Gluten Free, Dairy Free Donuts

I can't eat out for gourmet gluten free, dairy free donuts at $5+ every weekend, but I do crave them! For many of you, there's nowhere to get this kind of food near you. If you're trying to figure out how to make a GF/DF donut, you'll want to experiment from this base of operations:

Mix 2-3 different flours. I started with Ube Birch Benders pancake waffle mix + GF all purpose with half a cup of coconut flour then added lemon and toppings to taste. You do you, but know that some starches absorb all liquid and leave your donuts with either a weird flavor or a weird texture, or both.

Coconut flour is great in small doses if used sparingly, not more than 25% of the dry flour base. Almond flour and all-purpose GF flour can work together too. Use baking soda + baking powder if you're baking but not using a yeasted dough so it can rise in the oven for a cake-like donut vibe. If you really want to deep fry them, you'll want to make them thick and consider chilling the dough in the shape you want before frying.

I skip yeasted doughs and you can too - this recipe is great for baked donuts in a silicone mold:

1.5-2 cups your choice flour blend

1/3-1/2 cup almond milk or more if too thick to work

Baking soda & Baking Powder (1/2tsp max)

2 eggs (if you need to sub a vegan alt, think about nut butter or gum binders)

1/4 cup shortening or plant margarine, melted

vanilla (I prefer the real stuff out of the bean scraped in)

1/4 c sugar or more if you prefer (I mix sugars for lower glycemic and use very little for topping, typical donuts like cane or brown with confectioners for glazes)

Dash of salt

Toppings of your choice (see below for mine)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (If deep frying, prep oil)

2. Oil the pan if you're baking.

3. Mix dry to wet ingredients - eggs, almond milk, baking soda and powder, any flavorings you're using, vanilla and sugar with a dash of salt to help those flavors come to life. Any flavors to be cooked in like cinnamon for the dough should be introduced now.

4. Smell your dough to get a sense of it before you finish it; does it smell good to you? Deep fried donuts will need to be thicker and more like a biscuit dough in texture for best effect while baked GF donuts can be as loose as a thick waffle dough to pour into silicone pans for baking. Add almond milk or flour if needed to get to the right texture for your cooking method and blend until there are no clumps.

5. Add prepared donut-dough to the baking silicone pan if that's what you have, or prep donuts in the size you prefer for deep frying if that's your method. Bake for 18-24 minutes until golden like above. Deep fried donuts will take less time and be more golden.

CHILL OUT. WAIT UNTIL COOL OR EVERYTHING WILL MELT OFF.

6. Toppings are your choice of course, chocolate sunflower butter once a bit cooled worked well for me while the purple batch have a lemon glaze mixed with a bit of acai powder, so a LemonAcaiUbe flavored cake.

These ended up with Chocolate Sunflower Seed Butter with shredded chocolate chunks from Guittard to finish off the top of these doughnuts to give them a more gourmet upscale vibe. They were absolutely delicious with that hint of sweet fruityness under the chocolate nutty topping. Soft, tender, lemony and delicious. I love donuts that have both fatty, nutty vibes and some acid as well as the sweetness of a traditional topping. Don't be afraid to mix it up.