milk. If you don't have blueberries on hand, you can experiment with other fruit—raspberries, strawberries, or anything else that sounds good. And if you decide to toss some sprinkles on top, even better.

The next time you're looking through your cupboards trying to find something sweet to snack on, make this paleo and vegan donut recipe. You definitely won't be disappointed.

Paleo and vegan donut recipe

Ingredients
Donuts:
1 cup pitted Medjool dates
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup tapioca or arrowroot starch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Blueberry Glaze:
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup non-dairy milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Blend the dates, milk, almond butter, and vanilla.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend on low speed to combine.
3. Pipe into a greased donut pan (try this option from Amazon), and smooth the tops. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes at 350°F.
4. For the glaze, defrost and puree the blueberries, then strain to get just the juice. Melt the coconut butter.
5. Whisk together all the ingredients adding milk slowly until smooth.
6. Once the donuts are cool, top with glaze and sprinkles. Eat!

For more dessert ideas, try these vegan and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Then make the Paleo pumpkin bread recipe that tastes amazing year-round.

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