So there was a show back in 1985 called MacGyver about a guy who can make grenades out of an orange and a paper clip or something ridiculous like that. He was against the idea of guns because it was too easy (as opposed to constructing a time-delayed explosive out of soil and Milk Duds--that was never an episode, I just made it up), so he always got crafty with whatever was available to him at the moment. As luck would have it, the writers and director of the show decided that his character was going to be in a jam or a pickle (the figurative kind) in EVERY episode--so you can imagine, he'd have to Art Attack his way into getting out of deadly situations involving gun-wielding Russians who looked like Dolph Lundgren.
"What does this have to do with Low Carb Donuts?" you ask. Nothing. Except that I had to MacGyver my way around this recipe because I didn't have some of the stuff needed to pull it off.
I found a recipe for almond flour donuts from this cute website. It sure looked yummy so I decided to give it a whirl. The caveat was that I didn't have a donut pan, nor did I have erythritol (sugar substitute)--and when it comes to trying a new recipe or dish, I also have the EQ of a 3-year old faced with a marshmallow test. I wanted to do this and I wanted to do this now.
I had a silicone muffin tray which I knew was the best thing I could use, so I cut up some parchment paper and made little tubes out of it to make the holes in my "donut." The goal was to pour the batter around the parchment tubes. It's easier said than done because the batter comes out sticky and heavy. In retrospect, I wish I had taken pictures of the abomination for you guys to laugh over--I won't feel bad. I'm not above laughing at myself.
Anyhoo, I greatly digress. Here's my take and twist on low-carb, keto-friendly almond flour donuts.
INGREDIENTS:
1 c almond flour (NOT almond meal; it has to be fine-ground almond flour)
1/3 erythritol (I don't have this, so I instead use 1/5 tsp of raw stevia powder)
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 c unsalted butter (measure it solid, and then melt it)
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 unsweetened pea milk (I use the brand Ripple but you can also use unsweetened almond milk if you prefer).
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease the baking tray well (almond flour batter tends to be really sticky. I used coconut oil to grease my silicone tray--but butter and olive oil will work too).
In a large bowl, stir together almond flour, stevia, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Then in a small bowl, whisk together eggs, pea or almond milk, melted butter (lower the temp or else it'll cook the egg!), and vanilla extract. Whisk the wet mixture into the the dry mixture until incorporated well.
If you have a donut pan, then pour the batter into the mould and only fill them 3/4 full and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. If you're using a silicone tray, you'll have to give 5 minutes more to bake because silicone is funky like that. You'll want these babies to cool on a wire rack (still in the donut tray) for a few minutes before attempting to extract them or else they'll fall apart. The texture is more like a cake donut but I'm not complaining. Any day that I can have donuts WHILE being on keto is a good day.
I made different glazes for them: a white "sugar" glaze, a dark chocolate hazelnut glaze, and a pumpkin spice and cinnamon glaze. The glaze is just 4 tbs of heavy cream with a teaspoon of stevia, reduced over low heat until it thickens. For the dark chocolate hazelnut glaze, I put a tablespoon of NutiLight Sugar-free Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate spread into the heavy cream and reduced; and then I took the stevia and cream glaze I made and sprinkled pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. So easy. So delicious.
257 cal (for 1 and a half donut)
6g Protein 3g Carbs (net) 25g Fat