Chocolate Peanut Butter Swoonuts (Vegan)
Swoonuts [swoon-nuhts]
noun
- a small cake of sweetened dough, baked, typically shaped like a ring.
- a donut that is dairy, gluten/grain, and refined sugar free.
- the best doughnuts you’ll ever eat!
Now that you know the definition of a swoonut, I probably don’t need to do any further convincing of why you need to make them… amiright?!
I posted the original swoonut recipe, spiced vanilla cake donuts here, and followed them up with an even more lush chocolate version here. Both recipes are dairy free, gluten/grain free (depending on what flour you choose), and refined sugar free. However, they do contain eggs. So my next challenge was to create a swoonut that’s completely plant based.
I used my egg free ultimate peanut butter chocolate cake recipe for inspiration, with a few tweaks to get the melt-in-your-mouth swoonut texture. Peanut butter replaces the eggs and imparts a richness to these new swoonuts, with just a subtle hint of peanut butter flavour. If you can’t eat peanuts you could easily swap peanut butter for any nut butter – I think cashew butter would work really well too as it has a similar smooth texture.
One of the tricks to getting the perfect texture for these swoonuts is to slightly under bake them. By that, I mean take them out of the oven when they’re just firm to touch and a knife comes out mostly clean. They will continue to cook for a 30 seconds or so once they’re out of the oven which will bring them to the perfect, melt-in-the-mouth texture. If you cook them too long they go a little hard and just aren’t as good. Use a timer when cooking them so you can check them at 8 minutes. They’ll likely need another minute or two depending on your oven, but probably not much more.
These peanut butter & chocolate swoonuts are delicious straight from the oven, no toppings required! If you do want to get a bit fancy you can dip them in powdered sugar (although I don’t recommend this for anyone keeping to a low/unrefined sugar diet) or you can coat them in chocolate glaze as per the recipe below.
I hope you love these plant based, peanut butter swoonuts, and if you make them, come back and tell me what you think in the comments below! Enjoy.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Swoonuts (Vegan)
Makes: 12 donuts
Prep time: 20 minutes Bake time: 10 minutes
Dry Ingredients
50g rice or buckwheat flour
50g raw cacao powder
50g coconut flour
50g ground almonds
75g coconut sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground or freshly grated
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla powder (optional)
1/2 tsp pink Himalayan salt
Wet Ingredients
125g peanut butter (ideally smooth)
100g coconut yoghurt
200ml coconut or nut milk of choice
3 Tbsp rice syrup, raw honey or pure maple syrup
3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
Raw Chocolate Glaze (Optional)
1/4 cup raw cacao butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup, rice syrup or raw honey
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
pinch pink Himalayan salt
Topping Suggestions
Raw cacao nibs
Freeze dried raspberries/cherries/mandarin/strawberry/blueberries etc
Desiccated coconut
Coconut flakes
Powdered coconut sugar
Preheat the oven to 170ºC fan bake. Lightly grease a non-stick donut pan with coconut oil. If you don’t have a donut pan you can also bake these as muffins.
Gently melt the coconut oil if solid.
Place all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir until evenly combined.
Place all the wet ingredients, except the coconut oil, into another bowl and whisk until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until evenly combined, then add the coconut oil and mix to combine.
Drop spoonfuls of donut mixture into the pan and spread evenly to fill the holes 3/4 full.
Place the donut tray in the centre of the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. The secret to a good baked donut is not over-baking them. You want them to be just baked through so they stay lovely and soft on the inside.
The donuts are ready when they bounce back when lightly pressed.
Remove the donuts from the oven and allow to rest a few minutes before tipping them out onto a wire rack. They should come out easily. If not, try gently teasing the donut sides while holding the tray upside down.
Allow the donuts to cool completely before either coating with powdered sugar or dipping in the chocolate glaze and sprinkling with toppings.
Store the donuts in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze up to 1 month.
To make the raw chocolate glaze: place the cacao butter and coconut oil in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming water with the heat turned off. When melted, remove the bowl from the heat. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined.
To dip the donuts in glaze: set a wire rack over a sheet of baking paper to catch the drips. Place the glaze in a small bowl and dip the smooth side of the donuts, then place on the wire rack. If using extra toppings sprinkle them over at this point. For an extra thick coat you can also double dip the donuts. Excess glaze caught on the baking paper can either be reused or turned into raw chocolate. Simply combine the leftover glaze then pour onto a lined tray and place in the freeze to set.
Note: due to the nature of this glaze, it won’t set hard on the swoonuts unless refrigerated. However, these swoonuts are best eaten at room temperature, so what’s a little sticky glaze between friends!
