These Baked Double Chocolate Beet Donuts might sound strange, but they are deeply chocolate-y, rich and have the perfect soft texture. This healthy dessert recipe is vegan and gluten-free.
Today I was supposed to publish a post about a green smoothie, but then I tested these Double Chocolate Beet Donuts and stopped myself right in my tracks. I need these Double Chocolate Beet Donuts. You need these Double Chocolate Beet Donuts. The world needs these Double Chocolate Beet Donuts.
That green smoothie will live to see another day, but these donuts were just begging to be shared A to the SAP.
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There's this little thing called beet and chocolate that I am loving. And I was not on board at first. Why add beet to a chocolate donut when you could use that space to add extra chocolate?!
But then I gave this a real hard thought because this combo was taking over the interwebs. Then I realized I add sweet potatoes to chocolate cake, avocado to my pudding, and greens to my chocolate chia pudding. Heck, people are even adding cauliflower to their oatmeal these days! How bad could a little beet/chocolate situation be?
Verdict: In Double Chocolate Beet Donuts it can be very very good.
Chocolate is earthy, beets are earthy. They compliment each other more than two best girlfriends who are getting ready for a night out. The beet also adds moisture for an incredibly soft and tender donut.
But just to temper that Vegetable in Donut situation, we add in a few generous handfuls of chocolate chips into our Double Chocolate Beet Donuts. One can never be too careful when it comes to chocolate.
Now, what if you absolutely hate hate hate beets? Well, dear friend, this might not be the best recipe for you. While this recipe isn't extremely beet forward, you can detect that they are there if you think about it real hard. I was that strange kid who asked to eat picked beets straight outta the can for a snack, so I don't mind the flavor one bit.
There are a few beet chocolate desserts that I have had that made me scrunch up my nose and set it down before taking another bite. The culprit: raw beets. Raw beets taste like dirt. They smell like dirt. If you add them to your chocolate cake, no matter how many prayers you say, it will turn out tasting like dirt.
These Double Chocolate Beet Donuts avoid that sad sad scenario by slow roasting the beets before adding them to the recipe. They beets become sweeter, their flavor gets better, and you can puree roasted beets so that you never have to fear finding a chunk of beet in your donut. Even this beet lover thinks that sounds like a nightmare.
And if you truely cannot get behiend the idea of beets, you and these donuts can still be friends. Just sub in the same amount of baked sweet potato, without the skin.
But if you can, or even think you can, give the beets a try! Because that chocolate + beet combo might have been made in heaven.
Can't beet it.
Baked Double Chocolate Beet Donuts
- Prep Time: 50 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 70 minutes
- Yield: 12 donuts 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: gluten-free, oil-free, vegan
Description
These Baked Double Chocolate Beet Donuts might sound strange, but they are deeply chocolatey, rich and have the perfect soft texture. This healthy dessert recipe is vegan and gluten-free.
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped roasted beet (about 2-3 medium beets)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons cacao butter (melted OR almond butter)
- ½ cup pitted dates (lightly packed)
- ⅓ cup full-fat coconut milk (from a can)
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup gluten-free oat flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch OR arrowroot starch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips (separated)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 donut tins well with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a blender, or food processor, whirl together all of the wet ingredients until they are silky smooth.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Add the wet into the dry and mix to combine. Stir in the half of the chocolate chips and spoon the batter into your prepared donut tin, filling the circles ¾ of the way full.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the top of the donuts are set when you gently press them with a finger. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
- In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe over the donuts. Alternately, your can just drizzle the chocolate over them if you don't have a piping bag. Let the chocolate set before serving (pro tip: It sets faster if you transfer them to the fridge.)
Beet has a lot of health benefits and these chocolate beet donuts look pretty amazing, it couldn't be any better!
★★★★★
Thank you Diana!
Have you tried an alternative flour in this? (Alternative to oat flour; like almond or coconut ...I have those on hand and want to try this recipe!)
Hi Jenna, great question! I am afraid neither almond or coconut flour will work in this recipe. Almond flour would absorb too little liquid resulting in an undercooked and doughy donut while coconut flour would absorb too much liquid, making for a dense and dry donut. Your best bet for substitution would be another grain based flour or gluten free baking mix. If you have oats on hand, you can even make your own oat flour with this guide here.
OMG!!! I"ve made these twice now...they are so dangerously delicious!!! I absolutely love finding recipes that are both healthy AND not lacking in taste! I have a 3 yr old so anything I can make with veggies is a serious bonus! I use organic raw cacao, which has more antioxidants than blueberries!!! And I just happened to use organic sprouted oat flour, which is that much easier for the body to absorb! As you can see.... I"m pretty excited about this recipe....thanks so much for sharing it!
I've only made it with tapioca flour, now I'm scared to try with arrowroot ....has anyone tried it with arrowroot by chance?
★★★★★
Hi Claudia! Thank you so much for the review :) So glad to hear you are enjoying the recipe! Hidden veggies FTW!
How did you get the colour to stay red?? Mine always turns out pale pink/brown - as the heat turns the beautiful red into brown 9 out of 10 times :(
Hi Connie, they do darken a but in the oven, but this color is true how the donuts turn out when I bake them. My best guess is that your oven might be running a bit hot, and the higher temperature is turning the red color brown. You can grab an inexpensive oven thermometer at most stores to get a better read on your oven. If that't the problem, it's an easy fix to adjust your oven to get the right temp. Another idea is that your beets may be roasted longer initially, cooking off some of the bright color. Are you roasting them at home? I believe I used store-bought roasted beets when photographing this recipe.
Thank you for your suggestions!! I roast my own - But the batter is super pink and pretty when raw, but once in the oven --> brown. I might decrease the oven temperate to 325F (instead of 350F) and perhaps bake a little longer but watch it and see at what mark it turns brown. Will keep you posted!
I brought these donuts to a party and they were gone in the first hour. Everyone said they were the best donuts they ever had! Thanks for sharing your recipe :)
★★★★★
So glad they were a hit! Thank you for sharing, Veronica!