Gingerbread Carrot Cake Donuts
Christmas time means we are allowed to indulge. But this doesn‘t mean that eating sweet treats must be unhealthy. In fact, these baked Gingerbread Carrot Cake Donuts are much healthier than most donut recipes. They contain a fair amount of healthy carrots which are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The recipe is vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, oil-free, and easy to make.
Gingerbread
Who doesn’t love the taste and smell of Gingerbread?! It’s spicy, sweet, and reminds of Christmas. Combined with carrots this combo is actually a dream and perfect for the holiday season. That‘s why I created the recipe of these healthy Gingerbread Carrot Cake Donuts which will make your kitchen smell like heaven.
Refined sugar-free recipe
These donuts are sweetened with Xylitol and molasses only. Xylitol is teeth-friendly and can actually prevent caries. Awesome right? The recipe has no refined sugar and no agave syrup. I like using molasses as it contains lots of minerals. The glaze is refined sugar-free as well and contains Erythritol, nut butter (I’ve used cashew butter but you can use any nut butter or seed butter of choice), and plant-based milk.
Gluten-free flour blend
To make the donuts gluten-free, I’ve used rice flour, almond flour, and tapioca flour. Instead of almond flour, you can use any other nut-based flour. For example, hazelnut flour or even ground shredded coconut (for a nut-free version). A grain-free alternative to rice flour would be buckwheat flour or quinoa flour. You can also use a store-bought gluten-free flour blend. If you don’t mind a gluten-free recipe you could use spelt flour (or even wheat flour) instead of rice flour and tapioca flour!
These Gingerbread Carrot Cake Donuts are:
- Vegan (egg-free, dairy-free)
- Gluten-free
- Baked, not deep fried
- Healthy
- Oil-free
- Perfect for fall and the holiday season
- Refined sugar-free
- Easy to make
- Delicious
- Soft and moist
- Great for dessert or breakfast
You can vary this recipe
The recipe is perfect for breakfast or as a dessert. You can also vary it as per your liking. For example, you could use sweet potatoes instead of carrots. Both tastes amazing. And if you don’t have a donut mold, you could use a muffin mold instead. The cooking time will be slightly longer though.
Should you recreate these delicious baked Carrot Cake Donuts, please leave a comment below and don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with @elavegan and #elavegan because I love to see your recreations. If you are looking for more carrot desserts, then definitely also try out my vegan carrot cake.
Gingerbread Carrot Cake Donuts
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 3/4 cup (120 g) rice flour
- 1/4 cup (30 g) tapioca flour or cornstarch
- 1/2 cup (60 g) almond flour (*see notes)
- 7 tbsp (60 g) Xylitol or Erythritol or regular sugar (*see notes)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp allspice
Wet ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups (150 g) carrot finely grated (1 medium-sized)
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) coconut milk canned (*see notes)
- 1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds + 3 tbsp water)
- 1/2 tbsp lime juice or lemon juice
- 1 tsp molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting:
- 5-6 tbsp (50 g) Erythritol or icing sugar
- 2 tbsp (30 g) nut butter or seed butter of choice (*see notes)
- 1-2 tbsp plant-based milk or cream
- crushed nuts or seeds (optional)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the ground chia seeds and water with a whisk, set aside for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, put all dry ingredients in a big bowl and stir until there are no clumps.
- Add all wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with either a whisk or an electric hand mixer until the mixture is combined.
- Grease a donut mold with oil or vegan butter and fill in the batter.
- Bake in the oven at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 15-18 minutes and let the donuts cool.
- Put the Erythritol in a food processor or electric coffee/spice grinder and blend until it's a fine powder. You can use icing sugar instead of Erythritol. Put it into a small bowl, add the nut butter (or seed butter of choice) and plant-based milk and mix with a whisk. If the frosting is too thick add more milk. If it's too thin add more of the Erythritol/icing sugar.
- Frost the donuts and top them with crushed nuts or seeds of choice. Enjoy! Store leftovers in the fridge.
Notes
- You can use ground shredded coconut instead of almond flour for a nut-free version.
- You can use any other plant-based milk or cream instead of coconut milk. The higher the fat content of the milk is, the better the donuts will taste.
- Any nut butter or seed butter is fine, for example, almond butter, cashew butter, coconut butter, sunflower seed butter etc.
- You can use regular sugar instead of Xylitol. Desserts with Xylitol should be never given to dogs.
- Recipe makes 6 donuts. Nutrition facts are for one donut.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Simple and Delicious Vegan Cookbook by ElaVeganCLICK HERE to order!If you are using Pinterest, feel free to pin the following photo:
Hello Ela,
My donuts were more bread-like and chewy, sort of like mochi donuts ???? not sure what went wrong.
My batter was very thick (but still “light”, if that makes sense – scoop-able), is this how it’s supposed to be? I had to spoon it into the molds. The flavor is good and I don’t mind the texture; I just wonder why they didn’t come out soft and moist – I even added a bit more liquid to loosen the batter-dough a bit.
Hi, most gluten-free donuts aren’t soft and light (except the ones that use egg i.e. not vegan). If you aren’t gluten-free, you could try to replace the rice flour and tapioca flour with all-purpose flour, and the texture will be completely different. 🙂
Thanks for replying! Your donuts certainly look cakey and moist 🙂 maybe I will try again some time. Thank you
You are very welcome. 🙂