Sweet Potato Doughnuts with Coconut Chai Glaze

According to my boyfriend “these doughnuts are the best recipe from the blog”. He has a very strong love for doughnuts (the deep fried ones made from white flour and sugar) and even he thought these healthy ones were darn good! The sweet potato gives them a fantastic texture. They are ‘doughy’, if you will, and they are super easy to make. Everything just goes into a blender and is poured into the tin. Don’t be scared off if the ingredient list looks long, 5 of the ingredients are just different spices. I recommend you purchase a doughnut tin to make these (you’ll totally use it again and I’ll give you more recipes to try), however, you could make these into muffins or pancakes if you cannot get hold of one. We coated half of the doughnuts in the Coconut Chai Glaze and half in Coconut Cinnamon Sugar.

Makes 6 doughnuts

1 small sweet potato (230g when peeled)

½ cup of brewed and sweetened chai tea (I used Prana Chai and rice milk)

¼ cup coconut oil

¼ cup raw honey/maple syrup

1 free-range egg or flax/chia egg

½ cup oat flour (blend rolled oats into a flour), I use GF oats

½ cup brown rice flour

¼ cup tapioca flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. bicarbonate soda

2 tsp. flaxseed/linseed meal (I just ground the seeds in my coffee grinder. Chia works too)

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. cardamom

½ tsp. ginger

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. cloves

Pinch of sea salt

Coconut Chai Glaze:

½ cup coconut cream (place a tin of coconut cream/coconut milk in the fridge and use the hardened part that sets on top)

2 tsp. raw honey

A sprinkle of each of the spices listed above (mostly cinnamon and ginger)

Coconut Cinnamon Sugar:

¼ cup coconut sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 180Cand grease a 6 hole doughnut tin with coconut oil.

2. Peel the sweet potato and slice it into thin semi-circles. Place into a steaming basket over a pot of boiling water. Cover with a lid and bring to a gentle boil before reducing the heat and allowing it to steam for about 10 minutes or until softened. Allow to cool slightly.

3. Meanwhile, brew the chai tea according to the packet instructions. (Prana Chai requires 1 heaped tbsp. of tea for each cup of milk and a little bit of honey). Strain and set aside to cool slightly.

4. Melt the coconut oil and blend the oats into flour and flaxseeds into meal, if not already ground.

5. Place the sweet potato, chai tea, coconut oil, honey and egg into a blender and process until smooth.

6. Add all of the remaining dry ingredients and process again until you achieve a smooth batter.

7. Carefully pour the batter out of the blender into the doughnut tin, until evenly distributed.

8. Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the doughnuts bounce back when pressed on top (mine only took 12 minutes).

9. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before moving them onto a wire wrack to cool to just warmer than room temperature.

10. Meanwhile, to make the Coconut Chai Glaze, simply whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl (you can gently heat them in a small saucepan if the honey is too thick to whisk when cold – you’ll just have to allow the mixture to cool before you dip the doughnuts in). Mix the coconut sugar and cinnamon together in a different bowl.

11. When the doughnuts have cooled but are still a bit warm, smear a little bit of coconut oil on the outside of three of them. Dip these three into the coconut cinnamon sugar and set aside. Dip the other three into the Coconut Chai Glaze. Eat immediately and enjoy!