Gluten Free Christmas Doughnuts
Takes 30 minutes. Makes 12.
Here is my Christmas version of my classic gluten free baked doughnut (because one needs a doughnut for every holiday...) These are lightly spiced with cloves and cinnamon and decorated with a festive flair. It's a super easy recipe, doesn't take long at all, and will surely become a household favourite in no time.
Ingredients
Most of these ingredients are things you should have in your gluten free cupboard already, gluten free flour, milk, eggs, baking powder, sugar, spices and chocolate. This recipe doesn't even contain xanthan gum! I also use sprinkles for decorating. If you would like to use sprinkles, just make sure you are double checking that they are gluten free as a lot of them contain or may contain gluten! The type I'm using are the Christmas sprinkles from Sainsburys (there are no gluten containing ingredients in these).
The only ingredient that might not be one that you have is Glutinous Rice flour. This can be found in health food stores, asian supermarkets, or on amazon. Read more below about glutinous rice flour.
Glutinous Rice Flour
Yes, you read that right! Glutinous rice flour is the special ingredient that make these doughnut extra soft and delicious. But don't worry, glutinous does not mean that it contains gluten. While it comes from the same latin meaning (glue) it does not refer to the protein. Glutinous means like glue in texture; sticky, and that is exactly what this flour is like. It's actually the same flour that they use to make mochi in japan. Using a bit of this in the mixture gives a lovely lightness to the doughnuts, and even helps them last a little bit longer. If you can't get glutinous rice flour, you can substitute is for an extra 30 grams of gluten free flour, but it won't give the exact same texture if you were to use glutinous rice flour. Please note, glutinous rice flour and normal rice flour are not the same thing! They come from different types of rice. Glutinous rice flour is also called sweet rice flour!
Can you make these dairy free?
Yes, absolutely you can. You only need to switch to a plant based milk, I have made these in the past with almond milk which worked perfectly fine. You would also need to use a dairy free or vegan chocolate for the top of the doughnuts! Most sugar sprinkles should be dairy free, but it always pays to check - especially if there is a chocolate based sprinkles in there.
Doughnut Mould
The doughnut mould I use for this is a silicon one that can bake 6 medium sized doughnuts at a time. I personally really like using the silicon ones as they are super easy to remove the doughnut from, as well as easy to wash and store. This recipe would also work with a doughnut tin if you don't have the silicon moulds.
I N G R E D I E N T S
120 grams gluten free flour
40 grams glutinous rice flour
60 grams caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp cloves
130ml milk
2 eggs
40ml vegetable oil (+1 Tbsp for greasing)
To decorate
150 grams of chocolate
Christmas Sprinkles
M E T H O D
Preheat oven to 200° Celsius, bake. Grease the doughnut moulds with vegetable oil.
In a bowl, combine the gluten free flour, sweet rice flour, caster sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice and cloves and mix until combined.
In a large bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, and vegetable oil together until combined.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk again until there are no lumps. The consistency should be about the same as pancake batter, but try not to over mix!
Pour the mixture into the doughnut moulds. This mixture should be enough for 12 medium doughnuts, so if you are using a mould with 6 doughnut holes, split half the batter across the first 6 and leave the rest for a second batch. Fill the moulds up to about 3/4 of the way up.
Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes. The doughnuts should have risen nicely and be a beautiful golden colour. It's better to cook these longer than take them out too soon as they might deflate.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool slightly before turning them out onto a cooling rack.
Melt half the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water, take off the heat and stir in the other half until all melted.
Dip one side of the doughnuts into the melted chocolate.
Decorate the doughnuts with Christmas sprinkles and then leave them out to set.
Doughnuts are best eaten within a 2 days. Keep in a sealed container.
