Baked low carb gingerbread donuts with a sweet vanilla cream cheese glaze. This post is sponsored by GO Veggie! and Kitchen PLAY.
I receive a lot of questions about possible substitutions in my baked goods. Sometimes it’s about convenience, because the reader doesn’t have exactly the right ingredients on hand. Sometimes it’s about personal preference and taste. But oftentimes, it’s about dietary intolerances. Dairy intolerance can go hand in hand with wheat or gluten intolerance, making it tough for some readers to follow my recipes to the letter. I am more than happy to make suggestions on dairy-free substitutions when I can. It’s fairly easy to recommend almond milk in place of regular milk or coconut milk in place of heavy cream. And coconut oil is always a great sub for butter. But there are some places where it’s trickier and I am less confident in my suggestions. Cream cheese is one of those areas.
I was invited to take part in the GO Veggie! Spread the Holiday Cheer campaign on Kitchen PLAY, and I knew it was a great chance to try out a dairy-free cream cheese alternative. At first I considered making an appetizer or vegetable side dish, but that would have been too easy, and I wouldn’t have gotten a true feel for the product. The majority of questions I receive about substitutions are geared toward my baked goods. And as I had been thinking about Gingerbread Donuts for quite some time, it was the ideal recipe on which to experiment. I could put some of the cream cheese both in the donuts themselves, and then frost them with a cream cheese glaze. And Gingerbread Donuts…now that just screams holiday brunch, doesn’t it?
The GO Veggie! Dairy Free, Vegan Cream Cheese Alternative worked perfectly for both the donut batter and the glaze. It beat in smoothly and combined well with the other low carb, gluten-free ingredients. And the donuts were delicious, as evidenced by the happy grins on my kids’ faces. My feisty four-year old is often a tough sell, as she doesn’t like anything unfamiliar and won’t hesitate for a second to tell you if she doesn’t like something. These donuts? She didn’t even bat an eyelash as she gobbled hers down. Success!
Gingerbread Donuts with Vanilla Bean Frosting
Ingredients
Donuts:
- 2 cups almond flour
- ¼ cup Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ cup egg white powder or whey protein powder unflavoured
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 oz dairy-free cream cheese softened (can also use regular)
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 tablespoon Kelapo or other extra virgin coconut oil
- 2 teaspoon molasses
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon liquid stevia extract
- ⅓ cup almond milk unsweetened
Glaze:
- 4 oz dairy-free cream cheese softened (can also use regular)
- 6 tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Seeds of one vanilla bean
Instructions
- For the donuts, preheat oven to 325F and grease a standard-sized donut tin well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon cloves and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat together GO Veggie! Vegan cream cheese, eggs and coconut oil. Beat in molasses, vanilla and stevia until smooth.
- Beat in almond flour mixture in two additions, alternating with almond milk. Fill donut tin cavities ⅔ full (you will need to do 2 batches) and bake 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown and donuts are firm to the touch.
- Remove and let cool in pan 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Re-grease donut tin and repeat with remaining batter.
- For the glaze, beat GO Veggie! Dairy Free Vegan cream cheese with sweetener until well combined. Beat in almond milk, vanilla extract and vanilla seeds until smooth. Spread over cooled donuts.
Notes
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by GO Veggie! and Kitchen PLAY. As always, all thoughts, opinions, words, ideas, random tangents and incoherent ramblings are my own.
Kathy Cooke says
This recipe is super easy and tastes great! I used silicone doughnut molds on top of a baking sheet and got 14 doughnuts total. Baked for 15 minutes. Used Kite Hill dairy-free cream cheese, which only had a slight aftertaste in the glaze. The doughnuts come out of the molds more easily after 8 minutes cooling while pushing up from underneath the silicone molds in a circular pattern. The glaze is fantastic. My daughter didn’t know it wasn’t regular cream cheese. Great doughnuts for fall!
Mari says
I was wondering what brand of liquid stevia extract you use.
These look amazing! So excited to try them!
Carolyn says
Usually Nu Naturals
WEndy says
how can you make these without the protein powder?
shirley knieper says
’tis the season for gingerbread!
juli says
Could you make pumpkin cake donuts for me?
Julia says
Would love go veggie cream cheese combined with pumpkin for a lovely bagel spread.
April says
Homemade healthy bagel bites! Thanks for the giveaway!
Ruth E. Chidley says
I am making a recipe called Texas Cranberry Chutney that you serve over cream cheese with crackers for a Thanksgiving appetizer. I’m thinking I should use GO Veggie cream cheese alternative for those that cannot have dairy. Thank you Carolyn for bringing this timely post…very helpful!
Sarah & Arkadi says
Vanilla Bean Frosting?! Very intriguing! Thanks for the post!
Angie says
I read your blog regularly and can’t wait to try these
Aleisha says
OMG!!! these are delicious tried them today as a trial for Christmas and they are definitely on the menu
Heidi says
I would love to win!
Faith says
Really enjoy your recipes – thank you SO much! I’d try the cream cheese substitute in my favorite dip recipes! Thank you. Faith.
Julie says
pumpkin cheesecake
thanks for the giveaway
GKatie says
I’d love to try using it for a cheesecake!
Jeanette says
I love the idea of gingerbread spiced donuts – perfect for the holidays! So tempting!
Kammie @ Sensual Appeal says
I’d love to make pumpkin muffins with the cream cheese
Mary says
I would try the gingerbread donuts!
Della says
I would love to try it in cheesecake!