chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts

Chocolate.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

Peanut butter.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

Pretzels.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

Only one of the best dessert combinations ever.

And now…combined with doughnuts!

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

While the doughnut book still has 6 excruciatingly long months until its arrival, you can now find it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for pre-order!  The day I realized this was incredibly surreal. 

My name—can be typed into Amazon—and a BOOK appears—and apparently I wrote the thing!?  What!?

I am still in disbelief and giddy like a child waiting for its official release day. 

The cover is not quite finalized yet, with a new photo and text changes to come.  The photo is nearly the same but reshot with better lighting.  I had to get it just right! 

So, to celebrate this pretty fantastic milestone in my life I decided to bake doughnuts.

Go figure.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

And this recipe isn’t actually even in the book.  Somehow, I still think of new flavor combinations pretty frequently.  As if 101 doughnuts weren’t enough, here is 102!

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

This doughnut was also celebrating our friend Michelle’s 30th birthday, along with lemon vanilla doughnuts and chocolate cinnamon roll doughnuts.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

The pretzels on top were a no brainer.  I had to go all out.  And believe it or not, gluten-free pretzels aren’t all that bad!  Pretty tasty, in fact. 

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

I figured this was needed today.  It is Monday after all.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

Right now I’m in the thick of editing the book.  I have the entire printed out version sitting on my desk as we speak.  I’ve been going through it like a detective with a red pen.  It’s actually been surprisingly fun!  I’m nearly done with the first round and then have about 1-2 more rounds of edits to go.  In just a few short weeks it will be completely out of my hands!

baked doughnuts for everyone // edible perspective #glutenfree

Until then, let’s eat.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

Print this!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Doughnuts

gluten-free // yields 8 doughnuts

for the doughnuts

• 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour
• 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
• 1/3 cup sucanat or pure cane sugar
• 3 tablespoons peanut meal or almond meal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 2 tablespoons sunflower or safflower oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup ground dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350* F and thoroughly grease 1-2 doughnut pans.
2. Stir the oat flour, sweet rice flour, sucanat, peanut meal, and baking powder in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl whisk the eggs, then whisk in the milk, applesauce, peanut butter, oil, and vanilla until fully combined.
4. Pour the wet into the dry bowl and stir with a large wooden spoon until just combined [when you no longer see dry flour].  Avoid over-stirring.
5. Gently fold in the ground dark chocolate until just incorporated.
6. Spoon the batter into the molds filling to just below the top of each mold, about 1/8-1/4-inch below the top.
7. Bake on the middle rack for 18-22 minutes until light golden brown around the edges and a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then slide a thin, flexible spatula around the outside of each doughnut to help loosen them out.
9. Place on a cooling rack and allow to fully cool.

for the chocolate peanut butter pretzel coating

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil, optional
• broken gluten-free pretzels, to top
• large flaked sea salt

1. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl for 30 second increments in the microwave.  Stir after each until fully melted. About 1 1/2 minutes.
2. Add in the peanut butter and stir until melted and smooth.  Microwave another 20-30 seconds if needed.
3. Let cool for 5 minutes then dunk the top of the doughnut in the bowl and/or spread on with a spatula.
4. Top with broken pretzels an a sprinkle of sea salt.
5. Let set to harden then serve.

notes/substitutions: This recipe yields 8 standard doughnuts using the Wilton brand doughnut pan.  Peanut meal can be ground from roasted/unsalted or raw peanuts.  Pulse in a blender, coffee grinder, magic bullet, etc. until soft and flour-like, similar to almond meal.  Be careful not to over process.  Sift out any large pieces before measuring.  Grind dark chocolate chips until you are left with small, pebble-like pieces.  Refer to the first photo.  For altitude around 5,000’ increase your oven to 365-375* and reduce the baking powder by 1/8-1/4 teaspoon.  Bake time will change to 16-20 minutes.

chocolate peanut butter pretzel doughnuts // edible perspective #glutenfree

And the winner of the More Peas, Thank You giveaway is Lindsay!  Congrats Lindsay, I will be emailing you shortly.

Thanks to all who entered!  I thoroughly enjoyed reading about all of your favorite veggies and how you like to prepare them.  I think I could use a few servings after the pile of doughnuts I ate Friday night.  Yum.

Ashley

strawberry lavender doughnuts with cream cheese frosting

These doughnuts were actually made on Sunday and meant to be blogged about on Monday.  I took photos and taste tested but wasn’t 100% happy with them.  The lavender flavor was too strong and the strawberry didn’t come through enough.  The frosting was also slightly runny because I tried to whip the strawberries into it.  Not recommended.

I’ve had a small handful of dried lavender on my windowsill for the past few weeks.  I picked it up at the farmers market for a whopping $1.  Actually, that is probably overpriced considering lavender grows like weeds here and is in almost every single yard you walk past.

Point of this story?  Well, there barely is one.  Basically, the first go around of this recipe was a drippy frosting, fragrant fail.  Also, I took a handful of lovely dried lavender photos on Sunday and wiped my card clean before taking today’s photos.  I needed those photos for this post.  Photographing already ground lavender looked like a purple-tinted pile of dirt.  It just wasn’t doing it for me.

But I couldn’t show you these doughnuts without a photograph of lavender. So what did I do?  Borroweda few small stems from the neighbors while walking the dogs.

The bushes are literally 5 feet in diameter.  I don’t think anyone is going to notice.

And, on the bonus side these are much prettier photos than the dried lavender shots!

Now that my pointless story is over how about some doughnuts? 

How about a little cream cheese frosting sweetened with honey and powdered sucanat?

How about adding strawberries on top of the frosting instead of mixing them into it?

I’m thinking yes, and I hope you are too.

Print this!

Strawberry Lavender Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Frosting 

gluten-free // yields 8 doughnuts

• 1/2 cup gluten free oat flour
• 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
• 6 tablespoons pure cane sugar or sucanat
• 7 tablespoons strawberry puree [see below]
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons almond meal
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 2.5 teaspoons grounddried lavender buds
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder*
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8-10 strawberries for topping

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease your doughnut pan with melted butter, melted coconut oil, or cooking spray. 
2. In a large bowl mix together all of your dry ingredients.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together all of your wet ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir with a large wooden spoon until just combined.  Avoid over-stirring.
5. Carefully spoon the mixture into the doughnut pan molds about 1/8” from the top.
6. Bake for 18 – 24min until golden brown and springy to the touch.  If you toothpick test you want it to be moist, not gooey or dry.
7. Let the doughnuts cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then slide a small spatula around the edges to loosen.
8. Turn the doughnuts out onto a cooling rack, let completely cool, and then frost the doughnuts.
9. Cut the stem off of the 8-10 strawberries and place them on a cutting board flat side down.  Slice thinly [about 8 slices] and then slice once down the center in the opposite direction to halve the slices.
10. Place the halves in an overlapping pattern on top of the frosting.  Best if served immediately but can be stored—covered—in the fridge for 1 day.

notes: Using a Wilton doughnut pan this recipe yields 8 doughnuts.  *For altitude around 5,000 feet set your oven to 370 degrees and decrease the baking powder to 3/4 tsp.  Make sure your dried lavender buds are ground.  You can finely chop them or use a food processor or coffee grinder [just beware the scent may linger].

Strawberry Puree[yields ~ 1/2 cup]

• 1.5 cups strawberries
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1tsp tapioca starch

1. Place the cleaned + stemmed strawberries into a pot over medium heat with the honey and tapioca starch.
2. Stir until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer [uncovered] for 10 minutes or until thickened and strawberries are breaking apart.
3. Empty mixture into a blender, puree, then let cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting [yields 1 cup]

• 3/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sucanat or powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp honey

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy and smooth.
2. Beat in the honey and powdered sucanat until just smooth.
3. Refrigerate for 15-20min while the doughnuts are baking and cooling.
4. If you want a sweeter or stiffer frosting add more powdered sucanat.

A great farewell to strawberry season. 

Ashley