Vegan sweet potato protein donuts are about to become your new favorite go to snack! Packed with protein, these healthy donuts are gluten free, egg free, dairy free and so easy to make! Ready in about 30 minutes with very little equipment needed!
Donuts
I often spend some time on Sundays doing what I call ingredient prep. I prep big batches of things like rice, sweet potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and various proteins so that during the week I can quickly throw together a meal.
Often I find that I overcook at least one thing, and last week I had leftover sweet potatoes. I first thought of making gluten free sweet potato brownies but though that donuts would be more fun and an easier way to control portions! Those brownies disappear in like 2 days!
So I decided to modify that sweet potato brownie recipe and created these super thick, dense sweet potato donuts that are literally the perfect amount of sweet!
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These sweet potato donuts are the perfect breakfast or afternoon snack! They are secretly healthy – packed with fiber and protein! These would be the perfect after school snack for kiddos too!
What do you need to make sweet potato donuts?
- Mashed sweet potatoes
- Ground flax
- Unsweetened applesauce
- Maple syrup
- Almond butter
- GF flour (I love tigernut flour)
- Cacao powder
- Protein powder
- Baking powder
How to make sweet potato protein donuts
- Start by mashing cooked sweet potatoes (without the skins) in a large bowl. You will need about 2 cups of sweet potatoes which is about 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
- Add the ground flax and applesauce and stir well. The flax will help thicken the dough
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients: maple syrup and almond butter and stir well.
- Add the dry ingredients (gluten free flour, cacao powder, protein powder and baking powder) and stir well.
- The batter will be very thick.
- Spoon the batter between 16 mini donut molds and press the batter in, creating the hole in the center (see below for tips on other options).
- Bake in a 400F oven for 25 minutes.
- Let cool slightly and remove from the donut pan.
- Melt chocolate and drizzle over the donuts. Let cool in the fridge to harden the chocolate.
Optional toppings for protein donuts:
You can add these toppings on top of the melted chocolate!
- Cacao nibs (will add a crunch)
- Coconut flakes
- Sprinkles
- Mini chocolate chips
Other flavor combinations:
If you don’t want to make chocolate sweet potato donuts, you can also make them vanilla! Use vanilla protein and increase the gluten free flour by 3 tablespoons.
Add a kick to these donuts by adding in ½ tablespoon of espresso powder into the batter. This will intensify the chocolate and give it a bit of a caffeine boost.
What equipment will you need to make sweet potato protein donuts?
This recipe does require that you have a mini donut pan. I bought mine 2 years ago after painfully trying to make donuts using a muffin tin and rolled up pieces of parchment paper. This was easily one of the best investments! They are easy to store and have made making homemade healthy donut recipes so easy!
However if you want to make these donuts today and don’t have a donut pan, check out the method on how to use a muffin tin and parchment paper in this high protein zucchini chocolate donut recipe!
How to easily get the donut pan filled:
You can use a zip lock bag with the tip of a corner cut off and use it like a piping bag if you don’t want to mess with using a spoon and your fingers. I have done both and just prefer spooning out the batter and using my hands to make the hole in the center. You will find that the sweet potato protein donut batter is very thick so go slowly if using the ziplock bag method!
Substitutions:
Protein powder:
This recipe calls for a vegan protein powder. I recommend Nuzest, as it has no added artificial sweeteners or ingredients and it’s very clean (no heavy metals like other vegan protein powders). However, you can use whatever vegan protein powder you love.
I have not tried this recipe with whey protein but I imagine that it will not work since whey protein often dries out when baking with it. I would not recommend trying this recipe with whey protein powder.
If you want to use a collagen protein powder, follow the directions for no protein powder below. Simply add the collagen to the batter once mixed as it doesn’t change the consistency of a recipe.
Sweet potato:
If you do not have mashed sweet potatoes on hand, you could substitute canned pumpkin, butternut squash or even mashed bananas in place of the mashed sweet potatoes.
How to make these donuts without protein powder:
If you don’t have protein powder, you will want to add an additional ½ cup of gluten free flour as well as ¼ cup coconut sugar (or maple syrup) to replace the protein powder in the recipe.
Sweet Potato Donuts
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups mashed sweet potato
- 1/4 cup ground flax
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp almond butter
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 3 tbsp gluten free flour - tigernut flour
- 3 servings vegan protein powder - Nuzest
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 ounce unsweetened bakers chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F
- Mash the sweet potato in a large bowl.
- Add the ground flax and unsweetened applesauce to the mashed sweet potatoes and stir well
- Add the almond butter and maple syrup to the mashed sweet potato mixture
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well. The batter will be very thick and it might take a minute to all come together
- Once the batter is done, spoon it out between 16 mini donuts. Use a spoon or use a ziplock bag with the corner cut off like a piping bag
- Once the dough is divided, be sure to shape the donuts, making sure there is a clear hole in the center (or they will become muffins)
- Bake at 400F for 25 minutes.
- Take out of the oven, cool slightly. Move to a parchment paper or wax paper coated baking sheet.
- Melt unsweetened bakers chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute
- Drizzle the melted chocolate over the donuts using a spoon. Refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened.
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