✧ NO BAKE DONUT HOLES ✧

[makes 8 medium or 12 bite-sized treats]

I have a confession to make. I am not a donut fan. I know, I know all the donut lovers are shuttering in disgust. How is that possible? Back in high school I was obsessed with strawberry frosted Dunkin Donuts. But now, fried dough, not my jam.

And I am totally okay with that.

Truth be told, I’m a creamy, fatty texture kinda girl. Think tiramisu, cupcakes (!) or chocolate cake with goopy buttercream frosting. Chocolate chip cookies or even white chocolate macadamia nut. And a big yes to ice cream (make it non-dairy salted caramel, please). But donuts, I can totally take a pass.

Strive Foods, however, is the game changer.  They make these *ridiculous* raw donut holes that are all over social media and for good reason – they are addictively delicious.  Inspiration hit this afternoon and before you know it, I’m in the Nutrition Atlanta kitch whipping up guilt-free tasty treats.

Ugh, there’s that word “guilt-free” I’m letting go of because I practice mindful eating and an all-foods-fit philosophy, which means donuts to ice-cream and everything in between is fair game in moderation and balance. Except for crack and heroin. Girl’s gotta have her standards, right?

But when donuts are loaded with healing, plant-based ingredients – it’s a bit of a guilt-free enjoyment! Um, yeah basically half the batch wiped out before dinner. Whoops, still working on that balance part!

Dough:

2/3 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup cashews, ideally soaked and drained

2/3 cup pitted dates

1/8 teaspoon Himalayan salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Glaze:

1-2 Tablespoons coconut oil

1 Tablespoon maple syrup

2 teaspoons coconut sugar

Big pinch of vanilla powder, beet powder or cacao powder

To make the dough:

1.  Soak cashews in clean water for 4-6 hours. Drain and rinse. You can skip this step if you prefer. The first time I made these I didn’t soak the cashews and they will have a drier texture but I still loved them.

2.  Grind ingredients in a food processor until it forms a thick, moist dough. This may take several minutes. If it’s still too crumbly and the mixture doesn’t stick together, add some more dates or a tablespoon of coconut oil or water. I’ve made them with crumbly dough and they still taste delish, it just depends on how you want the final results to turn out.

3.  Using one teaspoon of dough, roll into even-sized balls. Freeze until cold and firm, around 15-20 minutes.  While freezing, make the glaze below.

To make the glaze:

1.  Melt the coconut oil on low heat, turn off the heat then whisk in the syrup, coconut sugar and vanilla. You could experiment with other liquid sweeteners like agave, brown rice syrup or coconut syrup (honey unless making vegan). It will take a second or two but pretty quickly it’ll combine into a thin caramel-ish consistency. I used a small copper gravy pot to make the glaze and put it on a ice bath to cool down the mixture and thicken it up a bit.

2. Dip the frozen donut holes into the glaze, covering each one completely before freezing them again. You can do several coats of glaze. One seemed a bit thin but 2 seemed to work well for me. Put them back in the freezer after each layer until the glaze has hardened, then repeat until you use up all the glaze. My glaze thickened a bit after all the cold donut holes and I re-warmed up the glaze slightly to continue the re-dipping process. If you use 2 Tablespoons of coconut oil you will probably go through 3 rounds of glazing.

3.  Store the donut holes in the fridge for up to a week, if they last that long. I stored them in individual mini containers that held 2 donut holes after eating so many during the prep process!

NOTES:  Next time I make these I am going to grind the oats and cashews before adding the dates. I also want to play around with mixing in walnuts or sunflower seeds and decreasing the amount of dates to see if you can still get a dough-like consistency.

And I MUST make chocolate dates but my cacao powder is in the danger zone – time to order more! I prefer to use Deglet Nour dates because they have a soft honey-like taste that lends a sweetness to recipes without as much sugar as the more popular medjool dates. You can replace cashews with any other nut or seed or mixture. I want to experiment with dried coconut meat too.

I made a different batch with 1/3 cup rolled oats and 1/3 cup buckwheat groats and loved the crunchy texture. While it’s not very donut-like, I still enjoyed it! If you don’t have vanilla powder try vanilla protein powder or even a splash of vanilla extract. I always end up being inspired by recipes using ingredients that I have on hand, tasting along the way. Sometimes it’s a win, other times not the best ever.  But since everything is healthy I wind up eating it and love nourishing my body with nutritious foods so it’s a win either way 🙂

OMG my amazingly kind neighbors just brought an enormous zip-lock bag of FIGS! They know how obsessed I am with them so stay tuned for a fig recipe… I’m likely to go into a fig coma tonight. Bummer they are high FODMAP food but it’s time to see if figs agree with my digestive system or HNAT!

Luv and donut holes,

J