Homemade Doughnuts

First of all I have to give a little shout out to my brother. A couple Christmases ago he gave me a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. And can I tell you something? That book actually changed my life. I had always tried to feed my family well and make good choices about what I fed them, but that book opened up my world to a whole other way of looking at what I ate and how it was prepared. I began to do a more whole foods approach to what we ate and I began to make a most of our food from scratch instead of buying prepared or processed foods.

Like I said, that was a couple years ago, but now since we moved to Qatar I am SO GRATEFUL that we have been eating that way. There are a lot of processed foods available here, but they are very, very expensive. (For example, I saw they had my boys favorite brand of bagels at the store the other day, but they were 35 riyals, which is the equivalent of $10.) So the more you can make from scratch here, the better. The transition has been remarkably easy for us because I am constantly trying new foods and recipes and making things from scratch, so living here just feels like more of the same.

One of the recipes we have made several times since living here (because homebaked goods make everyone feel better) are these Homemade Doughnuts from chocolate covered Katie.

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2013/02/22/homemade-krispy-kreme-doughnuts-the-healthy-version/


The funny thing is I didn't have a donut pan, so I was just drawing circles out of the batter on a cookie sheet. The boys didn't mind :) but they looked more like pancakes with a hole in them. This last week Dan went to his grandma's funeral and arranged a long layover in Houston. He was able to go home and get a few of the things we forgot. I also went a little nuts on Amazon while he was gone and sent a bunch of things to our house for him to pick up :). One of which was..... a donut pan!!! (It was about $7 on Amazon, in case you might want one, too....)

Now they actually look like donuts! And they are very tasty. (I have to insert here that Dan is the most impossible person in our house to please when it comes to desserts or foods that are prepared in a more healthy way. He's WAY worse than the kids. His response to these: "How are these so good?")

Glazed Homemade Donuts

• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar (5g)
• 2/3 cup milk of choice (160g)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (4g)
• 3 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil (30g)
• 1 cup spelt or all-purpose flour (130g) (A reader had success with gluten-free ap flour.)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup xylitol or sugar (60g)
• 1/32 tsp pure stevia extract or 2 extra tbsp sugar (or 2 NuNaturals packets)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Combine first four ingredients in a small bowl, and whisk well. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a doughnut pan if you have one. (If you don’t have a doughnut pan, you can cook in a mini muffin tin for doughnut holes.) In a large measuring bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and stir very well. Now pour wet into dry and immediately pour into the pan. Bake 15 minutes, then allow to cool before removing. Top these vegan doughnuts with jam, or chocolate frosting, or glaze. 

I actually ran out of white flour the first time I made these and had to use whole wheat flour. They were still delicious.  OH, and coconut oil here is amazingly inexpensive! I got a 16oz bottle for $2 at the grocery store. Score! 

Anyways, I hope you like them as much as we do!