Gluten free doughnuts….hot, covered in vanilla glaze, pillowy soft, fluffy, and so delicious you want to swoon when you take the first bite. Yes! You’re reading that right. Hot, yeast-risen doughnuts can be yours on a gluten free diet.
Keep reading… and make you sure you clear your schedule for Friday night and Saturday morning, because you’re going to be making gluten free doughnuts this weekend!
How did these doughnuts come about? Well, after a couple of months of living in our RV and not making any new recipes, I was ready for a challenge. We happened to pass a doughnut display in a grocery store one Friday night and John and I both looked at each other and without a word being spoken I knew what I would be making for breakfast the next morning.
The recipe that I’m giving you here is actually the 2nd attempt at this. The first flour mix that I tried was too heavy, so I tried a different one a few weeks later and it worked perfectly. It’s just another good example that the flours you use do make a difference.
There are several steps to this recipe and I was serious when I said to clear your Friday night. You dough has to be started on Friday night and if you don’t get a relatively early start, then you’ll be up to 1:00 AM like I was =)
Also, set an alarm for Saturday morning if you’ll need to wake up before your kitchen assistants. The doughnuts need to sit for an hour before they go into the fryer, so I try to get up and do that early, before little people with little hands wake up and start trying to flatten my gluten free doughnuts.
These doughnuts are delicious with the glaze recipe at the end of this post, but we also enjoyed them spread with Nutella.
Instructions
Yield: Approximately 1.5 dozen doughnuts.
- 1 c. warm water
- 2 envelopes active dry yeast (1.5 Tbsp)
- 1 c. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
- 2/3 c. sugar
- 2/3 c. butter, softened *
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3.5 c. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp. xanthan gum
- 1/2 gallon of oil (for frying)
*Â Dairy free butter substitutes like Vegan Buttery Sticks or coconut oil would work.
Step 1:
Add the yeast to the warm water and proof for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of flour, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Step 2:
Whisk the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and salt together and add it to the yeast/flour mixture. Then add in the remaining 3.5 c. of flour and the xanthan gum. Mix the dough together for several minutes. The dough should be somewhat thick but still soft, not thick enough that you think “this is going to be easy to roll out”, but more like “this dough may be a bit too soft to work with”
Step 3:
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm spot for 2 hours. Then put it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, (but up to 16 hours) and get some sleep.
Step 4:
Rise and shine! Roll out the dough to 3/8″ thick. Use a 3″ round cookie/biscuit cutter to cut out the doughnut, and then cut a 1″ hole (or thereabouts) in the middle of each with a floured knife. Re-roll the scraps and continue as above until you’ve used all of the dough. Let the doughnuts rise in a warm place for an hour. Do not cover them – the exterior needs to dry out slightly.
Step 5:
Pour the oil into a large deep skillet (or stock pot) and heat it to 375 degrees F. I start the oil after the doughnuts have risen for 45 minutes so that everything is ready at the same time. Carefully drop a few doughnuts into the hot oil, being careful not to crowd. When one side has browned nicely (this doesn’t take long) flip the doughnut over and cook until the other side has browned as well. Cut one of the first doughnuts in two to make sure they are completely cooked and adjust your oil temperature as needed.
Step 6:
When the doughnuts come out of the oil, lay them on a cooling rack or paper towels to drain. Once they’ve cooled just a little bit, roll them in the vanilla glaze and set them on a cooling rack.
Step 7:
Sit down and eat while these are still hot. Keep eating until you can’t move or the doughnuts are all gone =)
Vanilla Almond Glaze
- 1 c. confectioner’s sugar
- 2 – 3 Tbsp. water
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract
Just stir briskly until all of the ingredients are combined. Make more as needed!
Would this work with your GF flour mix instead of Bob’s Red Mill? I can’t bring myself to pay that much for 1 pound of flour! (We’re very fortunate – we live literally next door to an Indian grocery that carries 10 lb sacks of rice flour for $5.49, so I’m pretty spoiled on price!)
where can you purchase the ingrediants for gluten free foods such as flour and xanthan gum or what u need to make breads
Weney…depending on where you live, you may be able to find these ingredients in the Health food section of your grocery store, in a Whole Food Market, or a local Health Food Store. If all these options prove fruitless…you can order on line, and mix them yourself. Bob’s has a Gluten Free mix, but my husband complained everything tasted like licking a penny. I had to agree. So, I pitched the works and set about collecting various organic gluten free flours and it was a lot of trial and error. I’d like to avoid waste, so I hesitantly try recipes from others. I did find the internet to be very helpful.
I agree that there must be a better flour option than Bob’s. I normally like the quality of Bob’s Red Mill products (even though they’re pricey), but I’ll never get their GF All-purpose flour again — I tried making cookies with it and they were the worst things I’ve ever tasted!
I really miss good, fluffy doughnuts and have yet to find a recipe I love 🙁
Do you think I could bake these instead of frying them?
Amie » I haven’t tried baking them. They do puff up quite a bit when they’re fried and I’m not sure that you’d get the safe effect if you baked them. I think the rising mainly comes from the steam, rather than the yeast.
Any thoughts on how to make stuffed LongJohns with this, and not just doughnuts? My daughter has had to give up her absolute favorite, Blueberry LongJohns, from the bakery here in town. I could come up with a replacement she would be in heaven!
Shelly » I had to google Long Johns to see what they were, but it does sound like you could make them with this dough. Would the bakery in town be willing to give you some tips on how they fill them?
Mary and Shelly–just cut the rolled out dough into 1″ to 1 1/2″ by 3″ strips instead of rounds. After the doughnuts have cooled, fill a pastry bag fitted with a long tube with a 1/2″ opening with your filling (be sure the blueberries are chopped fine enough or they will clog the tube). Use a skewer to make a hole at either end of the long john through to the middle, insert the pastry tube to the middle and squeeze the pastry bag firmly and slowly pull the tube out of the bag as you press to fill from the center to the end. Do this on both ends. Also, if no pastry bag is available, then a heavy zipper style storage bag with the tip of one of the corners cut may work–it just won’t go all the way in–you may want to try cutting the dough into donuts without the middle cut out and filling them when they cool.
Also, I just wanted to let you know that these were delicious! Thanks for the recipe! I put my formed donuts onto 4″ squares of parchment to rise–then when I needed to pick them up to fry, I carfully lifted the doughnut, parchment and all and placed it into the oil. After a few seconds the parchment releases and I fish it out of the hot oil with tongs–solves my previous dilema of overhandling and deflating the dough before I get it into the oil!! =)
Can these be fried in a deep fryer instead of a stock pot/deep skillet? I’ve recently burned my hand and I’m not wishing to try burning the other one if I can help it! Long story, stupidity rules! lol
Bonnie McCurdy » Yes, they should do fine in a deep fryer. That’s probably much easier than the way that I did it!
A great recipe!! The doughnuts are wonderful. My 5 year old grandson with multiple food allergies has been wanting doughnuts, and I just made these. The whole family loves them, even those who can eat regular doughnuts. There is none of that off-flavor that alternative flours often have. And they look like doughnuts are supposed to (important to a 5 year old.) I had to use EnerG egg replacer because my grandson is allergic to eggs, so mine aren’t as light as they would be with eggs, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for any of us! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. There are so many things my grandson can’t have, so it is wonderful to have one less food for him to be denied.
Betty, I can tell you’re a compassionate good gramma. It’s hard to watch our kids or grandkids deal with the daily struggle of food allergies and sensitivities. I’m on here because a friend linked to these and when I was GF I wished I’d had this recipe! So, having my own 6 yr old son and 3 yr old daughter plus myself, and remembering how tedious it was just a year ago to try to make every thing (including baking powder!) and plan for class parties and such, that I can’t leave here without holding out hope and healing for anyone who reads this. Long story short, food allergies and sensitivities have a variety of causes, but can be reversed and healed – something I didn’t know when we were first (finally) diagnosed with all of ours. Check out integrativehealthgroup.com and their FB page and call them. The 3 of us did a combined effort of detox, digestive system restoration, and cold laser therapy and we no longer have reactions or issues with those foods. Can’t stop praising God enough. My son had a peanut allergy and now doesn’t. I told a lady at church to go too whose daughter had a cashew allergy so bad that they carried an epipen, and her daughter no longer has it either after care at this office. The office practices integrative medicine, and I have a lot of respect and trust for them, their knowledge, training, etc. Hope you take hold of hope and see its fruit too. Just heartbreaking to watch friends and kids at my son’s school struggle so much – have to spread truth and hope.
Because of what I learned about food and the body during our struggle, I now continue a lot of what I did then with foods, and am grateful to have increased awareness, education and health.
Can I shape the dough into its form before frying and freeze raw? I was also wondering whether this recipe halves nicely?
devora cziment » I see no reason why it wouldn’t freeze well and halve well. Since the five of us managed to down an entire batch in one meal this past weekend I don’t anticipate halving the recipe any time soon, however freezing it is a great idea. Making the doughnuts is not hard, but it does require that you plan ahead. Having a frozen batch in the freezer would be convenient, but not so tempting that you’d succumb to a craving too easily.
My hubby and kids loved these. I didn’t care for the texture which is very much like a cake donut. I wonder if they would be a lighter texture if rice based flour mix was used vs. the garbanzo/fava bean based that Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour uses? Once I learn how to make gf white bread, I may try frying that dough.
Thank you for your website, for paving the way for us newbies, and for your recipe collection! I appreciate all of your work!
I just tried your recipe. I made the dough last night, using white rice flour, tapioca starch, and corn starch. I waited, slightly impatiently, over night for the dough to be ready. The dough rolled out so smoothly and held together better than any dough I’ve ever made. The donuts are killer delicious! Even my step mom, who despises GF bread, smacked her lips and yelled for more. I glazed some, sugared some, and filled some with haupia…coconut cream. Oh. My. Gosh. Thank you so very much
Jennifer, could you share the amount of rice flour and tapioca and corn starch you used? The best gf rolls I’ve ever had were made from tapioca starch so I know there’s something magic there 🙂
Jennifer, I’d love to hear the measurements of the rice flour, tapioca starch, and corn starch if you don’t mind 🙂
Leah and Jessica; I just made these donuts this morning using a flour blend I got from the back of a GF magazine. It called for 0.5 cups white rice flour, 0.25 cups tapioca starch and 0.25 cups corn starch. They turned out to be fantastic! The dough was also the best GF dough I have ever worked with. It rises and rolls out beautifully. So use 2 parts rice flour to one part of each starch and that should do it. 🙂
I have horrible luck getting anything with yeast to rise and my bad luck struck again. Mine never rose….any suggestions on getting them to rise?
Your yeast could be bad. It should get foamy and frothy after a few minutes of being mixed with warm water. I usually will add a tbsp. of sugar to help it proof. Make sure the water you are mixing it with is not hot, it will kill the yeast! Just luke warm. Basically you should hardly be able to feel the water because it should be about body temp. or slightly warmer.
Good Luck!
I’m trying this recipe with Domata Living flour – cutting the zanthan gum to 1 teas. since there is already some in the Domata – I’ll let you know how it turns out.
If you use rapid rise yeast does it shorten the rising time?
Hello. I made this this afternoon, but started them last night. I made my own flour mix from Taste of Home recipe. (I also ground my own rice to make rice flour). These are so good. I haven’t had anything gluten free since April of 2012, due to getting sick whenever I ate anything with gluten.
I fried mine in a huge cast iron skillet. I think next time that I will drop the temperature to 350, because they came out pretty dark. I don’t have a dutch oven. My husband (who went gluten free for me) and I both loved them, but he suggests omitting the almond extract from the glaze because it is very prominent. However, I formed the dough into 2—9×9 squares and cut them into 9 pieces each. I left parchment paper on the bottoms, because when I cut the doughnuts, the parchment cut as well. It worked great. So, my doughnuts looked more like beignets than traditional doughnuts, but still excellent.
Thank you so very much for an excellent recipe. First time in nearly 2 years, and I finally am able to have a doughnut, without 2 or so days of sickness following it.
I saw someone asked if we could use your flour mix instead, hit i didn’t see an answer. Please let me know and thanks.
No, I tried it with my flour mix and it turned out terribly. It needs the lower absorbency of the Bob’s Red Mill mix.
I made the dough last night and finished the process this morning. They were DELICIOUS!!! I used Namaste GF all purpose flour. It contains xanthan gum so I did not add extra. They weren’t really fluffy, but they tasted terrific. Thank you very much for this recipe!!!!!
My son recently said Krispy Kreme needed to make GF donuts so I went on a search and found your recipe. I surprised him this morning with these. He loved them. He said they were a mix between Krispy Kreme and Dunkin. Next time he wants chocolate glaze!
For the GF donuts you show the picture with chocolate glaze but don’t offer the recipe for it. do you have the recipe for the chocolate frosting glaze? Please?
all due respect for what looks quite yummy; anyone wanting/needing to go GF (which should be all of us, imho,) *ALSO* should be going sugar free, as well. Sugar is just as bad as gluten/grains/wheat.
I don’t believe anyone should be going gluten free unless required to for medical reasons, such as myself. I have Celiac’s disease, and at 16, it’s put quite the damper on any food related activities. Being gluten free for the past 10 months has helped my body, but not so much so that I would recommend this diet to anyone else. Additionally, I see no reason as to why anyone needing to eliminate gluten from his or her diet should also cut out sugars. Sugar (in moderation) doesn’t harm anyone, so I fail to see why you claim those going gluten free need to go sugar free as well.
Bob’s Red Mill has developed a new All-Purpose flour that is truly delicious . The wrapper is designed in two blue tones whereas the previous flour with the bean taste is red and yellow. wrapper.
Is there any way to speed up the process?
Wouldn’t that be nice. I’ve been tempted to skip a few steps, but I haven’t tried it yet since I generally only make these a couple of times a year. And when I do make them it’s for a birthday, so I don’t want to run the risk of messing things up.
Hello, I am going to try this recipe for a friend. I am a chef in NC. FYI: American Test Kitchen does show how to make GF flour. Their show is no PBS. I have made several GF recipes, not all desserts, but I am anxious to try this one. Will post my results. Bob’s Red Mill also has a baking flour which I have used to make bars and cakes.
This donuts are amazing! I didn’t use Bob’s red mill flour. I used a different gf all purpose flour. They turned out really great. They rose nicely. I may have rolled some too thin. I used my little deep fryer and did two at a time. The recipe made about three dozen. I used a cup to cut the circles. My 3 year old daughter has celiac’s and every Sunday they have coffee and donuts at church and she can never have them. I’m going to individual wrap them and freeze them so we can pull a couple out Sunday morning before church!. I guarantee we’ve already eating over a dozen of them. My two other daughters and husband love them also. Thanks for the great recipe
This was awesome! I used pretty cheap GF flour and it still turned out great!
I made these last night/this morning and the texture and taste were great. I think this is a good starting place for some flavor addition. I think candied orange would be nice. I enjoyed having a doughnut with my coffee this morning. My non gf family goes out for coffee and doughnuts often and all I can have is coffee. Thank you for the great recipe.
If flour has Xanthan should additional according to recipe be added
My daughter developed a gluten allergy a few years ago and we do our best to find recipes for the things she now must avoid. When I found this recipe I thought, “…Better than Krispy Kreme”; that’s a bold claim for any recipe much less a gluten free one. Challenge accepted!
I followed the recipe to the T, no substitutions or twists on it, just follow directions. I can’t express to you how it warms my heart to see my daughters face light up when she bit into an airy, light, and fluffy doughnut for the first time in years! I can’t than you enough for making that possible.
oh wow this is indeed a delicious gluten free doughnut. I substitute with Arrowhead Mill All Purpose Gluten free flour and it tastes incredibly good. my whole family loves it. TQ for the recipe!
Do you use a stand mixer or mix the ingredients by hand?