Before I became vegan, I had an obsession with banana bread and finding the ‘perfect’ recipe for it. I have a recipe notebook from about 10 years ago and the first few pages noted details of my million variations of banana bread. I experimented with various amounts of nuts, banana, sweeteners etc. It took me about 3 years to find the ‘perfect’ recipe for my family – wholesome, no refined sugars and packed with nuts.
Over time, I used less and less animal products in my food and eventually became vegan. However, I was reluctant to find the ‘perfect’ vegan banana bread recipe. Vegan baking requires different proportions and ingredients from conventional baking and it took many tries and years to find even a basic cake recipe. The struggle.
Alas, my hunger and cravings kicked in so I embarked on creating a really really good gluten free cake recipe. I’ve probably tried 10 different recipes for gluten free cakes in the last month (someone’s gotta do it) and I couldn’t be happier with my final recipes!
The mashed bananas in these gluten free donuts are so important. They help the ingredients stick together so the donuts are not crumbly like many gluten free cakes and oh so moist.
And if it’s any consolation, my picky man-child partner devoured all of the donuts himself. Next time I make these, I’ll make sure I make more so I can actually enjoy some myself.
I love that these donuts are made with only wholefood ingredients – no nutellex, no refined sugars, no shortening etc. My favourite part is the super simple icing with a hint of Almond Breeze‘s Unsweetened Vanilla Flavour milk which was so delicate and fragrant. And the crushed almonds on top added the perfect crunch to the donuts.
I hope you love making these as much as I did! xo
This post was sponsored by Almond Breeze. However, as always, all opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that allow Rainbow Nourishments to be sustainable.
Baked banana bread almond donuts
Ingredients
Banana bread dry ingredients
- 1 cup gluten-free flour baking blend
- 1/2 cup blanched almond meal
- 1/2–1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp chia or flax seeds, finely ground
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Banana bread wet ingredients
- 2 bananas or 1/2 heaped cup of bananas, mashed
- 3/4 cup Vanilla Unsweetened Almond Breeze milk
- 1/3 cup light-tasting vegetable oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed
- Dash of white vinegar
Frosting
- 3/4 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 4 hours
- 1/4 cup Vanilla Unsweetened Almond Breeze milk
- 1/4 cup any light-coloured sweetener, such as rice malt syrup or maple syrup
- 1/2 cup raw almonds, crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Add all dry ingredients to a medium-sized bowl and mix until combined
- Add all wet ingredients to a small bowl and mix until combined.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined
- Pipe or spoon banana bread mixture into a non-stick donut tray. Bake in oven for 12 – 15 minutes or until a skewer can be inserted into one and comes out clean.
- Let donuts cool in the pan. After 15 minutes, turn donuts out onto a cooling rack.
- To make the icing, drain the cashews and add to a blender with the milk and maple syrup. Blend until as smooth as possible and it becomes the consistency of yoghurt.
- When the donuts have cooled, spread the icing on the donuts and sprinkle almonds to decorate.
- Serve donuts immediately. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Joely
March 28, 2018 at 1:47 pmDo I need the soda? Also, I’m trying this out tomorrow in muffin pans since that’s all I have but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Excited:)
Joely
March 28, 2018 at 1:50 pmNever mind! Have a good week!
Anette Mnabhi
January 8, 2018 at 1:42 pmThe recipe is great, I used coconut milk, since that was on hand, I don’t have s donut pan so I used my mini bundt pans and a mini loaf pan, second bath just made in one mini bunts pan and two 8×8 pans as cake size — baking time a little longer but they taste great! Even without the frosting!!!
This is a great option for gluten free, vegan!
rainbownourishments@hotmail.com
January 13, 2018 at 2:13 amHi Anette! Oh I’m so glad that you enjoyed the recipe! Yess, it’s a great recipe for a loaf pan too – hmm I should do it sometime soon. Thanks for sharing xo
Britt
August 18, 2017 at 4:39 amAnyway to leave the coconut sugar out of the recipe? ?
rainbownourishments@hotmail.com
August 20, 2017 at 12:22 pmTotally! You could either use another granulated natural sweetener (I haven’t experimented with any) or a liquid sweetener. Just taste as you go and if you use a liquid sweetener, it will be more dense, so best to add a little more baking powder :).
cm
April 11, 2017 at 10:29 pmJust wondering if you can replace the coconut sugar with regular sugar, due to coconut allergies. Thank you.
rainbownourishments@hotmail.com
April 12, 2017 at 6:28 pmHey, yes you can!
Kat
April 3, 2017 at 3:39 pmCan i ask what brand of gluten free flour do you use ?
rainbownourishments@hotmail.com
April 3, 2017 at 3:46 pmI used Woolworths Free From Gluten Free flour for this batch of donuts. I made them a 2nd time with brown rice flour (from a health food shop) and they were pretty much the same 🙂