Cinnamon, candy and pecan glazed mini donuts (no sugar)
Donuts. Yes, donuts. This recipe benefits from the addition of well-beaten chickpea brine, which foams like beaten egg whites - and adds fluffiness and air to the donuts. Three options for glazes are provided; these can be mixed and matched to improvise your own glazes: why not dip your donuts in candy glaze and then add finely chopped pecans on top? Or dip your donuts in cinnamon glaze and then add finely chopped walnuts? This recipe makes 70 mini donuts (4 cm outer diameter).
Ingredients
- Donut batter:
- 2¼ cups of wholewheat spelt flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- 1¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cardamon
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ⅓ cup chickpea brine from organic, unsalted chickpeas
- ¼ cup cold-pressed sunflower or safflower oil
- ¾ cup brown rice malt
- 1 cup brown rice milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Cinnamon glaze (covers around 24 mini donuts):- 3 tblsp brown rice malt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Candy glaze (covers around 24 mini donuts):- 3 tblsp brown rice malt
- ¾ tblsp beetroot juice
Pecan glaze (covers around 24 mini donuts):- 2 tblsp brown rice malt
- 1 tblsp raw white almond butter
- 1 tblsp brown rice milk
- Small handful of pecans, finely chopped
Preparation
- Pre-heat oven to 210 degrees. Generously grease the donut pan with cold-pressed safflower or sunflower oil and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients for the donut batter (flour, baking powder, spices and sea salt) and set aside.
- Pour the chickpea brine into a glass bowl and beat until the mixture froths and develops a smooth consistency, but before it forms stiff peaks. (Use an electric beater to save both time and your arms).
- Pour the oil and brown rice malt for the donut batter into a small pan and gently warm over a low heat, stirring with a fork until the brown rice malt 'melts' into the oil but before it bubbles. (You can skip this step if short on time, but warming the malt will make it easier to stir the malt into the wet ingredients).
- Mix the oil and brown rice malt into the chickpea brine, stir in the milk and vanilla essence, add the dry ingredients, and mix well. The batter should have a runny consistency similar to pancake batter.
- Fill each donut cup approximately ½ full with the donut batter (around 1 tbslp batter per cup).
- Bake for 6 minutes or until the donuts spring back when lightly pressed.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. If needed, use a wooden toothpick, to gently prise each donut out of the pan. Wipe down the pan and re-grease between batches.
- While the donuts are baking/cooling in the pan, make your glazes. For the cinnamon and candy glazes, mix the ingredients in a small bowl each and set aside. For the pecan glaze, mix the malt, butter and milk together and set aside (keeping the pecans apart from the wet ingredients).
- To glaze the donuts, dunk them top-first into the glaze and, if using nuts, sprinkle the nuts on top. To increase the sweetness, let the first glaze soak in for a couple of minutes and then drizzle extra glaze on top.