Gluten-Free Powdered Donuts/Doughnuts

These taste just like the "Powdered Donut Gems" I remember from my gluten days!

Whether you spell it Donut or Doughnut, they both represent the same thing. Whether you are a Dunkin’ Donuts type of donut person or a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts type of doughnut person, it doesn’t matter because if you are gluten-free like me, you cannot have either! 😀

Back in December, I had to figure how to make powdered donuts for one of Sam’s Friday Fun Snacks, they were making snowmen from them. I needed 2 standard looking powdered donuts (with the hole in the middle) and one powdered donut hole. I had never made donuts before so I took a crash course on YouTube! Seriously, YouTube has some great videos of people doing just about any kind of cooking. Most videos are made using gluten ingredients, but you can pick up tips on how to do certain things (I have recently been watching some videos on how to makel egg rolls!) Anyhoo, before I could start cutting the donuts and frying them, I needed a good gluten-free recipe!

I hit the ball out of the park on my first try when I struck gold by finding this recipe on the Four Chickens blog, (although Jeanne, the author, has 5 chicken now!). I love Jeanne’s blog, she has some really great recipes! I know she is working on a raised donut recipe, so I am not even going to try, I will just wait for hers! A little info on Jeanne before the recipe/photo tutorial. The following is an excerpt from the Four Chickens website, in the “about me” section:

I have 1 daughter, 1 husband, 5 chickens, 1 organic garden in a constant state of disrepair, 100 million books, 10 million skeins of yarn, 5 million cookbooks, 2 million projects in progress rolling around the house, and 1 PhD in theatre history/theory.

I am gluten-intolerant. I also have a life-threatening allergy to wheat. My daughter has a life-threatening peanut allergy. This combo platter keeps life interesting, to say the least.

I make fabulous gluten-free baked goods and it’s my goal to help others do the same.

The reason I had to post this is because the first paragraph is SO me (without the PhD), which is probably why I like Jeanne so much! 🙂 I was just reading this post of Jeanne’s, and I thought it was great. The second paragraph is hysterical, because it is so true. I annoy the heck out of people when they go out to eat with me, because I show up with my camera! I am like Jeanne though, I fall into the “others” category too in regards to having beautiful food pictures that are like pieces of fine art (like Karina’s!). I do not even know how to use my camera, the pics from my Better Batter review were a fluke of nature! 😉 In the post, Jeanne links to a great video on a food photography workshop she attended (see the end of the post), and I highly recommend viewing it, if for no other reason than to see what goes on behind the scenes!

One last thing on Jeanne that I want to share, Jeanne has a recipe on the National Museum of American History’s blog, in the “Julia Child Recipe of the Week” section for Chantilly Meringuée or Elegant Ice Cream. I love Julia Child, she was a wonderful teacher who always seemed genuinely humble as evidenced by her willingness to show her many mistakes as well as many successes with her audience. She was real and made me feel as though I could cook that way too. Check out Jeanne’s blog, I am sure you will love it as much as I do!

Anyway, on to the Powdered Donuts. I used a different blend of flour than the one Jeanne has posted on her blog because I already had some made up from the Christmas Eve Fritters I had been experimenting on. I used this flour blend that I found on Recipezaar. I will re-post it here too with the changes I made.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Gluten! Gluten-Free Cake Flour Mix

3 cups Brown Rice Flour (fine ground) (I used Authentic Foods Superfine White Rice Flour, since I was out of the Superfine Brown Rice Flour. I cannot stress enough how much of a difference the superfine grain makes over the standard rice flour, no grittiness!)

1 cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)

1/2 cup Tapioca Flour (I used Expandex Modified Tapioca Starch. The word “flour” is used interchangeably with the word “Starch” when referring to Tapioca, this is NOT the case with Potato Starch and Potato Flour, they are two VERY different things).

1 1/4 teaspoons Guar Gum or Xanthan Gum (I used Xanthan Gum)

• Sift ingredients together, combining thoroughly. Use in place of flour in cakes and other baked goods.

• Store in airtight container or Ziploc bag in refrigerator.

Gluten-Free Powdered Donuts (Gluten-Free Doughnuts recipe reprinted courtesy of Jeanne Sauvage, author of Four Chickens. My changes/suggestions are in red.)

1 Egg, lightly beaten (I have also tried these with Ener-G Egg Replacer and they work fine, just a little more dense)

1/2 cup Milk (or dairy-free substitute)

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 tsp. Nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 Tbs. Butter (I used Smart Balance, but Earth Balance (dairy-free) would also work fine)

1 3/4 – 2 cups Gluten free Flour Blend (Jeanne uses 1 3/4 cup of her flour blend, I used 2 cups of the flour blend posted above. Start with 1 3/4 cups, then add more if needed. You can always add, but you cannot take away. 😉 )

Oil for frying (I used Sunflower Oil)

For powdered donuts, you will need confectioner’s sugar. Whole Foods’ 365 brand of Organic Powdered Sugar uses Tapioca Starch instead of Cornstarch, if you avoid corn. You can see a photo of it here.

Or, you could roll the donuts in Granulated Sugar or a Cinnamon/Sugar mixture.

• Mix together egg, milk, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and butter in a medium bowl.

• Add flour (you may need incorporate it with your hands at end of mixing). Cover and refrigerate for about an hour (to firm up dough).

• Prepare to roll out the doughnuts. I (Jeanne) used a Silpat mat to roll out the dough. You can also dust your cutting board with flour and cut out there. (I would use tapioca flour for this–it won’t add graininess to the dough). You may need to use a little flour for the biscuit cutters so they don’t stick to the dough. (I used the Tapioca Flour/Starch as Jeanne recommended and I also floured the biscuit cutters).
  

• Roll out the dough to 1/2″ thickness (be sure it’s not too thin)

• Cut out doughnuts with bigger biscuit cutter and doughnut holes with smaller biscuit cutter. Or you can just use the smaller one and cut out a bunch of doughnut holes (because they are fun and easy to eat!).

• While you are cutting out the doughnuts, have the pan of oil on medium-high heat. I use a small saucepan and I do several batches. This is so I don’t have to use a ton of oil. You need to have the oil deep enough that the doughnuts can cook be completely submerged and have oil all the way around them. Oil should be around 360 degrees.

• Once doughnuts are cut out, test the oil. Drop a bit of extra dough into the oil to see if it fries. If it starts frying immediately, then the oil is ready.

• Carefully drop doughnuts and holes into oil. They should drop into the oil and start frying. After a couple of minutes, they will rise to the surface.

• Turn them in the oil to make sure they are being cooked evenly. Cook until they are golden brown.

• When they are golden brown, carefully take doughnuts out of oil and drain on a plate covered w/paper towels. The doughnuts won’t have absorbed that much oil.

• Repeat the frying procedure until all the dough is used.

• We like them as-is, but you can dust them with powdered sugar or granulated sugar, if you want. You can add a little cinnamon to the granulated sugar if you want cinnamon doughnuts.

• Visit Jeanne’s post for a printer-friendly version of her recipe. She also has a recipe for Gluten-Free Pumpkin Doughnuts that sound delicious!

The following is my photo tutorial for the Powdered donuts. I decided to add more step by step pictures after one of my best friends from back home in Ohio sent me this photo on my cell phone of her Better Batter GF Bagels:

A closer look (I’m sorry Mary, but this is just too good to pass up!):

I laughed so hard, I cried! I thought Mary’s bagel looked like a pretty flower but my husband kept calling it a “Pattypan Squash from Farmville.” Oh, Lordy Pete, this still reduces me to tears, LOL! Just so you know, I have been there too, believe you me! Just look at my pretzel rods! 😉 So Mary, this photo tutorial is dedicated to you, my dear friend!

1 Tbs. Butter (I used Original Smart Balance in the tub, and this may make my outcome different from a batch made with real butter).

Level it off with a knife.

Heat the butter in the microwave until melted. If you cover it with a paper towel, it wont blow up all over the place. 😉

Melted Smart Balance, set aside to cool for a minute before adding to the egg (so you don’t scramble the egg).

In a separate bowl, whisk 1 egg,

When measuring liquids, use a measuring cup meant for liquids. After pouring in the liquid, set the measuring cup on the counter then read for the correct amount (once it stops moving).

Add milk to beaten egg,

Use this type of measuring cup for dry ingredients. This is 1/2 cup of sugar,

Add the sugar to the egg and milk mixture,

When I measure salt, I also level it with a knife:

Baking (even frying donuts) is a precise science, don’t “eyeball” the ingredients.

Add salt to the egg, milk and sugar mixture.

Do the same with the nutmeg, level it with a knife (too much nutmeg can be overpowering).

Add the nutmeg to the wet mixture,

Add the leveled off baking powder to the egg, milk, sugar, salt and nutmeg mixture,

then add the cooled melted butter/Smart Balance, whisk together until well incorporated.

Not quite done,

Now add the flour!

This is some mix that I had stored in my freezer,

Level off 2 cups of the flour mix,

Add the flour to the wet mixture,

Stir to combine.

This is where you will want to use your hands,

And there you have it!

I cover my dough with a slightly damp towel (to keep the dough from drying out), then put in the fridge for about an hour. In the meantime, heat the oil.

Oops, too hot! Reduce heat and allow the temperature to come down to 360° – 365° F.

Flour your work surface,

Pat out the dough to approximately 1/2″ thickness (this is not a sticky, batter type dough, it is easy to handle).

You can use biscuit cutters,

Or a glass, basically anything that is the desired shape and size you want!

Then you need something with a smaller circle to cut out the hole. This is a large pastry tip,

this is an apple corer with a plunger attachment,

which makes it easy to pop out the dough!

Close enough…

I did a test piece with one of the donut holes,

When you first drop in the dough, it will sink to the bottom. When it is close to done, the donut will “float” to the top. At this point, it is essentially trial and error, I have had many donuts that I thought were done, only to see them split as they were cooling with uncooked batter seeping through. If this happens, just put back in the hot oil to cook some more, they won’t be pretty, but they will still taste good!

Remove donut from hot oil with a skimmer, place on paper towel to drain excess oil.

Finish cooking off your donuts, then allow the donuts to drain and cool completely (if you don’t want the powdered sugar to melt into the donut).

These will keep a few days if stored in an air-tight container.

I definitely think Mary and I hit the “gluten-free ugly jackpot” this week! The icing wasn’t cooperating very well, and you have to be careful not to handle the donut too much or the powdered sugar comes off! The “O” cereal eyes you see are Nature’s Path Whole O’s, which are gluten-free. The chocolate chips are Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels and the hat is a Hershey’s Kiss.