Healthy Baked Cinnamon Apple Doughnuts

Have you caught it yet? Wafts of inviting cinnamon spice, caught by gentle breezes. No matter how much we may want to linger in summer, the bright, warm glory of autumn’s signature flavors makes the shift awfully enticing when it’s time. Of these, Apple Cinnamon is like the gatekeeper, and longtime friend. There are seemingly limitless ways to welcome the season of appleiscious cinnamon twists—and with a little creativity we can playfully sample them all with healthy balance.

Can you take wholesome muffin batter and bake it in a doughnut pan? Why, yes, absolutely!

Will that batter transform into the classic gleeful decadence associated with doughtnuts? Well, no, probably not—but! They will still be altogether delightful. There’s just something about bakes in doughnut shapes that adds that extra special something.

Typically, our breakfast muffins are oil-free and refined sugar free, sweetened only by fruit (usually bananas plus berries or chopped stone fruits). For these doughnuts, I planned all along to be a little freer with sweetener while still keeping them on the light side, but it took a couple of iterations to get where I wanted to go. All of them included a good half cup of unsweetened applesauce plus a cup of apple juice (or cider). All of them included a sprinkling of coconut sugar and cinnamon mixture for a little added taste and pop. They all worked well enough, but the recipe below was the winner all around.

Trial one, no added sugar in the batter: I liked this recipe a lot! But my palate is not typical, and for F and D, the cinnamon-sugar sprinkling was nice, but a light glaze was all the better. Glaze recommended if you make these in this stripped down way—just leave out the maple syrup and consider adding in the chopped or grated apple.

Trial two, date-sweetened: As is clear from just briefly skimming this blog, I am a huge fan of Medjool Dates! For the second experiment, I tried about 10 soaked, pitted Medjool dates in place of the eventual maple syrup, and mixed all the ingredients in a blender, hoping that ease of combining would also add a little airiness. But while F and D enjoyed these, I found them way too dense, much to my annoyance.

Three times a charm: Ultimately I went to the original recipe, the basic muffin but with apple juice and incorporated a modest amount of pure maple syrup, and the results were a hit with everyone! Not super sweet, but rich in flavor, especially withe the cinnamon sugar blend. Feel free to use date sugar in place of coconut, to use apple cider for apple juice, or to glaze instead of sprinkle.

Easy to make, clean and tasty bakes, these make for a scrumptious snack or part of a healthy breakfast. Enjoy!

Happy appletastic fall!

Yield: 12

Author: Wendy McMillan

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Healthy Baked Vegan Cinnamon Apple Donuts

Make them part of a healthy breakfast or a scrumptions snack--these fluffy appletastic treats are essentially wholesome muffins in donut form, and altogether delightful.

Prep time: 12 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 27 Min

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour (or white whole wheat)
• 1/3 Cup oats
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon chia seeds in 2 1/5 Tablespoons water
• 1/2 Cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 Cup almond or cashew butter (nuts only)
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
• Cinnamon coconut sugar mix (about 1/4 Cup sugar and 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon), optional but recommended)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, gently atir all the ingredients through the 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon (hold onto the cinnamon-coconut sugar mixture) to form a batter.
3. Prepare two standard donut pans with a light coating of cooking spray (I use avocado oil spray). Sprinkle the bottoms of each donut insertion with cinnamon sugar.
4. Spread the batter between the pans, filling each donut insertion close to the top. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture.
5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until lightly golden brown. Allow to rest/cool for about 2 minutes before removing. Serve warm or room temperature. Enjoy!

Notes

Feel free to incorporate a small, peeled grated apple into the batter, and/or swap out the cinnamon sugar for a light glaze!

Nutrition Facts

Calories

121.4

Fat

3.3 g

Sat. Fat

0.59 g

Carbs

20.65 g

Fiber

1.6 g

Net carbs

19.03 g

Sugar

4.02 g

Protein

3.08 g

Sodium

108.52 mg

Cholesterol

0 mg