Finally I have a decent cooked dessert that’s grain- and sugar-free.  It was a bit of a leap of faith for both parts of this recipe, donuts and glaze, but it’s paid off.  The donuts are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, which is all I’m asking for really, and the glaze is fantastic.

I’ll say no more, and let you take a gander at the long-seeming-but-actually-really-quite-doable recipe that awaits you below.

Grain-Free Fried Donuts

Yield:  Two dozen or so medium-to-small donuts.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 1 T warm pear juice
• 1/2 T yeast
• 1/2 T plantain flour
• 1 egg
• 3-4 T melted butter (more to make the dough easier to work with, less to make a drier doughnut)
• 1/4 tsp liquid stevia extract
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/16 tsp caramel extract
• 1 3/4 cup paleo dough mix
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 2 T powdered dry milk
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp agar-agar powder
• light olive oil for frying

Directions:

1.  Preheat your frying oil to 375 degrees Farenheight.  Prep a large drain pan with paper towels or brown paper, and grab a pair of tongs to have handy.  (I often just paper a cookie sheet, to have enough room.)

2.  In a small bowl, whisk together warm pear juice, yeast, and plantain flour, then set aside to proof.  In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, melted butter, stevia extract, vanilla extract, and caramel extract until fully combined.  In a large bowl, whisk together the paleo dough mix, tapioca starch, powdered dry milk, salt, and agar-agar powder.

3.  Pour the proofing yeast mixture into the egg mixture and whisk together until fully combined.  Then, pour the yeast-and-egg mixture into the dry mixture and combine with a fork.  The result should be a firm, malleable dough.

4.  Without dusting or greasing any surfaces, gently and slowly roll out the dough 1/8″ thick.  The trick with rolling it is to take your time and change direction often; push too fast and the dough cracks apart, go easy and it rolls out smoothly.

5.  Use a cup, or any cutter that suits you, to cut out donuts from the rolled dough; then use a bottle cap or another very small cutter to cut out the donut holes.  Knead the scrap dough back together, roll it out again, then cut again, and so on until all the dough is cut.

6.  Carefully put the doughnuts in the preheated oil, a few at a time, making sure they have room to move around.  They’ll cook quickly, needing only 30 seconds on each side; turn them over halfway through with your tongs, then fish them out and move them to the drain pan to cool after a full minute.  Then add the next set of doughnuts to the oil, and so on.

7.  If you’re glazing them, finish frying all the dough first (it won’t take long), then leave the donuts to cool a little while you mix up the glaze (or while the worker bee you have working on the glaze mixes it up, or however you’re juggling your effort).  Otherwise, they’re ready to serve!

Chocolate Donut Glaze

Yield:  Enough to coat two dozen medium-to-small donuts.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 1/2 – 2 tsp liquid stevia extract, depending how sweet you want the glaze
• 1/4 tsp caramel extract
• 8 tsp cocoa powder
• 6 – 8 tsp carob powder (to taste)
• 1/4 tsp agar-agar powder

Directions:

1.  Whisk together all ingredients in a saucepan on medium-low to medium heat.  Stir periodically to keep the mixture smooth and fully combined.

2.  Heat until bubbling vigorously, or until a candy thermometer reads 180 degrees Farenheit (this is the temp the agar-agar needs to hit to gel properly).  Keep whisking periodically until it hits this point, them remove it from heat.  You should have a thick viscous liquid at this point.

3.  Take each donut and set it briefly in the saucepan, then just pick it back up, turn it over, and set it back down on the drain pan.  Then do the same with the next donut, and so on.  (You can reheat the glaze once it’s totally cool and firm, but it’s a bit of a pain, so ideally try to time things so your glaze is nice and hot when it’s time to glaze donuts!)

4.  Optionally, set each glazed donut (glaze-side) down in a small bowl of unsweetened shredded coconut, then turn it over and set it back on the drain pan.  Enjoy!