These Fluffy Grain-Free Mini Donuts with Pastel Glaze are the cutest and most delicious. They’re soft and light, AIP, paleo and coconut free, and the perfect bite-sized treats.
This post is brought to you by Bob’s Red Mill. Products used in this recipe were sent to me by Bob’s and the opinions and text are all mine.
These pastel glazed, fluffy grain-free mini donuts are pretty and delicious and perfect for Spring, Easter or whatever you’re celebrating right now! Made with Bob’s Red Mill cassava flour and tapioca starch, they’re soft, light and almost too cute to eat. Almost… you should definitely eat them.
Here are the main ingredients in these Fluffy Mini Donuts:
- cassava flour – I used Bob’s Red Mill Cassava flour in this recipe
- tapioca starch – My go-to brand for this is always Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Starch
- tigernut flour – I always recommend sifting your tigernut flour for the best texture
- maple syrup
- unsweetened applesauce
- carob powder – this is optional – use only if you want chocolate flavored donuts
- gelatin
- apple cider vinegar
For the (optional) homemade pastel-glaze you’ll also need:
- palm shortening
- beet juice or raspberries, blackberries or blueberries, matcha powder
FAQs for these Baked Grain-free Mini Donuts
Can I make any substitutions?
I don’t recommend any substitutions to the ingredients in this recipe besides maybe avocado instead of olive oil. I have tested the recipe several times and found that this combination of flours and ingredients offers the best texture and can’t guarantee results with any swaps.
Can I divide the recipe into half chocolate, half vanilla donuts?
Yes! To make both, prepare the full recipe (without carob powder), divide the batter into two bowls and then add half the recommended amount of carob powder to one of the bowls. With the addition of carob powder, the batter will be much thicker and so the baking time for the chocolate donuts should be reduced by 1-2 minutes. Test at 8 minutes so they don’t dry out!
How do you store these donuts?
These grain-free mini donuts are best freshly baked from the oven! They can be stored sealed on the countertop for 1-2 days and then in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Are there other ways to make the pastel glaze from scratch?
You can search online or in your local health food stores for freeze dried fruit powders that can easily be added to glaze to create beautiful colors without the labor of making your own food coloring. These are often quite pricey so I prefer to make my own. In addition to berries you could also use beet juice for pink and purple cabbage for lavender/blue.
Can I make the glaze without palm shortening?
Since I tried to make this recipe coconut-free, I opted for shortening here. If you can tolerate coconut can also try out the coconut-butter based glaze shared in this AIP donut recipe.
If you liked these Fluffy Grain-free Mini Donuts you might also enjoy:
Check out these other AIP and Paleo donuts:
- Lemon-Glazed Blueberry Donuts
- Salted Caramel Cinnamon Donuts
- Baked Chocolate Donuts with Raspberries
- Pumpkin Spice Cake Donuts
If you try these Fluffy Grain Free Mini Donuts I would appreciate it if you would give the recipe a star rating and short review. Also, be sure to snap a picture of the finished product and share it with me on Instagram by tagging @healmedelicious.
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Fluffy Grain-Free Mini Donuts with Pastel Glaze (AIP, paleo, coconut-free)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 14 mini donuts 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
These Fluffy Grain-free Baked Mini Donuts with Pastel Glaze are the cutest and most delicious. They’re soft and light, AIP, paleo and coconut free, and the perfect bite-sized treats.
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill cassava flour
- 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill tapioca starch
- 1 cup tigernut flour
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 TBSP roasted carob powder (optional, for chocolate donuts)
- 1 gelatin egg (1 TBSP gelatin powder + 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar + 1/2 cup hot water)
Pastel Glaze
- 1/2 cup palm shortening, almost melted
- 2 TBSP maple syrup
- 1 TBSP Bob’s Red Mill tapioca starch
- pinch of sea salt
For pink, lavender and green food coloring:
- 1 cup water (divided)
- 1/2 cup blueberries or blackberries (for lavender)
- 1/2 cup strawberries or raspberries (for pink)
- 1/4 tsp matcha (for green)
Instructions
Mini Donuts
- Preheat your oven to 350F and grease mini donut pan with oil. Don’t skip this part, even if your pan says non-stick*
- In a medium sized bowl combine olive oil, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract.
- In a large bowl combine Bob’s Red Mill cassava flour, tapioca starch, tigernut flour, sea salt, baking soda and carob powder (if desired).
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add in the wet ingredients and combine.
- Make gelatin egg by first combining gelatin and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl. Next, add in hot water and use a fork to whisk mixture until it is frothy and gelatin is fully combined.
- Fold gelatin egg into batter. This should loosen the batter significantly.
- Transfer batter to piping bags (or use a ziplock bag with one corner snipped off) and squeeze into your greased mini donut cavities.
- Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 10 minutes. If baking chocolate donuts, bake only for 8.5-9 minutes.
- Allow donuts to cool at least 10 minutes and then use a knife to loosen the edges of the donuts before flipping over onto a cooling rack to cool completely before glazing.
Pastel Glaze
- In a large bowl combine almost melted palm shortening, maple syrup, tapioca starch and sea salt.**
- Divide the icing into three bowls for the three different colors (pink, lavender and green).
- To create green icing, add 1/4 tsp matcha to one of the bowls.
- To create pink and lavender icing, place blueberries (or blackberries) and raspberries (or strawberries) in two saucepans with an equal amount of water and bring to a simmer.
- Using the back of a spoon, break the berries down and allow the mixture in each pan to simmer until it is reduced to 1/4 cup of liquid.
- Use a sieve to strain the thick and pigmented liquid from the berries into two bowls.
- Add a few drops of the pigmented liquid to your icing until the desired color is achieved.
- Spoon glaze onto mini donuts and enjoy.
Notes
* My mini donuts are 2.7 inches in diameter. If you are using a pan with larger size donuts, you will likely have to adjust the cooking time a bit longer.
**If your palm shortening isn’t soft enough you’ll find that you have trouble combining the maple syrup and palm shortening. I like to microwave the palm shortening until it’s super soft but not yet liquified. If you heat it too much, simply place it into the fridge for a couple minutes to firm up a bit.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Oven Baked
Can you use a real egg instead? We have reintroduced eggs, and I don’t want to buy gelatin if I don’t have to.
my guess is yes but I haven’t tried!
Can I use a regular chicken egg instead of a gelatin one for this recipe?
I haven’t tried but it should work!
I followed the recipe completely but it came out crumbly and tasted really dry.
So sorry that they didn’t turn out for you 🙁
These donuts are amazing!! My kids are always jealous when I make them. I like to use 1 cup of Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Chips melted with about 1 tsp of Coconut Oil as a ganache to dip the tops in. I let them sit and cool and then freeze them. I pop out a couple for a snack or with a cup of coffee since they thaw in minutes.
Coffee and donuts are my kind of am! My kiddo loved these for Sunday breakfast. Tasty
I was looking for another way to use my cassava flour and these donuts are going to be a staple in my kitchen from now on. So light and just sweet enough without being too much!
These were perfect for a mid morning snack! They turned out so moist and fluffy. I can’t wait to make them again soon.
These were so delicious and so fun to make! I love the colors — perfect for springtime!
I’ve always wanted to bake with cassava flour so I was excited when I found this recipe! My donuts came out so perfect and fluffy! I’ve been enjoying them for breakfast! Thanks for the recipe!
Loved these so so much! I always have cassava flour in my pantry and this showed out when i made them!! Loved them!
These sweet treats were as pretty as they were tasty. They remind me of olive oil cake which I adore.
These mini doughnuts were so delicious and I love the fact that you used pastel colors to decorate them because they came out so pretty! I will definitely be making these again.
These were so fun to make and they tasted great too! This was the perfect recipe to try this weekend.
These were so fun to make and they tasted great too! This was the perfect recipe to try this weekend.
My friend’s kid has tons of allergies and doesn’t get to enjoy baked goods too often. I made a batch of these for his birthday and the level of joy was unreal. Mom definitely wanted the recipe. Thank you for helping me make his day!
I loved the simplicity of your recipe, especially because it delivered great flavor and texture. Thanks!
I made these for myself so I didn’t feel left out of the treats on Easter – so glad I did! They were moist and tasty. Next time I’ll bake them for 11 minutes, and I want to play around with the topping since I’ve reintroduced chocolate… there’s a lot you could do with this recipe!