Paleo Carrot Cake Donuts

Happy Easter Weekend!  We’re getting excited for Easter Sunday and eating tons of Paleo Carrot Cake Donuts here at the Smith house!  I encourage you to do the same! 🙂

I’m excited to share this recipe with you for three reasons:

1. It only took me 2 tries to get it right!  (Compared to 7 tries with my Irish Soda Bread!)
2. I used two items that I’ve been wanting to experiment with: Otto’s Cassava Flour and coconut butter!   Thanks to those ingredients, these donuts are gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and nut-free (if you leave out the added walnuts)!
3. It may go without saying, but these donuts are INCREDIBLE.  I know they’re not traditional donuts, but these are lightly sweet, dense yet cake-like, and that glaze…soooo good!

Go grab your donut pan, turn on your oven, and let’s make some Paleo Carrot Cake Donuts!

While your oven’s warming up, let me just take a moment to share how much I love Easter.  The sights and sounds of this season are so joyful!  Springtime brings us beautiful buds, green leaves, and flowering trees, with birds chirping and sleepy animals emerging.  Easter pastels abound through colorful eggs, Easter baskets, and frilly new Sunday dresses.  And, the food!  Oh, the food!  Hearty brunches of egg casserole and French toast, glazed ham and roasted lamb for dinner, sweet treats like coconut macaroons, chocolate bunnies, and of course, Paleo Carrot Cake Donuts. 😉  All the good things!

And yet, Easter is still even MORE than that to me.

If you’ve read my About page, then you know I named my blog “Fed and Fulfilled” for a reason.  While I’m so blessed in being fed through delicious food on a daily basis and can feel temporary fulfillment from sharing meals with friends and family, my true fulfillment comes only from knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him.

That said, Easter is like the icing on the cake for my faith.  This week, I’ve been reflecting on Jesus Christ’s journey to the cross and the incredible burden and load He carried for my sake.  He lived a perfect, selfless life, and still took all of my messy, ugly sins to the cross.  He willingly died so that I could live- not only in this life (where I get to have fun creating recipes and blog posts), but in the NEXT!  Life for all eternity with Him, where He makes all things perfect and new, where there is “no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” (Rev. 21:4)  I can’t even imagine how glorious that will be!

So to me, during Easter week, what first comes to my mind is the journey from death to resurrection to new, abundant life.  I think about fulfillment and purpose through the cross of Christ.  And I rejoice in the good news of Easter Sunday – He is alive!  Just as with the death and new life of Christ, God takes our brokenness and death and sadness and makes it beautiful and new!  It’s an overwhelming act of grace and mercy from God, who loves us in an immeasurable way and has a purposeful plan for each one of us.

What an awesome reason to celebrate! 🙂  This year, my celebration begins by baking and sharing these Paleo Carrot Cake Donuts with you!

To begin, you’ll want a nonstick donut pan – either large or mini.  A muffin tin might work, too.  I greased my donut pan GENEROUSLY with coconut oil.  Like, if you think you greased it too much, that’s a good thing.  You do not want these donuts sticking, or you’ll end up making them into a trifle.  (Hmmm…maybe a future recipe?)

As I mentioned earlier, I used Otto’s brand cassava flour in this recipe and it worked like a dream!  It’s made from the yuca root and you can sub this cup-for-cup with wheat flour, but I like it best when I combine it with other starches or flours.  So, I used a bit of coconut flour and arrowroot starch with it and the texture was perfect.

For the wet ingredients, I grated a couple large carrots and mixed them in with melted coconut oil, egg, and maple syrup.  Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and add in raisins and/or toasted walnuts.  Both are totally optional.  The batter will be pretty thick, which is fine.  Scoop it carefully into your greased donut pan and fill each one almost to the top.  Now, bake away!

Once the donuts are golden and a toothpick comes out clean, I let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.  Then, I ran a knife around each one, tilted the pan slightly and tapped it on the counter a few times to loosen the donuts.  Keep tapping and loosening them and they should come out perfectly!  (If they don’t, that means you need to oil your pan more.)  Look at these beauties, fresh out of the oven!

While the donuts are cooling, whip up an easy glaze using coconut oil, coconut butter, and coconut milk.  Coconut butter is different than coconut oil- it’s the actual coconut meat.  When heated, it melts down like a nut butter.  It’s pretty incredible!

I sweetened my glaze with maple syrup, but you could use honey if you prefer it.  You can microwave the glaze if it thickens too much, or refrigerate it if it’s too thin.  It should coat your donuts nicely and harden just enough so that it stays on the donuts really well.  Slather glaze on your cooled donuts and then decorate with toppings of your choice!  I used toasted coconut, toasted walnuts, and cinnamon & coconut sugar.

You can make these donuts right now and they’ll keep perfectly for Easter brunch or dessert!  Just put them in a covered container and you can let them sit out or refrigerate them if you want the glaze to firm up more.

Mark and I couldn’t stop eating these and we’ll be making more for the weekend!  Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!  Have a Happy Easter and happy eating!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Paleo Carrot Cake Donuts

 

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Created by: Joanna Smith

Serves: 6 donuts or 12-18 minis

Ingredients

Donuts:

• 1 cup of carrots, grated
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ⅓ cup Otto's Cassava Flour
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup raisins (optional)
• ¼ cup toasted walnuts (optional)
• toasted coconut, walnuts, cinnamon/sugar (optional toppings)

Glaze:

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 2 tablespoons coconut butter, melted
• 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on taste)
• 3 tablespoons light coconut milk

Instructions

For the Donuts:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a donut pan liberally with melted coconut oil.
2. In a medium bowl, beat your eggs and then add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk well. Stir in carrots. Set aside
3. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to mix well. Stir in raisins and walnuts, if using.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until combined. Batter will be thick.
5. Spoon batter into donut pan. I filled mine pretty full.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes if using a large donut pan (6 donuts) or 11-13 minutes if using a mini donut pan (12 donuts). A toothpick inserted in the donut should come out clean.
7. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes in the donut pans and then run a knife around the edges of each donut and tap pan on your counter top to loosen.
8. Let donuts finish cooling on a rack while you make the glaze.

For the Glaze:

1. Microwave your coconut butter and coconut oil for a few seconds to melt. Whisk in maple syrup and coconut milk. If glaze is still too thick, microwave for a few more seconds until it is thin enough to frost. For a thicker glaze, refrigerate the mixture.
2. Frost cooled donuts with glaze and decorate with toppings of choice. Store uneaten donuts in a covered container in the fridge or at room temperature. They should keep at least 2-3 days.

3.5.3226