Donuts: Healthy, Delicious and Nutritious

When I first moved to the United States from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, I was introduced to a super delicious, sweet, bread-like food called a “doughnut.” We have something similar in Brasil called Sonho, which means Dream. It is quite possible that Sonho is even worse for you because not only does it have everything a doughnut has, but it also has a puffy cream inside made with condensed milk, corn starch, and eggs yolks. Yeah, doughnuts are so good that if you don’t watch it — including not watching any ads for it on TV — you will dream of them.

Ten years later, after eating doughnuts here and there, I read that they are the worst — THE WORST — food for you. That’s before I knew Twinkies® existed, by the way. The doughnut dough is filled with processed white flour, sugar, shortening, and other unknown chemical substances that I may or may not be able to pronounce. They are deep fried in hydrogenated oils that are carcinogenic, not absorbable into the blood stream, and proven to cause assorted diseases — heart disease, stroke, acid reflux to name a few. And they are coated by excessive sugar and sprinkled with unnatural substances. This combination of fried, molecular-altered poisons sticks to the walls of your intestines and can remain there for the rest of your life. Doughnuts are the hardest food substance to detach once they are lodged in the intestinal tract. It’s like fiber in reverse. Everyone who studies detox knows that the first step in a good program is to cleanse the clogged intestine. I have read that even with the most intense cleanse, the hazardous doughnut refuses to leave. It may take two or three cleanses to successfully be rid of it. By the way, if you are in a cleanse program, then I would wait a week or two until after you are done to try these doughnuts. Yes, they are good for you, but not as good as fresh vegetables, nuts, fruits, and unrefined oils that you should consume during a cleanse.

Continuing my story, for the next ten years, I would simply not touch a doughnut. Not even come close to one. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I’m trying to make an impactful point. One day, I ran across a little show on YouTube® called RAW. VEGAN. NOT GROSS. hosted by a wonderful and intelligent young woman named Laura Miller. One of the episodes was called Vegan Doughnuts. Now the name is misleading because as far as I understand, the vegan diet does allow fried foods, soy, and wheat flour. However, this recipe is gluten-free, sugar-free, not fried, and it still tastes amazing. I simply could not believe that such a thing was possible. In the episode, Laura does not give the quantities so I had to figure them out on my own. In her new book, you can get the right recipe but since I set out to create this new marvel by myself, I am sharing my modified version with you.

I have met a few people who love Krispy Kream Doughnuts and set about to feed them my vegan version and they said that they prefer the vegan over the traditional! Now that’s quite an accomplishment for the person who up until two years ago could simply not cook. I burned everything. That’s why I decided to learn how to make RAW food. No cooking, no burning. Although these doughnuts require the use of an oven, the fact that everything is timed perfectly reduces the chances of burning them. I hope you enjoy making these doughnuts as much as I have enjoyed sharing them with you.

VEGAN AND YUMMY DOUGHNUTS

Prep Time: 30 mins | Cook Time: 1 hr | Servings: 12

Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients:

Apple Sauce:

4 apples

1/3 cup of lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1 tsp. of cinnamon

Donuts:

1 cups almond flour

1 cups sorghum or rice flour

1 cups potato starch

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. of Celtic salt

1 tsp. xanthan or guar gum or psyllium

¼ cup of apple sauce

¾ cup of maple syrup

1 lemon, juiced

⅓ cup of coconut oil

½ cup of hot water

Blueberry Chia Jam:

1 small box of blueberries

2 tbs. of chia seeds

1/2 cup of water

1 tbs. maple syrup

Toppings:

Chocolate Ganache

Date Caramel

Chopped walnuts or hazelnuts

Sliced almonds

Shredded Coconut

Directions:

Directions for Apple Sauce:

First thing to do is make an apple sauce.

Cut 4 apples into cubes and place them in a large bowl. Add the freshly squeezed lemon juice, the maple syrup and the cinnamon. Mix all ingredients in the bowl.

Place the mixture on a cooking sheet layered with parchment paper.

Cook it in the oven for 40 mins at 350°.

Let it cool off a bit, put it straight into the food processor and then blend.

Directions for Donuts:

Start out with dry ingredients. In a large glass bowl pour the almond flour, the sorghum or rice flour, the arrow root, the baking soda, the psyllium, the salt, whisk and set aside.

Then the wet ingredients. In a second large bowl pour the apple sauce, maple syrup, lemon juice, coconut oil (in liquid form) and the hot water. Mix by hand. (If the coconut oil is not liquid, you can mix in a separate bowl the hot water and coconut oil until it melts).

Add the wet into the dry and begin folding with a whisker — it should look between a dough and a pancake batter.

Take the donut mold and spray with coconut oil from mister. Spoon about a quarter cup into each mold. Don’t fill it all the way, because it will expand.

To jazz it up, incorporate some blueberry chia blend right into the dough — see directions below. Put 3 little dots and drag to connect the dots. A little bit goes a long way.

Direction for Blueberry Jam Chia Blend:

Blend the blueberries until mush. In a glass bowl combine the mixed blueberries, chia seeds, water and maple syrup. Whisk until it begins to form into a goo. Pour into a mason jar and refrigerate.

Put the donuts in the oven for about 10 minutes. Then rotate and put them back for another 8 minutes.

Direction for how to apply the toppings:

For toppings see Caramel and Chocolate Glaze recipes below. Place these sauces in a bowl large enough to fit an entire donut. Dip the spongy side of the donut, which is the one that was down on the mold and rotate it inside the sauce.

The donut can stand on its own with just the glaze, or you can also rotate it over some sliced almonds, chopped hazelnuts, or shredded coconut.

Put them in a paper bakery box and share them with your friends.

CARAMEL SAUCE

Prep Time: 8 minutes | Servings: 1 quart | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups medjool dates, pitted (18 to 20)

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 tbs. cup of freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tsp. Vanilla

1/4 tsp. Apple Cider vinegar

1 pinch of Celtic salt

Directions:

Soak dates overnight — dates are nature’s caramel.

Put the medjool dates, the lime and orange juice, the coconut oil, the vanilla, the apple cider vinegar along with a pinch of Celtic salt in the food processor to create the caramel — dates are nature’s caramel. Pulse this mixture in the food processor until it becomes a ball of goo. To make it more like caramel, move this mixture to the high-speed blender and add 1 tbs. of filtered water.

Smooths sides with spatula and blend until smooth.

Place the “caramel” in a bowl so that you can dip the top of the baked doughnuts in it.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Prep Time: 2 mins | Servings: 4 cups (Scaled)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1 cup of coconut oil

6 to 8 tbs. cacao powder

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. of coarse Celtic salt

Directions:

Put all ingredients in high-speed blender and blend until consistency is right.

Pour it in a bowl so that you can dip the top of the baked doughnuts in it.