A couple of weeks ago when I was thinking of recipe ideas for this weeks “Kids Week”, I asked Caleb and Keegan what their favorite food was.  Keegan proclaimed “Pizza!” and Caleb thought for a moment before deciding on “Chocolate Donuts”.  I jokingly told them we should combine the two and make a pizza donut and their eyes lit up.  How hard could it be, right? Not so easy as it turns out.  It took awhile to get the flavor just right as well as the texture but a weeks worth of pizza donuts later and I finally had a winner.  Now if you ask my kids what their favorite food is they will both tell you “Pizza Donuts!”.

Sarah

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup spelt flour *see notes
• 1/2 cup potato starch (or tapioca starch)
• 4 tbsp chia seeds (or ground flax seed)
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 or 2 dashes crushed red pepper
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• heaping 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup no salt added tomato paste
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp oil (if you used sun dried tomatoes in oil then please use the oil from the tomatoes, if not then Garlic Gold Oil works great or even regular olive oil will do)
• heaping 1/3 cup shredded cheese (I used Daiya Mozzarella Cheese)
• olive oil spray for greasing the pan

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a donut pan and set aside (see notes).
3. In a large bowl add the flour, starch, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, baking soda and powder and sea salt.  Give it a little stir and set aside.
4. In a medium bowl add the chia seeds, tomato paste, vinegar, water, garlic and oil.  Mix well and let sit for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the wet ingredients along with the onions, tomatoes and cheese to your dry ingredients and mix well.  Do not over mix.
6. Fill each donut mold with the pizza mixture and place in the oven for 12-14 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes.  Flip the donut pan over, give it a good pat and the donuts should pop right out.
8. You can serve immediately with a side of your favorite pizza sauce or top with marinara sauce and shredded cheese and place back in the oven for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Nutritional Info:

Makes 10 donuts.

Serving size 1 donut.

Nutrients per serving:  Calories: 175.5, Cal. from Fat: 66, Total Fat: 7.5g, Sat. Fat: 1g, Carbs: 24g, Fiber: 4.5g, Sugars: 1.5g, Protein: 3g, Sodium: 93.5mg, Chol: 0mg

Notes:

If you want to make a gluten free donut you can substitute the spelt flour with millet, sorghum or brown rice flour.  I made these with garbanzo bean flour and they were excellent.  The only negative was even if you grease your pan really well these are harder to pop out.  I had to run a fork around the edges to get them out but the taste was well worth the extra effort.

If you do not have a donut pan you can still make these in a 6 count muffin tin.  The baking time will increase slightly by 3-4 minutes.

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.  Reheat in the oven for best results.

My kids wanted these to be like real donuts so I put some pizza sauce in a plastic baggie, cut off the tip and used it to decorate the tops of the donuts with ‘frosting’.  Feel free to great creative with your toppings!