Nearly every year, we travel back East to visit family for the holidays. While there, we enjoy the fun tradition of visiting a local apple farm to pick-up some fresh-pressed cider and the most amazing apple cider donuts!
Since going gluten-free, I’ve been missing those tasty holiday donuts. So I finally decided it was high time to transform this family favorite into an irresistible grain-free, dairy-free treat that everyone can enjoy whether they’re GF or not!
Of course, traditional apple cider donuts call for using spiced apple cider to add that characteristic fall flavor. However, you may be surprised to discover that I save the cider for sipping.
Instead, this tasty grain-free twist, calls for creating your own apple pie spice mix and blending it with my favorite homemade applesauce and pure canned coconut milk. This simple combination ensures that these scrumptious donuts bake-up with a light cake-like texture, and taste just like their namesake.
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Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups blanched almond flour
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp fine ground sea salt
- 1/4 cup pure coconut milk
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (we love homemade)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1 large egg, plus 1 egg white
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp coconut flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 6-cavity donut pan with palm shortening or coconut oil; set aside.
- In a small bowl, stir together the blanched almond flour, spices, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, applesauce, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, egg, egg white, vanilla and coconut flour until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and use a spoon to thoroughly combine. Then, carefully spoon the donut batter into the prepared donut pan just shy of the fill line. Use your finger or back of spoon to even out the top of the batter.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes, until donut springs back when touched.
- Remove from oven and allow the donuts to cool in the pan for 1-2 minutes. Then turn them out onto a sheet of parchment paper. Dust with a little organic powdered sugar, if desired. Then, transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling – if you can wait that long! Yum!
Those sound excellent, I’m off to check out the full recipe!
Thanks so much, Sylvie! Appreciate your sweet friendship! 🙂 Happy holidays!
These donuts definitely look divine. Thanks for posting the recipe as well.
You’re welcome. Hope you enjoy them. 🙂
The place with the Apple cider donuts wouldn’t happen to be Atkins in Amherst Ma would it? I believe they were tops in the nation. Definitely not gluten free though, safely, so MANY thanks for this recipe!
Hi, Donna. Thanks for your kind note. The place I’m talking about is actually in Chester, NJ. It’s a small family owned farm that my in-laws have been taking us to for years. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! 🙂 Blessings, Kelly
this recipe sounds delicious! I have a question Im trying to stay away from non stick pans do you know of any safer donut pans that work?
Hi, Melissa. If you’re open to silicone bakeware, you can find silicone donut pans at some cooking stores or online at Amazon: https://goo.gl/ssNUDL Hope this helps! Blessings to you for a Happy Fall! 🙂 Kelly
Can you make these without a donut pan? Would substituting coconut flour for the almond flour work?
Hi, Caroline, yes, you could make muffins out of these using a muffin tin, but will need to adjust the bake time. As far as substituting with all coconut flour, that will not work because coconut flour is very absorbent, so the liquid measurements and amount of eggs used would need to be adjusted. If you have a nut allergy, I would recommend doing a google search for a donut recipe using all coconut flour, unless you want to take time to experiment with adjusting this recipe. With blessings, Kelly 🙂