My phone is filled with pictures of two things: snapshots of little ones we love (normal) and snapshots of donuts (not so normal).

Yeah…I’m not kidding. I found the below in just a two second scroll through my phone:

I know having this many pictures of donuts is quite odd, but I like taking pictures of things I love…and in this case I love fried dough.

Tom and I are a bit crazy in our love for donuts (as is exhibited below by the fact that instead of cake we had donuts at our wedding), but our shared love for this bakery treat actually blossomed out of something pretty simple.

As a dating couple, we really didn’t have a “casual” place to go on a date. Why? Tom hates coffee (which eliminated having dates at my beloved Starbucks or local coffee shop) so we had to get a bit creative in finding a place we could go on lazy Saturday mornings.

Knowing that I still needed my Saturday AM coffee fix, we created our first “culinary compromise” without even realizing it. By choosing to go to a local bakery on a Saturday morning we could both get something we wanted: I could get my coffee and Tom could get as many creme-filled donuts as his heart desired.

Now if I was someone with self-control, I would have just had my coffee when we had these Saturday morning adventures. But alas, the smell of warm sugar overtook me every time we went on these excursions…and as we continued this Saturday morning tradition I fell deeper and deeper in love with both my then-boyfriend and a good donut.

{As a quick aside, Tom and I have eaten at almost every donut shop in the Twin Cities area. Here is our list of the best donut shops in town…which may or may not be completely against what most people think and the what the “trendy” shops are…but psh…this is my blog 🙂

BEST:

• YoYo Donuts (Minnetonka, MN) | Best Cake Donut/Filled Donut
  • All-around best donut shop in the Cities–you seriously cannot go wrong with any item in their case. Tom loves their “bombs”–mini bavarian-creme filled donuts 

• Hans’ Bakery (Anoka, MN) | Best Raised Donut
  • Split a Texas donut (it’s literally the size of your face) with a friend! Or, in my case, get your own smaller raised donut because your husband can eat the entire Texas donut by himself

• Lindstrom Bakery (Lindstrom, MN) | Best Traditional Donut
  • Get a classic Scandinavian donut and watch your life be changed forever. Also, it’s worth the drive just to pick up a loaf (or three) of their Swedish Orange Limpa bread. 

WORST:

• Bogart’s Donuts (Minneapolis, MN) | Best Terrible Donut
  • Awesome company, terrible donut. If you like your donuts to taste like straight yeast…this is your place.

Phew, I digress…that’s enough about our local donut preferences!}

Now I know what you’re thinking: isn’t this girl pre-diabetic? Why in the heck is she eating so many donuts that she can write a local donut review?

Well, that is a very good point. And you’re right, I shouldn’t be eating very many donuts. But even with my diet restrictions, there is room to have some sugar in moderation. One or two Saturday donut shop adventures a month is a-okay with how I limit my diet the other 90% of the time…but it doesn’t mean I still don’t crave donuts basically every time I open my Instagram feed.

So with this silly fried food having such a special place in our relationship, I decided it was time to get creative. There had to be a way for Tom and I to enjoy our special food in a way that doesn’t sacrifice taste or leave me feeling guilty for eating something so delicious.

Luckily for this challenge, this Christmas I received a donut pan (thanks, Jenny!) and I put it to use straightaway. I knew I wanted to go for a unique flavor profile that would eliminate the need for any topping (aka the need for any additional sugar) and have the right texture and mouth-feel of one of our favorite YoYo donuts.

On top of all this, I also knew I wanted it to be decadent (it’s a donut!) and it had to be something we could easily whip up with ingredients we had on-hand on a lazy Saturday morning. We needed a new “culinary compromise” tradition that would allow me to have my coffee…and eat my donut too!

So…where’s the compromise?

Here’s our answer:

• Ditch the deep fryer (and all that oil!) and bake the donuts in the oven
• Replace traditional all-purpose flour with almond flour–my go-to high protein, low-carbohydrate (and gluten-free!) substitution
• Use banana to both naturally flavor and sweeten the donuts
• Eliminate the need for refined sugar by adding just a touch of honey
• Maintain the decadence of regular donuts by using just a small amount of semisweet chocolate chips or cacao nibs

| Lazy Saturday Baked Donuts |

Serves: 4.5 Tom’s or 9 Alaina’s

Ingredients Needed:

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • Keep peeled ripe bananas in your freezer for when the Saturday morning donut craving hits–then you always have them on-hand!
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
  • Would this recipe work without the butter? Yes (I’ve even tried it!). Does it taste as good? No. Fat=flavor, my friends. And the touch of salt from the butter is just perfect in this recipe. 
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix-Ins:

• 1/2 cup. semi-sweet chocolate chips or cacao nibs
  • Cacao nibs are cacao beans that have been roasted and broken up into smaller pieces–you get a less-sweet chocolatey taste (and a TON of fiber) when you use this chocolate chip substitute
  • You can also sub-in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts if you want to nix the chocolate. I just add it for a touch of decadence since there’s not frosting or filling. I mean, it IS a donut! Treat yo’self!

Special Equipment Needed:

• 6 cavity non-stick donut pan
  • NordicWare makes a great one (you can get it at Target for under $15!) otherwise the bakeware brand Wilton has one as well 

 Directions:

First off, get everything prepped and ready for these delicious donuts…

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
• Using cooking spray, spray your donut pan and use a paper towel to ensure each nook and cranny of each of the six cavities is well-oiled
  • As I’ve said before, Simply Balanced cooking spray is the best!

Next, mix together your dry ingredients…

• Mix together the almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl using a whisk
  • Whisk the dry ingredients well–this is key to ensuring the donuts rise properly!

• Set aside

Once that’s complete, mix up your wet ingredients…

• In another medium mixing bowl, use a mixer (stand or hand) together your banana, eggs, butter, honey, and vanilla

That was easy! Now just combine the two mixtures…

• Slowly incorporate your dry mixture in your wet mixture until well combined using your mixer

• Once well-mixed, stir in your chocolate chips/cacao nibs

Now you just have to get these donuts into the oven…

• Using a piping bag or small spoon, fill each donut cavity about 3/4 full

• Bake donuts for 20 minutes
  • Check donuts to ensure they’re done using a toothpick–if the toothpick’s clean, they’re good to go!
• Let donuts cool in the pan for five minutes, then flip onto a cooling rack

• Bake second batch of donuts and repeat above steps
  • Just FYI: the recipe should make about nine donuts
• Let donuts cool completely before storing in an airtight container–ideally overnight, if possible
  • Almond flour baked goods tend to get overly moist when stored in airtight containers, that’s why it’s so important to let them cool and dry out completely. If the donuts get too moist when stored, simply set them out on a plate to let them dry out a bit. 

We love these donuts. Why? 

• They don’t sacrifice taste for flavor. At all.
  • They taste like a vanilla cake donut and a slice of chocolate chip banana bread had a baby. There can be no wrong in that. They’re to-die-for. 
• They allow us to guiltlessly enjoy donuts together
  • Each donut has only 165 calories, 10 net carbs, 8 sugars, and a whopping 5 grams of protein
  • If you eliminate the chocolate chips (which, again, I actually don’t recommend…live a little!) each donut has only 120 calories, 5 net carbs, 3 sugars, and 4 grams of protein
• They allow us to easily whip up donuts on a Saturday morning in under thirty minutes…and with only two bowls to clean
  • This is very important. I hate doing dishes. 
• They allow for us to carry on our favorite lazy Saturday tradition on any Saturday we want without even having to leave our house
  • Again, it’s winter in Minnesota. It’s not always a bad thing to stay in when it’s supposed to be a high of 10 degrees!

Now, despite the above, we will of course still go and visit our favorite bakeries for a donut now and then. Tom can only go so long without his favorite “bombs” from YoYo Donuts and I can only go so long without some pink sprinkles.

That being said, our tradition that grew out of one of our first compromises has blossomed into a new tradition that we can share with our family and friends during brunches and after-church breakfasts. Although it seems silly, it’s our special tradition and our special food that I know we’ll be whipping up for our kids someday*

{*Note: Because let’s get real…once we have kids we’ll be lucky if there is ever a such thing as a “lazy” Saturday morning where we have time to head to our local bakery. We’re going to have to make the donuts at home!}

All in all, this is one of my favorite culinary compromises because it’s so quintessentially us. Because if you know us, I would hope you’ve picked up on three key things:

• We really love donuts
• We really love each other
• We really love Jesus

Because at the end of the day–that’s what matters. So whip up a batch of donuts and spread some love this week. I promise you won’t regret it.

Here’s to making many more culinary compromises…all in the name of love.

xoxo,

alaina