Donuts are an iconic dessert loved by everyone. These sweet dough rings are usually fried and covered with sugar or chocolate glaze. While every country has its variations of donut's shape, preparation, and name, we can all agree that this is one of the most popular quick and easy to make desserts. For us, the only logical step is to make them keto-friendly. Yes, today we are making keto donuts!
We loved colored glazed donuts as children, especially when visiting birthday parties (or any other occasion to be honest). But, over the years, we'd quit enjoying them because we've started following a low-carb diet. Well, guess what. We can finally have donuts again! We will make some delicious keto donuts now and so will you if you follow our recipe!
Keto donuts main ingredient
We use almond flour in our keto donuts recipe. Can you use coconut flour instead? No. It is too dense and absorbs too much moisture. If you want to know more about almond flour and how to use it in keto desserts, head over to our blog where we discuss how and why to use it.
When making a keto dessert, you can't simply replace wheat flour with almond flour and sugar with keto-friendly sweetener in a 1:1 ratio. In some cases, this can work, but in most recipes, the result will disappoint you. It does take some trial and error.
If you are following us on Instagram you might even remember that we made ten batches of classic keto meringue cookies before we nailed it. And the recipe only has two ingredients!
How to make keto donuts
When making or transforming the "classic" recipe into a keto version, one has to improvise. Eather with quantities, techniques, or tools. In most cases, the best result comes when combining all three.
The trick in this recipe is to use a good donut pan. We used a silicone version from a local store. You don't cut out a donut from the batter and leave it to rise as in a traditional donut recipe. You don't need to try doing that as we've done it for you. The taste was good, but the donuts didn't look that great. They lost the proper shape. Of course, we ate them anyhow.
To add the extra touch, we finished the donuts with a glaze: chocolate, chopped peanuts, grated coconut, and low-carb dragées. You can skip the glaze if you want to keep it simple. Plain keto donuts with some cinnamon sprinkled on top for breakfast sound ideal, right?
Enjoy and leave a comment below to tell us about your results!
Recipe
Keto Donuts
Equipment
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 cup almond flour
- ¼ cup butter - softened
- ¼ cup almond milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoon sweetener
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch cinnamon
- 1 pinch lemon zest - optionally
Chocolate topping
- ½ cup dark chocolate - keto-friendly
- 1 teaspoon sweetener
- 1 tablespoon oil - coconut, avocado, macadamia
- 1 tablespoon peanuts
- 1 teaspoon coconut - grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300° F (150° C). Grease the donut mold.
- In a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients: almond flour, sweetener, cinnamon, and baking powder. Make sure to stir well.
- In another bowl, mix together moist ingredients: butter, almond milk, and eggs. Then, pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Beat with an electric hand mixer until you get a homogeneous mixture. If you want a pinch of extra flavor, you can add some grated lemon rind.
- Pour the mixture into the donut pan. Fill until ¾ full. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes.The donuts will be ready when you see they're turning golden.
- Remove the donuts from the oven and let them cool. When they are at room temperature, put them in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Unmold the donuts and enjoy them plain or cover with chocolate topping.
Chocolate topping
- Melt the chocolate with two tablespoons of oil in a microwave. Add a teaspoon of sweetener.
- Dip the donuts, one by one, halfway into the chocolate mixture.
- Remove and let stand for a few minutes.If desired, cover the donuts with chopped peanuts or grated coconut.
- Refrigerate for about 20 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
MORE SWEET KETO RECIPES TO TRY!
If you love this low-carb keto recipe, I recommend you also try:
John Johnston says
Hi Tisa, Last week I just found out I am prediabetic, so I am a newbie at this. I love to cook and eat, but never done KETO. In your Donuts recipe, I have a couple of questions. Is it OK to substitute whole milk for almond milk? Is canola oil OK instead of coconut, avocado, or macadamia? The Donut pan shows a 6-hole pan. Did you put all of the batter in the 6 compartments? The pan shown has 3.2 inch donuts If I have two 4 hole, 4 inch donut baking pans how is the recipe to be revised to make 8 donuts? Thank you for your time and assistance in my query.
Luka says
Thank you for your comment and congratulations on taking the first step towards managing your health! We're glad to hear that you're interested in trying our keto donut recipe, and we're happy to answer your questions.
You can substitute whole milk for almond milk in the recipe if you prefer. However, keep in mind that whole milk is higher in carbs than almond milk, so it may affect the carb count of the recipe.
Canola oil can be used instead of coconut, avocado, or macadamia oil, but keep in mind that canola oil is highly processed and has a high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, which is not ideal for a healthy diet. We recommend using one of the other oils if possible.
The recipe yields six donuts, so if you have two 4-hole, 4 inch donut baking pans, you can easily double the recipe to make eight donuts. Simply double all of the ingredients in the recipe, and divide the batter evenly between the eight donut molds.
We hope this information is helpful, and we're always here to answer any other questions you may have. Thanks for your interest in our recipes, and happy baking!
Patricia says
This recipe turned out pretty awful and I'm a seasoned KETO baker. They were very greasy and did not release well from my silicone donut pan. I'm thinking creaming the butter w/ the sweetener would have worked better than mixing it with the eggs and milk. It certainly did not mix cohesively. Not sure if it's a technique issue or incompatible ingredients. I don't plan to frost them. Will keep in the fridge and see if that improves the texture. Curious if anyone else had this experience.
Tisa says
Hi, Patricia. We are sorry the recipe didn't turn out well. We will look into it soon and try to pinpoint the issue. Thank you for your suggestion.
Darcy says
Friendly FYI, check your egg reference in the printable recipe. It refers to the measurement of pcs
Tisa says
Thank you, Darcy, we'll look into it.
Nikki says
Seems odd that it would end up with that much sugar and net carbs. Hardly seems keto. None of the ingredients seem like they should net that many carbs except perhaps the almond milk? I use unsweetened almond milk so that maybe could lower it. I think I'd have to tweak some stuff to lower those numbers.
Tisa says
Hi, Nikki!
Thank you for the feedback! Looks like we put normal chocolate into the nutrition calculation. We'll look into it.