Before I get to the subject of the day, I just wanted to announce that Coconut and Berries won 2nd place in The Vegan Woman’s “Top 20 Vegan Blogs to Watch” (See the new little badge in my sidebar)! I’m thrilled to be featured, especially alongside so many bloggers I follow and admire.
All the wonderful support from my readers is what keeps me blogging so it wouldn’t have been possible without you! Maybe one year we’ll get on the “Top 10 Vegan Powerhouse Blogs” list!
I just went back and forth about ten times between the spelling “doughnut” and “donut” and the more I looked at them the more wrong they both looked! Anyway, it turns out we usually use “doughnut” here in the UK, and since my writing gets more and more American…probably from all the US blogs I read…I thought I better stick to my country’s own spelling!
Naked banana doughnuts
If you’re reading this, the chances are you’re into cooking, and therefore likely appreciate the joy a new piece of kitchen equipment can give! Certainly the case with me and my new doughnut pan. I somehow restrained myself from buying one until now. I don’t know what finally made me crack but I don’t feel too guilty about it as it’s been a lot of fun playing with it, and now I get to share this recipe with you!
Topped with date caramel and dark chocolate
These Banana Doughnuts with Caramel & Chocolate are vegan, gluten-free, yeast-free and baked not fried! It took a few tests to get what I was looking for- I kept ending up with muffins in doughnut shape or hockey pucks, neither of which were exactly what I was looking for. I also wanted to keep these gluten-free as a lot of you have requested gluten-free recipes, but that did complicate things a little.
In the end I hit on Ashley Mclaughlin’s book “Baked Doughnuts For Everyone” and adapted one of her recipes to produce these little yummies.
They have a light, springy texture and a tighter crumb than muffins. They’re also not too sweet so I could top them with a thick layer of my favourite date caramel and a generous drizzle of dark chocolate without taking the sweetness overboard.
They’re very easy to make but do require one ingredient which might not be a staple in your pantries- Sweet rice flour/ glutinous rice flour. It’s not the same as regular rice flour so please do not substitute! It’s not too hard to find online though as it’s used frequently in South East Asian cooking for desserts (you might have tried Mochi?). Give them a go and let me know what you think!
Ingredients
- Banana Doughnuts
- 1/2 C Oat flour
- 1/2 C Sweet rice flour
- 1/4 C Coconut sugar
- 2 Tbsp Almond flour/Ground almonds
- 2 Tbsp Coconut flour
- 2 Tbsp Ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 C + 2 Tbsp Almond milk
- 1/3 C Mashed banana (approx 1 small banana)
- 3 Tbsp oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- *1 Recipe Date caramel (you will have leftovers)
- 50 g Dark chocolate/ 1/3 C Dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Lightly oil a doughnut pan.
- In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir until just combined (do not overmix!).
- Leave to sit for 5 minutes. The batter will be very thick and not pourable.
- Spoon or pipe mixture into your prepared doughnut pan, filling to just below the top of the pan. Gently smooth out the tops with a spatula.
- Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and a tester comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a rack to completely cool.
- When cool, spread with a thick layer of date caramel and place in the fridge while you prepare the chocolate.
- Melt and drizzle the chocolate over the doughnuts any way you like. For drizzling, I like to break up the chocolate bar into chunks and place in a sealed freezer bag. I then immerse the bag in a bowl of boiling water until melted, snip off a tiny corner of the bag with scissors and then drizzle straight from the bag.
- Refrigerate briefly to allow the chocolate to firm up again.
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Congratulations! And you totally deserve to win, because your blog is great! Your recipes are wonderful, this one is too!
Thank you so much for such a sweet comment!
these look magnificent - caramel and chocolate and doughtnuts - we spell it the UK way too and it makes sense that they are little nuts of dough! I have avoided buying a doughnut tin because space is so limited but I tend to do lots of gluteny yeast baking so I found a doughnut cutter worked for me and took less room. I haven’t experimented with flavours and this combination is very tempting.
Congrats on being so high on the vegan women bloggers list - you deserve to feature and I love the recipes and photos and warmth in your blog so much that it is nice to know it is getting a higher profile - onwards and upwards
Thank you for your congratulations Johanna.
I don’t need to avoid yeast or gluten so I think I’ll try some baked yeast doughnuts next. My memories of doughnuts as a child were mainly the sugar coated, jam-filled ones but these little ring ones are more fun
Substitute for the coconut sugar? Just leave out? Can sweet brown rice be replaced with a whole wheat or white whole wheat?
Don’t leave out the coconut sugar and don’t replace the rice flour! Sorry, I can’t really take responsibility for results if you make a lot of subs as I haven’t tested them that way. Coconut sugar can be replaced with cane sugar with no effect but the flours really need to stay the same.
Of course you were in the list, NO surprise there my dear! Your blog is amazing!! You KNOW I’m a fan!! These doughnuts look awesome and they are gluten-free, woohoo!!
I love the way you drizzled the chocolate on them too, kind of looks Halloween-ish, which I LOVE! That is too funny about the different spellings!
Shame we can’t celebrate together in person!
haha, I had a bit of fun with the drizzling. I didn’t feel like doing it neatly for these 😉
Congratulations, Emma, that’s great news and a well-deserved award
I got excited about this recipe as soon as I saw the thumbnail on my Bloglovin’ feed. So many good things happening in this! That date syrup looks out of this world. I too have so far resisted the urge to invest in a doughnut pan but I have dreamed of owning one for years… Maybe when I move into a flat with a bigger kitchen.
Thanks for the congrats Clem. The email announcing the award definitely made my week!
My kitchen equipment is a little out of hand tbh…I only have a teeny kitchen and my favourite things to buy when I have money are not clothes but crockery and cooking tools/gadgets! Good thing I’m moving soon and will have more space!
Congratulations again on your blog rating, which is very well deserved
These doughnuts look amazing, too! I don’t have a doughnut maker but think you’ve hit on the perfect vegan version.
Thanks again Kari. I’m sure you could bake these in a muffin pan or a doughnut pan. Whatever the shape I’m sure they’ll still taste good!
Well done!!!!! I may live in the k, but I will admit to speling it the slightly easier US version. And where did you get your pan from. I’ve not seen them over here, not even in Lakeland!.
You’re excused! I spell a lot of things the American way 😉
I bought the pan from Amazon- this one
I don’t have a doughnut pan either… bit scared it i get one i wont stop eating them!! Where did you buy the sweet rice flour. P.s CONGRATULATIONS!! xx
haha, yes, I’ve made a few batches already but I’m so busy all of a sudden which has limited my time in the kitchen and thus my doughnut making!
I actually bought my sweet rice flour from the Japan Centre in London a long while back. You can buy online from them or I’ve seen a few other places selling it like here and here. You can also just grind your own from sticky rice!
These look delicious! Oh, I wish I had some!
I wish I could share them with all my readers! You’ll just have to make them instead 😉
Fantastic post and pictures! I can see why you got so high on that blog list. I’ve been meaning to make yeast free vegan baked doughnuts for a while now, but not got there yet- this recipe has inspired me anew, thanks
Thank you so much! Making doughnuts is so worth it. And the yeast-free kind are really quick and easy too.
Banana doughnuts soundd fantastic - I need to get my hands on a doughnut pan!! I hear you on the British/American spelling (so confusing!)! I usually try to stick to the British (as Canadians do) but I find myself falling back on the American sometimes esp. in blog writing! Pinned this wonderful recipe for later! And congrats for the great blogging achievement !!!
I didn’t know that about Canadians and spelling! For some reason I presumed you guys followed the US style.
Glad to know it’s not just me who slips though!
Thank you for the congratulations too
I am thrilled to hear how well you did in The Vegan Woman’s Awards! It’s one very well deserved accolade ♥
I used to be really anti-gadgets and now I’m totally obsessed with them! Every time I mention to M that there’s a new gadget I ‘need’ to try, he just rolls his eyes! Sadly I haven’t got a doughnut pan yet but it’s on the list… along with the waffle maker, ice cream maker, mini muffin pan, Blendtec…. lol!
Your doughnuts looks so yummy. Really need to get one of those pans so I can try them 😉
Thanks so much Sharon! I was very excited to get 2nd place
It’s a little ridiculous how many kitchen tools/gadgets I’ve accumulated, but I do use them all and they bring me a lot of joy so I feel their purchase was justified!!
Any thoughts on piping these onto a baking sheet and baking or even frying directly? Would love to give these a try, but am lacking a doughnut pan:( Perhaps make one huge doughnut in a bundt pan?!?
Hi Danielle, I really couldn’t say I’m afraid but I think your best bet without a doughnut pan would be piping onto a baking sheet or else just making them in muffin tins. A doughnut pan is very inexpensive though and I think worth it!