Merry Christmas Eve! I am so excited to go to my annual family celebration, because I haven’t seen my extended family in so long since I wasn’t home for Thanksgiving, and I am excited because I made these Red Velvet and Peppermint Festive Donuts to bring!!! We always have lots of fun, tasty cookies at this party, but we have never had donuts before, so I thought this would be a fun, festive way to bring a new (and healthier) dessert option!
This is probably the recipe I am the proudest of, because I came up with the idea a while ago and made a recipe last weekend, that tasted great but didn’t stay together, so then I went back to the drawing board (aka the kitchen) and thought through how to improve them, and revamped it successfully!! It is very tricky to come up with a baked good recipe that is both vegan and gluten-free, includes vegetables, and tastes good, so I am very proud and excited to share this with you!!
Wait, you might ask, did she just say these donuts contain vegetables?! That’s right!! I used beets and spinach to color these donuts!! This provides natural coloring and also makes them nutritious as well as delicious! You will not taste the veggies at all - in fact, everyone who I gave these too was so surprised that they contained vegetables!
The real exciting moment was when my sister tried them and loved them so much she asked for another! And she proclaims frequently that she strongly dislikes beets, so since she likes these even after knowing there are beets in them, that made me so excited! She is allergic to gluten and loves red velvet, which is why I made them gluten-free, so I am very happy that she likes these.
It was very hard for my family and I not to eat all these before the Christmas Eve party! Try making these for a holiday celebration and surprise your loved ones by telling them about the hidden veggies after they taste the donuts, just to see what they think! Also, this recipe is actually a bonus 3 in 1 recipe - you can make either recipe by itself as donuts or muffins, or you can combine them in this half-and-half festive combo!
The two recipes are very easy to make at the same time - I set out four bowls (wet and dry for each recipe), and added ingredients that were in common to both at the same time. Just make sure you clean out the blender in between so the colors don’t mix! If you’re not vegan, you can substitute 2 or 3 regular eggs for the flax eggs and use regular milk.
This made 33 donuts (enough for my mom, sister, and I to all taste test them, and still have 30 for the party!) all together. So if you are just making one flavor, it would make about 15 donuts.
Red Velvet Donut Recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
3 flax eggs (3 tbsp ground flax mixed with 6-7 tbsp water, and refrigerated for at least 5 minutes until thickened)
⅓ cup oat milk
1 package of cooked beets (I used the pictured kind from Trader Joe’s) and their juice
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup vegan butter/spread (I used Earth Balance), melted and cooled
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry:
1 cup almond flour
1 ¼ cup gluten-free 1:1 flour (can sub wheat flour if not gluten-free)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 cup coconut sugar
Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly spray donut pans with cooking oil.
2. Prepare flax egg and place in the refrigerator to set.
3. Blend all wet ingredients except the flax eggs and apple cider vinegar until evenly mixed and there are no beet chunks visible.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into a large mixing bowl and add in the flax eggs and apple cider vinegar. Whisk mixture until well combined.
5. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then whisk into the wet ingredients.
6. Use a large spoon to add the batter to the donut pan a bit less than completely full, as the donuts will rise a bit when baked. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- If you are making the festive half red, half green donuts, fill just half the donut pan with this batter, and the other half with the green peppermint batter. If you smooth the edges where the red and green batters meet, the donut will look better and be a bit more stable!
7. Let cool, then enjoy!!
Green Peppermint Donut Recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
3 flax eggs (3 tbsp ground flax mixed with 6-7 tbsp water, and refrigerated for at least 5 minutes until thickened)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup vegan butter/spread (I used Earth Balance), melted and cooled
4 cups spinach, packed (I used one full 6 oz bag from Trader Joe’s)
¾ cup oat milk
1 tsp peppermint oil
Splash of vanilla
Dry:
1 cup almond flour
1 ¼ cup gluten-free 1:1 flour (can sub wheat flour if not gluten-free)
2 tsp baking powder
Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly spray donut pans with cooking oil.
2. Prepare flax egg and place in the refrigerator to set.
3. Blend spinach and milk until the spinach is completely blended.
4. Pour the blended spinach and milk into a large mixing bowl and mix in the rest of the wet ingredients.
5. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients and mix until evenly combined.
6. Use a large spoon to add the batter to the donut pan a bit less than completely full, as the donuts will rise a bit when baked. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- If you are making the festive half red, half green donuts, fill just half the donut pan with this batter, and the other half with the red velvet batter, and smooth the edges.
7. Let cool, then enjoy!!
