Sunday, October 13, 2013

Cinnamon Maple Donuts w/ Butter Pecan Frosting

Happy Sunday!  This morning I decided to make donuts for the first time. I recently purchased a donut pan and wanted to give it a try. These are wheat-free, grain-free, and have no sugar added. I made Cinnamon Maple Donuts w/ Butter Pecan Frosting. I used Swerve confectioners style sweetener to make the donuts and frosting with. I also added a few drops of stevia to my frosting at the end to get just the right amount of sweetness without changing the light and fluffy texture (which might have occurred had I added more dry sweetener). It was a perfect consistency. Note that I added some vanilla whey protein powder to the donuts to help boost the protein a bit (and improve texture) since I was making these to eat as my breakfast, not just as a treat. Between the eggs, almond flour and whey protein powder, these were light, yet substantial donuts and the most amazing part is that no sugar or wheat was necessary to make these delicious cake style donuts. As I have mentioned before, I have been using Swerve for a year or more now and it is one of my favorite sweeteners to bake with because I enjoy both its taste and convenience of measuring cup for cup like sugar.I snapped a few photos for you to see below as well as the recipe. Enjoy!







Cinnamon Maple Donuts w/ Butter Pecan Frosting

Ingredients:

For the Donuts:
1-1/2 cups blanched almond flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Swerve Confectioners Sweetener (or powdered erythritol)
1/4 cup vanilla whey protein powder (or use unflavored powder and add 1 teaspoon vanilla)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons "extra light" olive oil (not extra virgin olive oil)
2 teaspoons pure maple extract
1-1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

For the Butter Pecan Frosting:
1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons), softened
1/4 cup Swerve Confectioners Sweetener (or powdered erythritol)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure maple extract
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
14 drops stevia extract 
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:


For the donuts, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly spray a 6-cavity donut mold pan with olive oil spray or coconut oil spray; set aside.  In a large bowl, sift or whisk almond flour, Swerve Sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (removing any lumps).  In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sour cream until smooth; add oil, maple extract and apple cider vinegar and whisk until smooth. Pour wet mixture into dry ingredients and mix well until smooth.  Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop batter into well greased donut pan, filling almost to the top.  Bake for approximately 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes; flip onto wire rack to cool completely. Makes approximately 15 donuts. Frost or glaze as desired.  


For the frosting, in a medium bowl, cream softened butter and Swerve Sweetener until light and fluffy; beat in cream, maple extract, cinnamon, salt and stevia drops until well blended, light and fluffy. Lightly frost donuts and top with chopped pecans. 


*Its best to frost donuts as they are used. Store any remaining frosting in the refrigerator.



            

24 comments:

Katie D. said...

yeeehaw! Going to make now! Awwww look at you're sweet lil' doggie in the background! :D

Patricia said...

Excellent - a baked doughnut w/o flour! that is fabulous!

Suzanne said...

mmmmm, GGC! I'll have to pick up some maple extract this week and give these a go. I told my husband about them, reminding him that he loves your recipes :) They look delicious! Thank you!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks, Suzanne! I hope you can find the maple extract -- I had to order it to get the pure (not imitation). The stores near me only carry the imitation stuff. I hope you and your husband enjoy them! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Katie! LOL...I saw the picture that you posted of the donuts you made -- they looked beautiful! Haha -- yes, if I didn't crop him out, he'd be in a lot of them! LOL You have NO idea how many times I get a perfect picture, only to find there is a tail poking up over the edge of the plate depending on the angle I shoot! Glad you liked the donuts! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Patricia -- yes, it is great to have a donut without wheat OR sugar. It seems like it should be against the law, doesn't it! ;-)

Sami said...

These look amazing, I need to get some of the ingredients to try them out. Thanks

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks, Sami -- I hope you enjoy them! :-)

mary eleazer said...

can't wait to try these. But all my cravings are gone so unreal I used to crave donuts very badly. It's like I eat to live not live to eat. But I will try these for a special time thanks again all your recipes are fab. :)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Mary! Thanks -- I know exactly how you feel -- isn't it the best not having to have cravings control you and your food choices? That is the greatest gift of all to me. And it is WEIRD having "allowable treats" around and being able to eat "just one". Thanks so much for your kind comments! :-)

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your recipes and appreciate all the work that goes in to bringing them to us. Is it possible to use coconut oil instead of the light olive oil?
Thanks!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Anonymous -- thanks for your kind words. Yes, it is definitely okay to use coconut oil instead of light olive oil. Hope you enjoy them! ;-)

suzq 55 said...

I can't wait to try this recipe but would like to make the donuts for my young grandson who loves coconut sugar (instead of Swerve). Do you think this substitution is ok? Stevia is fine for the frosting. I'm new to this site and adore your recipes. You should publish a cookbook! I bet thousands of wheat and grain free people would buy it. You're fabulous, gourmet girl!! Thank you for all your hard work and creativity. You've inspired me to cook and bake again!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Suzq -- sorry for taking so long to get back to you -- it's been a busy day here today! First, thank you for your kind words! To answer your question about subbing coconut sugar for your grandson -- while I don't eat it, if he eats that, then yes...I don't see why it wouldn't work. I don't know how it compares in sweetness to regular sugar or Swerve, so you may have to adjust the amount to your desired sweetness -- but I don't see why it wouldn't work. For the frosting, it's best to use a powdered product -- and if all you have is granular, you can easily grind it for a few seconds in a small "magic bullet-type" blender to powder. Hope your grandson enjoys them and glad that you've been inspired to cook and bake again -- I think the only way we will be able to eat healthily these days is to go back to the basics of cooking and baking at home most of the time instead of all the packaged junk and fast food so many of us became accustomed to eating on a regular basis. Thanks, again! :-)

Andrea said...

HI GG - these look incredible! The local donut shop here specializes in Maple Bacon donuts - they look so similar to yours, except the pecan topping is bacon crumbles (real bacon) I think you should shock and awe the bacon lovers out there with this! Thanks for yet another great recipe.

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks, Andrea! Wow, that sound really good -- I may just have to try topping them with crumbled bacon next time! Thanks for the suggestion! :-)

DeWitch said...

The first time I made these I didn't have the maple extract or the Swerve. Used Stevia in the Raw and vanilla extract. Also used vanilla whey and hated the fake vanilla taste I got from it and they were way too sweet so I threw the "frosting" out as it was too sweet too. Made them again this week with plain whey, Swerve and pure maple extract. They are really good but still too sweet (for me) to frost. We LOVE pumpkin donuts and wonder if I could substitute pumpkin for something, maybe the sour cream? Do you think that would work? Or would it not be enough fat? And I would use this awesome organic pumpkin pie spice I just got.

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Dewitch -- I think the pumpkin would be fine if you substituted it. Let me know how they turn out -- I may try that, too! Just cut back on the sweetener next time and that should work. I've never tried stevia in the raw before and don't know how that works in terms of adjusting. Even though both were too sweet for you -- did you prefer one sweetener over the other? Let me know how the pumpkin tastes! :-)

DeWitch said...

Hi there:) Have not tried the pumpkin for the donuts yet, been too busy with Thanksgiving and leftovers now - Will try them this coming weekend. Stevia in the Raw is supposed to measure the same as sugar. The second batch with the Swerve were very tasty but I am not sure if it was the sweetener that made the difference since the first batch all I could taste was the awful flavor from the Vanilla Creme Whey that I used. Will let you know how the pumpkin donuts turn out:)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi DeWitch! Glad they turned out better -- hope the pumpkin donuts turn out great for you, too! :-)

marilee said...

I tried these last week and am so happy to have such a wonderful treat. I made them egg-free by replacing each egg with 1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour and 1/4 cup club soda. filled the doughnut pan to about 1/8 below full and baked for 18 min. worked out beautifully! thank you so much for your recipes. I also tried the pumpkin doughnuts suing the same egg-substitute...awesome!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Marilee -- So glad you enjoyed them. I have never heard about using garbanzo flour and club soda as an egg substitute before. I will have to remember that when I am asked. Did you just try that yourself or is that something that others do, too? I have heard about "flax eggs" before...but never with garbanzo. It's always good to know another option. Thanks! :-)

marilee said...

Hi GGC! I ran across the garbanzo bean/water egg substitute and thought it looked interesting. so far, it works great with batters. I use club soda as I have always used it in pancake and waffles in place of water since forever. chia eggs were just terrible. I have tried them all. today my question is that I had trouble with the maple frosting. the first batch looked like cottage cheese and the maple extract would not blend so it was a watery mess I threw out (it tasted pretty good). I tried again and got a better product, but still lumpy - is it possible the cream hardened the butter? should I use an electric mixer instead of a fork? I love the flavor of the frosting - just wish it looked nicer and was more creamy instead of tiny butter lumps. i'm sure I did something wrong, but i'm so not a cook. everything I make is a science experiment! thank you again.

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Marilee -- did you soften the butter (leave it out on the counter until soft) or very minimally use a microwave on low power (20-30%) for just a few seconds at a time (you want it soft like between pudding and peanut butter but not melted. I wonder if your butter was too chilled when you started mixing it. When mixing the frosting, it briefly goes through an "ugly stage"...keep beating/whipping it and all of a sudden it comes together nicely. You could definitely use an electric hand mixer if you wanted to, but you still need to soften the butter. Maybe try it again with butter that is softened and "creamy" textured before mixing it into a frosting. Did you make any kind of substitutions in the frosting? LOL on the "science experiment". That's kind of what cooking is in a way...trying to put together ingredients to have them become something tasty. Thanks for the information about the garbanzo "egg substitute". I have heard of using club soda in pancake batter...just never in "eggs". :-)