Delicious gluten free and dairy free healthy homemade banana donuts sweetened with honey! These are perfect for satisfying a sweet craving but are still healthy and made with whole foods!
Let’s Talk Banana Donuts!
If you are a regular reader of Nutrition in the Kitch you know that I seriously love healthy treats. Although I try to balance the recipes on the blog with a combination of savoury and sweet recipes, I typically tend to lean to the sweet side and really, it seems like everyone else enjoys these sweet recipes too!
Today on the blog I’ve teamed up with The Brick to share this incredibly delicious and super easy recipe for healthy banana donuts with a quick and decadent chocolate glaze.
Cake Donut vs Yeast Donut
Over the years I’ve been experimenting with grain-free baking and I’ve found the right combination of flours can create the most delicious cake-like texture – perfect for a baked cake donut (versus a yeast donut).
Cake donuts have a similar texture to loaf bread or cake and do not have that same chewy, airy, yeasty texture of a yeast donut which has a risen dough and is typically fried versus baked.
For my banana donuts I decided to combine almond flour and coconut flour along with mashed bananas, honey, dark chocolate chunks and shredded unsweetened coconut for a perfectly sweet batter that would bake up to perfection in my donut pans.
Ingredients in Banana Donuts:
To make these simple and delicious cake donuts you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Almond flour
- Coconut flour
- Shredded coconut (unsweetened)
- Eggs
- Honey
- Dark chocolate chunks
- Butter (or vegan butter)
- Banana
- Baking soda
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
How To Make Banana Donuts:
While there are many methods to making healthy homemade baked donuts, one of my favorite, and simplest ways is to throw everything into my Cuisinart Stand Mixer and let it do the work!
The Cuisinart Precision Stand Mixer from The Brick is not only sleek and beautiful, it’s very user friendly and has so many uses and functions. It can be used for baking, cooking, mixing, shredding, whipping and much more. The more I play around with this kitchen tool the more impressed I am with it and for these homemade banana bread donuts, it really does all the heavy lifting.
To make these delicious banana donuts here’s what you’ll do:
- Add the flours, eggs, leavening agents, sweetener, and any add-ins all to the stand mixer bowl.
- Whirl everything around with the chef’s whisk attachment until smooth.
- Next, add the batter to a piping bag (even a larger ziplock bag with the corner cut works) and pipe the donut batter into a couple of well-greased donut pans.
I picked up my donut pans at a couple of local homeware stores but you can also find them online on Amazon. While you can definitely mix everything together by hand in a bowl, I find the Precision Stand Mixer does a better job and eliminates most of the lumps from the mashed banana.
Chocolate Donut Icing:
For the decadent chocolate glaze I used just 4 ingredients:
- cocoa powder
- honey
- coconut oil
- non-dairy milk
Simply whisk these ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth.
It’s amazing how with just these few ingredients you can get a rich, thick, shiny chocolate glaze that firms up and smothers the homemade banana bread donuts perfectly.
Optional Banana Donut Toppings:
To take it all up a notch I used different toppings including:
- toasted unsweetened coconut
- sliced banana
- dark chocolate shavings
This delicious and healthy take on a donut is honestly perfect for so many occasions including birthdays, baby showers, brunches or honestly, just a random Tuesday night at home. Without any refined sugars, and almost all whole food ingredients (aside from the dark chocolate chunks), these strike a wonderful balance between treat-yo-self and nourish yo-self!
Have you ever made healthy homemade donuts? What’s your favorite method? Tell me in the comments and be sure to pin the photo below to save this recipe for later and of course, share the love!
Healthy Banana Donuts
These delicious and healthy banana donuts are gluten free, dairy free, perfectly sweet, and incredible for satisying a sugar craving!
Ingredients
Banana Donuts:
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons almond flour
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons raw honey
- ¼ cup high quality dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
- ¼ cup organic butter or vegan butter, melted
- 1 cup mashed banana
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
Chocolate Glaze:
- 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 heaping tablespoons raw honey
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk of choice
Optional Toppings:
- ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toast in a warm pan for 2 minutes
- 1-2 tablespoons finely chopped dark chocolate
- 1 medium banana, sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- To a stand mixer bowl (or in a large mixing bowl) combine the flours, shredded coconut, baking soda, salt, mashed banana, eggs, honey, melted vegan butter (or regular butter) and vanilla and whisk on medium speed for 1-2 minutes (or mix with a spoon) until smooth.
- Fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Generously grease two non-stick donut pans (6 donut cavities each) with coconut oil and pipe or spoon in the batter to fill each mold.
- Bake the donuts for 10-12 minutes until just beginning to brown on the top.
- Remove donuts from the oven and leave to cool for at least 10 minutes.
- Once mostly cooled, remove the donuts from the pans and place on a plate.
- Lastly, prepare the chocolate glaze by melting the coconut oil and honey in a small pan over low heat, then transfer to a small bowl and stir in the cocoa powder and non-dairy milk until the sauce is thick and smooth.
- Place the chocolate glaze in the fridge for a few minutes to thicken more and toast the shredded coconut, if using.
- Dip the top of each donut into the chocolate glaze to coat, then add on any additional toppings.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Store glazed donuts in the fridge for best keeping.
Pin me!
More Baked Goodies You’ll Love:
- Baked Carrot Cake Protein Donuts with Cashew Frosting
- Best-Ever High Protein Banana Bread
- Easy Almond Flour Banana Muffins
Have a great Sunday!
DISCLAIMER: THIS POST WAS MADE IN PARTNERSHIP AND SPONSORED BY THE BRICK. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE MY OWN.
Aw, these donuts look so cute and delicious! I love the glaze recipe idea too, except I’d use maple syrup or coconut nectar instead of honey. I’d use dried raspberries, pistachios, toasted coconut, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, chia seeds, or even hazelnuts to top the donuts for extra crunch too–all these donuts probably tasted HEAVENLY so I bet the batch disappeared within less than a few days (even hours!)!
Mmmm all of those toppings sound amazing! Thanks Cassie!
This was so much fun for me, I was home and typed in ingredients that I had in my kitchen to make a sweet but healthy alternative to cakes/donuts heavy with fats and sugar. The only thing I had to alternate from the recipe was the donut baking tray and used a muffin tray and cacoa nibs instead of a chocolate bar. Well, the results were wonderful, so glad I found this. Now I just need to buy that donut tray.! Thank you! Sweet indulgence without the guilt
Aw! So awesome, thanks for commenting Sally!
can i sub the butter for coconut oil? Or do we have to use some sort of butter?
Hi Sophie, you could definitely use coconut oil, just make sure it’s not melted, you want it to be firmer, like butter consistency.