Easy to make sugar-free donuts will help keep you on track. Lightly spiced and sweetened, these baked gluten free donuts are just enough to satisfy a sweet craving.
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Do you like low carb muffins? If you do, you may want to invest in a donut pan to give them a new shape. I find that any regular quick bread or muffin batter works well as cake donuts.
But sometimes, I create new batters to use just for low carb donuts. Even though I have a great low carb blueberry muffin recipe, I also have a blueberry cake donut recipe. And I don’t use the same batter for those recipes.
Basic Sugar-Free Gluten-Free Donuts
This time I wanted to create a basic recipe for making gluten-free donuts. I ended up using a blend of low carb flours in the mix. Blending almond flour and coconut flour usually gives a better texture than using one or the other.
These sugar free donuts are lightly spiced. I only added 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. This gives just a hint of spice without the taste being overpowering.
The donuts aren’t overly sweet either. So, if not adding a sweet frosting on top, you may want additional sweetener in the batter.
How to Make Gluten-Free Donuts
The batter for the donuts is prepared using only one mixing bowl. To start, the gluten-free flours are mixed with sweetener, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. The recipe should work without the xanthan gum, but it does give a bit of elasticity that’s often missing in baked goods without gluten.
Next, the wet ingredients are added: butter, eggs, almond milk, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. An electric mixer is used to blend all the ingredients together. A hand whisk might work, but the batter does get pretty thick when the coconut flour begins to absorb the liquid.
Before adding the batter into the donut molds, you’ll want to make sure it’s greased well. If you want to ensure an easy release, you can always use a silicone donut pan instead. But I find that greasing well with coconut oil usually works.
Then just spread the batter evenly between the donut molds. If you have trouble, try putting it in a plastic bag with a small hole to pipe the batter into the molds.
I got nine donuts from the recipe. But the number of donuts will depend on the size of the molds. You can use a mini donut pan too, especially if you want better portion control. It takes about 20 minutes to bake regular size donuts and less for the mini ones.
Other Low Carb Donut Recipes
Overall, these low carb gluten-free donuts are a good distraction to prevent going for the real thing. And, they can definitely help get you back on track with a low carb diet if you’ve fallen off. So, if you feel you may cheat on the diet, go ahead and make a batch!
If you want to change things up with some other low carb donut recipes, be sure to check out the ones below…
- Coconut Flour Low Carb Donuts with Chocolate Icing
- Easy Gluten-Free Pumpkin Donuts
- Low Carb Krispy Kreme Donuts
Kitchen Tools Used
Here’s the items I used to make the recipe:
- Donut Pan – If you don’t have one of these, you can still make the recipe, but you’ll need to use a muffin pan instead.
- Electric Mixer – You may be able to get away with using a hand whisk to blend the batter, but a power mixer makes it much easier.
- Mixing Bowl – My favorite mixing bowls are made of Pyrex glass, but any large mixing bowl will do.
I hope you enjoy these nearly “guilt-free” donuts. And be sure to let me know how they turned out if you do give them a try by leaving a comment below.
Sugar-Free Gluten Free Donuts
Ingredients
Donuts:
- 1 1/3 cups almond flour
- 2/3 cup coconut flour
- 3/4 cup low carb sugar substitute or other low carb sweetener
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum may not be needed
- 1 tablespoon butter melted (coconut oil for dairy-free)
- 4 large eggs beaten
- 3/4 cup almond milk or other low carb milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Frosting:
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Swerve Confectioners Powdered Sweetener
- 4 drops stevia glycerite or liquid stevia
Low Carb Sweeteners | Keto Sweetener Conversion Chart
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease donut pan well.
- In bowl, mix together flours, sweetener, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum. Add butter, eggs, almond milk, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. Beat until well blended. Fill each donut mold about 2/3 full.
- Bake 18-20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pans about 15 minutes then remove from pans to finish cooling on racks.
- Spread frosting on top of each donut. Donuts may also be dipped into a mix of cinnamon and sweetener instead of the frosting.
Notes
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Nutrition
Additional Info
Note on Nutritional Information
Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
Unauthorized use of this material without written permission from Lisa MarcAurele is strictly prohibited unless for personal offline purposes.
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Post updated in February 2019. Originally published September 2012.
Lisa MarcAurele has been creating low carb recipes for herself and sharing them with others since 2010. She enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. The results are low sugar foods that taste like high carb favorites!
