Time to Make the Donuts

Sunday church and donuts always went hand in hand when I was growing up. Yesterday we hemmed and hawed about going out to eat after church and decided to come home. While my handsome husband Tom made the eggs and bacon, I made the donuts!

Not just any old donuts, but healthy Cinnamon Donuts with a Browned Butter Frosting. They were to die for! I don’t usually have an issue with portion control, even with healthy treats, but I was sure glad I had my boys home to eat these as I would have been tempted all day…they were that good.

Today’s recipe comes to you via Carolyn Ketchum at All Day I Dream About Food. Be sure to check out her blog, like her on Facebook, and drool at her boards on Pinterest.

I first learned of Carolyn through the Low-Carbing Among Friends cookbook project. She is a co-author in Volume 1 of the series and editor for Volume 3, the volume in which 35 of my recipes will be featured. I often visit her blog to admire her work, her photography is stunning and her recipes amazing. To be honest, I hadn’t tried any of her recipes, but have many of them bookmarked, until now.

Carolyn’s recent post for healthy Cinnamon Donuts with Brown Butter Frosting caught my eye, I had all the ingredients and knew I had to try them. I made a few adaptations to make them dairy-free and went ahead and made a “trial” batch. I surprised my son with them one morning and he loved them! I couldn’t wait for the weekend to make another batch as a special Sunday morning treat.

I didn’t have to make many dairy-free adaptations…however, for those of us sensitive to dairy, even a bit can cause distress. Carolyn’s original recipe calls for whey protein. Whey is a dairy-derived protein, which means it’s a “no-go” for those whom dairy disagrees with. I substituted the whey with egg white protein and based on my end result, this modification worked.

The original recipe called for almond milk, which I would have used, but had none on hand, so I simply used water. Almond milk, coconut milk, water, all would work here. Finally instead of using butter as the fat in the donuts, I used coconut oil and in the frosting I used ghee. Ghee is made from butter, but the problematic dairy proteins, casein and whey, are removed.

In place of the heavy cream called for in the frosting, a touch of coconut milk worked perfectly. I also added a few drops of stevia to the frosting as I feel it offsets the cooling effect of the erythritol. Oh yeah, and I doubled the cinnamon. I made my test batch with the 1 tsp. Carolyn used and decided I wanted them to be more “cinnamon-ee” so added 2 tsp.

Original Recipe by All Day I Dream About Food
*Adaptations by Healthy Living How To

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes
Makes: 6 Donuts

Ingredients

Donuts

• 1 1/2 c. Almond Flour
• 2 Tbsp. Egg White Protein Powder*
• 2 tsp. Cinnamon*
• 1 1/2 tsp. Aluminum-Free Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt
• 1/4 c. Non-GMO Erythritol Granules
• 2 Large Organic Eggs
• 1/4 c. Water*
• 10 Drops Liquid Vanilla Stevia
• 1/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 3 Tbsp. Coconut Oil, Melted *

Frosting

• 3 Tbsp. Ghee*
• 7 Tbsp. Non-GMO Erythritol Granules, powdered
• 1 Tbsp. Coconut Milk* 
• 1/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 10 Drops Liquid Vanilla Stevia*

Directions

1. In medium mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
2. In a small bowl whisk together wet ingredients, except coconut oil.
3. Mix wet into dry and then add coconut oil and mix again.
4. Grease well a 6-count donut pan and divide batter evenly.
5. Bake at 325°F for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes before removing from pan.
7. Completely cool donuts on rack before frosting.
8. To make the frosting, powder erythritol in coffee grinder.
9. Add ghee to small saucepan and melt over medium, heating until ghee is browned.
10. Remove ghee from heat and in a small bowl mix with sweetener and extract then stir in coconut milk.

Thank you Carolyn for this AMAZING recipe, it’s a keeper!