Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts – Vegan + Gluten-free

HAPPY NATIONAL DONUT DAY!

National Donut Day is my new favourite holiday to celebrate. I mean, who doesn’t need another reason to enjoy donuts?!?

Okay, so let’s back up for a second…I didn’t even know there was such a glorious occasion as National Donut Day until two days ago – I know, I’m obviously out of the foodie loop. Forgive me please?

So back to these donuts – Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts, to be exact. I think they make the perfect addition to National Donut Day, don’t you?

This was my inaugural use of my new fancy donut pan and I’m so happy with the results. In fact, I have so, so many different donut recipes floating around in my mind for you all! Mmmmmm donuts 🙂

Now, I’m not talking about your basic deep-fried donut – no way, friend. These donuts are baked and so delicious. Plus, healthier too, so that’s awesome! I guess that means you can have two…or three…or four? Who’s to judge?

They are also vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free! Like I said, just go ahead and eat the whole tray 🙂

So friends, I have to take a minute and be honest with you, cause I have a confession about these donuts.

Are you ready?

Okay, here I go: these donuts are actually a failed pancake recipe.

Phew, I feel so much better now 🙂

Now, you may ask, how does a failed pancake recipe turn into these glorious Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts? Well, let me share that with you. Full disclosure: hangriness ensued during this culinary experiment.

My husband and I love to make breakfast together on the weekends and one of our favourite things to make are pancakes. Now, I had this really great idea to make apple cinnamon oatmeal pancakes, so I basically started throwing a bunch of ingredients into a bowl, grated some apples, and called it pancake batter. At first, I was a little concerned that it was going to be too thick, but my husband, Salar, assured me that he could make it work. So off he went with our cast-iron skillet and a bowl of this newly developed pancake batter.

Well, this is when the problems started to ensue. The batter was, in fact, just too thick and full of goodness so the pancakes weren’t forming into nice, beautiful, fluffy pancakes. Salar promptly started to form the pancakes as he poured them into the pan, making sure they were the appropriate size and shape for me to make them look extra pretty in a pancake stack to photograph. Ya, that stack never happened.

Tragedy continued to strike.

These pancakes were not fluffy. At all. They were the queens of dense, heavy pancakes. It’s okay, it’s okay, I told myself, no one will notice and as long as they still taste great, that’s all that matters, right? Pancake after brutal pancake (which were taking forever to cook, by the way) my hopes for a blog-worthy recipe were slowly starting to die…and my hangriness was starting to increase.

For those of you unfamiliar with this term, angry + hungry = hangry. I was angry because I wasn’t going to be able to get a successful blog post out of this recipe and hungry because these pancake things were taking too damn long to cook.

So, after an eternity and an almost tearful breakdown, I said screw it, put all my photography props away and just decided to eat these pancakes on their own.

Hold. The. Phone.

They were delicious. But something wasn’t quite right about them. It’s almost like they were the consistency of muffins or a loaf, not quite what you would expect for pancakes. So after a very filling and yummy breakfast of failed pancakes, I decided to keep the recipe I had concocted and turn it into muffins…until  I remembered I had a shiny new donut pan in my cupboard. I knew instantly what I had to do.

Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts were born.

So that, friends, is the story of how these Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts came to be. What’s even funnier is that the weekend before, by hubby made his own version of some cornmeal pancakes that would have been the perfect batter for biscuits. So, needless to say, we are currently experiencing a pancake curse in our house.

Not to worry though – any pancake curse that results in these delicious Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts is just fine by me!

You’re going to just adore these Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts. They’re:

Moist
Chewy
Bursting with flavour
Chocked full of fresh apples
Perfectly sized
Coated in cinnamon sugar goodness
Baked, not fried
Refined sugar free
Great for sharing

So celebrate National Donut Day with me and bake up a batch of these Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts for yourself. As always, snap some pictures, post them to Instagram and tag them #glutenfreeveganpantry. I just adore seeing my recipes in your kitchens!

Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts - Vegan + Gluten-free

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

These Apple Cinnamon Sugar Donuts are vegan, gluten-free and great for breakfast or a quick snack. Baked, not fried, and refined sugar free, they're healthier than your regular donut and are made with real, wholesome ingredients.

Author: Savanna @ glutenfreeveganpantry.com

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Vegan, Gluten-free

Serves: 12 donuts

Ingredients

• 1 cup oat flour, gluten-free
• 1 cup oats, gluten-free
• ½ cup white rice flour
• 1 tsp xantham gum
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 medium apple, cored and grated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup coconut milk (I used Silk)

Coating

• ½ cup raw brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon
• ½ cup apple sauce or maple syrup

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. In a large mixing bowl, add oat flour, oats, white rice flour, xantham gum, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
3. Once stirred, add grated apples, vanilla extract, maple syrup and coconut milk. Stir to combine but do not over mix.
4. Transfer batter to a piping bag.
5. Pipe the batter into each donut mold of your donut tray, ensuring that the batter thoroughly covers the donut area and comes level to the top of the tray.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from tray and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes.
8. While donuts are cooling,mix brown sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
9. Using a pastry brush, coat each donut with either apple sauce or maple syrup.
10. Press into the cinnamon sugar mixture, flipping once and ensuring that the donut is well coated with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
11. Place on a cooling tray and allow to set while you finish the rest of the donuts.

Notes

Store donuts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Nutritional information is based on using apple sauce for the cinnamon sugar coating.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 donut Calories: 163 Fat: 1g Saturated fat: 0g Carbohydrates: 34g Sugar: 15g Sodium: 332mg Fiber: 3g Protein: 3g Cholesterol: 0mg

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