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After 7 years of dating a coeliac I’ve developed a rather nasty little gluten intolerance of my own. Any time I dare to eat a piece of crusty Italian bread or god forbid, a cronut, I get stomach cramps for hours afterwards and start burping like Barney from The Simpsons. It’s super annoying because I actually quite enjoy wheat filled foods but this makes me more inclined to make delicious treats in my own home.

Mr Smaggle is a special kind of coeliac because his intolerance was trauma induced. He had meningitis in high school and as a result his body decided that wheat was no longer welcome. Same thing happened to a mate of mine when he got malaria. Weird hey? This means that the poor lad can actually remember a time when he ate pastries with gleeful abandon and he still craves odd things from his previous wheat-full life like 2 minute noodles and Baker’s Delight pull-a-part loaves. Mr Smaggle has a major soft spot for donuts. We often buy the Macro donut mix (read my review here) but I’ve never felt that inclined to make other donuts from scratch because why would I? That was until recently when my man very sadly told me he’d never in his life tried a glazed donut.

Isn’t that the saddest thing you’ve ever heard? He’s never once in his life had the pleasure of devouring a day’s worth of calories in one Krispy Kreme. I had to rectify this immediately.

I hit up the old interwebs to find a donut recipe. I never use traditional gluten free recipes because I couldn’t be bothered making the weird blended flours and ground grains they usually use. I just find a standard recipe and swap out the regular flour for Macro gluten free flour. Easy peasy. I used this recipe for the base and this recipe for the glaze but I messed around a bit with quantities and gluten free substitutes because… you know… SCIENCE!!!

Gluten Free Glazed Donuts

Ingredients

1/3 cup milk
7gm packet of dried yeast
1/4 cup caster sugar plus 1 tablespoons caster sugar
Pinch of salt
2 1/4 cups of Macro Gluten Free Plain Flour
110 gms chilled butter cut into cubes
2 eggs lightly beaten
vegetable oil for frying

For The Glaze

1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of pure icing sugar

Instructions

1. Heat milk over low heat until just warm, not too warm though or the yeast won’t work. Remove from heat and add the yeast, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and salt.

2. Whisk until well combined and leave to sit for ten minutes.

3. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add butter and rub together until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add remaining 1/4 cup of caster sugar, stir through and make a well in the centre. Add yeast mixture and eggs. Mix until well combined. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface. Mixture should be as moist as possible without being too sticky. Knead for ten minutes. (I mean it. 10 FULL minutes. Set a timer.) Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with cling wrap. Leave to sit in a warm spot for 45 minutes.

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board. Cut dough in half and knead each piece for 5 minutes. Roll one piece out to 1 1/4cm thick. Using a drinking glass cut circles out of the dough. Using something smaller like a drink bottle lid, cut holes in the centre of each donut.

5. Half-fill a frypan with vegetable oil. Heat over medium heat until oil is hot. Add 2 to 3 donuts at a time, cooking for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until golden. Remove with tongs and leave to drain on paper towel.

 

For The Glaze

1. Heat milk over low heat and add the vanilla. Sift in the icing sugar and heat gently until thick. Leave the glaze over low heat and dip each donut in the glaze and coat evenly. Leave to sit on a baking rack for 5 minutes and then serve.

I was a bit cheeky and took a few of the fresh cooked donut holes, dipped them in an obscene amount of cinnamon and sugar and ate them standing up in the kitchen with Mr Smaggle. Highly recommended. Although I now can’t feel my teeth… I suspect they’re in a sugar coma.

The donuts turned out brilliantly. They have that gorgeous rustic look about them, like you’d buy them from a fancy cafe where the coffee costs $4 and all the baristas have tattoos on their hands. They taste pretty amazing too. They’re quite dense but become deliciously moist and more-ish when you dip them in the glaze. I made half of the donuts single glaze and half of them double glaze but you can experiment with what works best for you. Either way they’ve certainly satisfied Mr Smaggle’s ten year long craving.

Tell me… are there any allergies in your family? What’s the one food you wish you could make allergy free?