Tag: cinnamon-sugar

gluten-free donuts that won’t make you barf

Published on by jan grecoLeave a comment

Well hello. That’s right, I’m baaack— We’ll technically I’ve never been gone, just busy. But I’m here now and ready to dish (pun intended).

A while ago I talked about going gluten-free. I’ve continued to vacillate over gluten, frequently debating with myself whether it makes a difference in how I feel day-to-day, and never really coming to a conclusion. Then my daughter started suffering from frequent stomachaches. However since it was the year of the debilitating stomach-flu and she does have a propensity to worry, I kept thinking perhaps those were the culprits behind the complaints. But then she threw up in school. After eating snack. And a classmate slipped in it. (Yeah, disgusting. He cried, she didn’t.) That’s when the clouds parted and the pieces fell into place, each time she ate food with gluten she got a stomachache. Sometime a little gassy ache and sometime a big barfy ache, but an ache nonetheless. I did a little gluten elimination experiment, and she felt great. I concluded my experiment with a celebratory grilled cheese on regular bread and guess what. Bellyache. She is now officially a gluten-free girl.

It’s pretty easy these days to find tasty and inexpensive gluten-free options at the store and more and more packaging is including “Gluten-Free!” on the label, making it all the easier to shop. But I have to say that when it comes to breads and baked goods the options are a bit bleak. I was recently gifted a andwich bread and bagel recipe from a co-worker whose daughter is celiac (I’ll share them after I make the recipes a few times) but I was on a mission to find a recipe for something that seemed indulgent and treat worthy. Hello donuts!

Since I’d already conquered Chocolate-Beet Donuts and Baked Cinnamon Spice Donuts I thought revisiting those recipes was a good place to start. While chocolate is always a fan favorite the extra moisture from the beets, coupled with the nontraditional flour, made recipe conversion tricky. The spiced donuts however were begging for a re-do, and so I re-did. Behold… The best homemade baked gluten-free donuts guaranteed NOT to make you barf. You’re welcome.

Gluten-free Cinnamon Spice Donuts
These are the best donuts. Seriously. Gluten and guilt free deliciousness in one good to go package.
glutenfree donut2

1 cup flax meal
1 cup rice flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. whole milk buttermilk, room temperature
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp. Angostura bitters

sugar coating:
3 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a medium bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and pop in the microwave for a minute to melt. Add to the coconut the buttermilk and eggs and beat, then add the bitters and whisk to combine.
  2. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just until combined.
    Grease or spray the doughnut pan and fill each doughnut form half way. (I find it’s easiest to pour the batter into a ziplock bag, snip off one corner and pipe it into the pan.)
  3. Bake for 8-10 minutes. (You’ll know they’re done when they spring back when touched and are just beginning to brown on top.)
  4. While the donuts are baking mix together the cinnamon-sugar coating in a medium bowl and melt the coconut oil. Set aside.
  5. When the donuts are finished baking, immediately remove them from the oven and brush them with coconut oil. Give them a quick roll in the cinnamon-sugar coating and enjoy!

Baking with my Cookie

Published on by jan greco2 Comments

“Let’s make cookies!” my daughter says on the way home from nursery school one afternoon. “Oh baby, I don’t have the ingredients for cookies, next time I go to the store I’ll get some.” “Yes you do” she replies, “sugar, flour, milk and eggs…” Hmmm, my two-and-a-half year old budding chef might be right, we in fact could make sugar cookies with the ingredients she just rattled off. So, since she specifically requested a little kitchen time with mom (and I would hate to deny my sweet girl), it looked like we’d be baking after lunch.

Here’s something you may not know about me, I don’t like to do anything if it seems too easy. I guess I equate a certain degree of effort with a successful final product. I’m sure plain sugar cookies would of been fine and certainly would of satisfied my daughter’s desire to bake, but in my little head that would of been too simple. I had to make sugar cookies that were a bit fancier. Cookies with some added cinnamon and nutmeg in the dough and then a quick roll in more cinnamon and sugar before baking. Yeah, those are my kinda sugar cookies!

So how did our little mother-daughter baking session go? Well, as is often the case with a two-and-a-half year old her enthusiasm for the project didn’t last long. Once the ingredients were measured and the stand mixer switched on, she was more interested in pillaging the fruit bowl and helping herself to cheese sticks from the fridge. Oh well, there’s always next time.

But the final results, seriously delicious.

Cinnamon-Sugar Cookies
These cookies are fantastic as is or with a glass of cold milk. They’re even better along side of a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


12 tbsp. Smart Balance spread
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. creme of tarter
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
1 egg
3 cups flour

For the cinnamon sugar topping:
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl mix together the cinnamon and sugar for topping, set aside.
  2. To make the dough cream together the softened butter, sugar, brown sugar, honey, baking powder, baking soda, creme of tarter, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and salt. Add the egg and milk and blend into the butter mixture, then slowly stir in the flour.
  3. Scoop out rounded tablespoons of the dough (it will be very soft), shape them into balls, and roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place each ball on the prepared cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-16 minutes, until the cookie is golden brown and the tops have begun to crack.
  4. Allow to cool on a wire rack and then try to eat just one. Store remainder in an air tight container.

* I realize you may think I’m crazy to use anything other than butter to make these cookies. I agree it’s unorthodox but here’s the thing, I tested this cookie recipe three times and on the last try I ran out of butter and substituted Smart Balance. While the butter cookies were good, they got hard very quickly sitting in my cookie jar, but the Smart Balance cookies stayed soft and yummy for days. Like the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”…