When I look at a recipe, the first thing I look for is what flour it’s made with. Too often, I’ve gone to a recipe online and found that they CALL it spelt but in reality, it only has a small portion of spelt – the rest of the flour is wheat. I know it may sound strange but even though I can’t tolerate wheat, I can tolerate a certain amount of spelt. I wasn’t sure of the reason for that but in doing a little research, this is what I found.
The government makes ingredient labels list spelt as a form of wheat. So, if you see spelt as an ingredient on a package, that package must say “contains wheat.” But, that’s not the whole store, as it pretty normal with governmental things.
See, while spelt contains gluten, it’s a gluten of a different kind. The fact that it contains less gluten than our modern-day wheat (which has been hybridized and changed to be shorter with a higher gluten content) is a big bonus but it’s also water soluble gluten. That means it breaks down in the digestive system much easier than wheat gluten which is tougher and more elastic. Spelt grains grow with a very hard outer shell on them, meaning that the plant itself doesn’t have to produce protective anti-nutrients to keep itself from being eaten by bugs. Wheat grows with a thin outer shell and produces toxic compounds to discourage bug damage.
The majority of the recipes on this blog are gluten-free because, let’s face it, it’s just much easier to say, “I’m gluten-free.” Than to say, “I can’t eat wheat but I can eat spelt and I’ve tried rye and done okay with it but I probably shouldn’t eat too much of it because if I do I’ll take the chance of being sick.” Knowwhatimean?
Many people who are gluten sensitive do fine with spelt and now that I’ve done some research, I understand why. Personally, I do have a limit to the amount of spelt I can tolerate in a given period of time, much like dairy.
Let’s review some of the merits of spelt grain and add a few more facts you may find interesting –
Spelt is/has:
One of the oldest, unchanged, cultivated grains (6000+ years)
Higher nutritional value than wheat
Lower gluten content that is degraded by heat and mixing action, unlike wheat
Gluten that is water soluble, therefore easier to digest
Contains all nine essential amino acids
With all that being said, you can be assured that very few recipes on this blog will contain wheat. I can honestly only think of two right now after 3 years of blogging, both bread recipes that our family has made for many years. I do have a few spelt recipes for those gluten sensitive friends that can tolerate it.
This recipe has been life-changing for me. It’s been many, many years since I’ve had a proper donut. I remember traveling down to my brother-in-law’s house in Maryland and stopping at a Krispy Kreme along the way. Every couple months we would stop on the way and treat ourselves to warm diets. The year I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy we stopped for donuts and got a full round of pity “Awwws” from every employee there.
Finally, after years of a very sad donut famine, I had a proper, raised, fried, cream-filled, glazed donut. It.Was.Glorious.
This recipe is a bit of a time commitment. Plan about 3 hours from start to finish. Yeast doughs are always more involved than a cake batter donuts. Yep, I love cake donuts too – much easier to make – but, not always as satisfying.
These donuts start with an organic white spelt flour. The brand is Small Valley Milling and I get it at a local health food store in Lancaster County. Vitaspelt is available too on amazon.
This flour rose really well! I’ve made a bunch of recipes with whole grain spelt but they’ve been hit or miss. This was hit after hit. I loved the reliability of it!
One of the fun things about donuts is how many ways you can make them. I started making them for the cream-filled, glazed version but my kids don’t like cream (how are they mine?! I don’t even know.) so I made some rings and donut holes. I glazed the rings but dipped the donut holes in butter and then dredged them with cinnamon sugar.
The total number of donuts this recipe made was 24. I made 12 filled donuts and 12 donut rings with about 20 donut holes because of the extra dough that wasn’t big enough to make more full-sized donuts.
A couple notes on this recipe:
• Choose healthy, real food ingredients. Obviously, this is a treat kind of recipe, not an every day one. Sugar should be eaten sparingly.
• If you’re dairy-free, choose a dairy alternative such as almond or coconut milk. The butter can be replaced by extra coconut oil if you can’t tolerate it.
• Yeast doughs rise best in a stable, warm environment. If you don’t have a “proof” feature on your oven, you can put a dish of boiling water in the bottom of the oven (oven off) and place your dough in the oven with the door closed. This gives the dough some moisture and warmth to assist in the rising of the dough.
• A piping bag with a star tip makes it simple to pipe in the cream filling. I carefully piped in the filling until the donut sides puff up slightly.
• The recipe uses about 25 oz. of coconut oil to fry the donuts but this is a great deal for a gallon of coconut oil!
This was such a fun recipe for me to create! I hope you love it too!
- ** FOR THE DONUTS ***
- 2 ¼ tsp. instant yeast
- ¾ cup warm milk (or dairy-free alternative)
- 3 Tbls. Cane sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ cup butter, at room temperature (or coconut oil for dairy-free)
- 2 eggs
- 2 ½ - 3 cups white spelt flour
- -
- 25 oz. refined coconut oil for frying
- -
- *** FOR THE CREAM FILLING ***
- 4 Tbls. Refined coconut oil
- 2 Tbls. Butter, softened
- 1 ½ cup 10x sugar
- 3-5 Tbls. Milk (or dairy-free alternative)
- -
- *** FOR THE GLAZE ***
- 1 ½ cup 10x sugar
- 4-6 Tbls. Water to make a thin glaze
- ** FOR THE DONUTS ***
- In a large, non-metallic bowl, combine milk, sugar and yeast. Stir to incorporate and allow to sit for ten minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients and beat with a hand mixer until incorporated.
- Finish the dough by kneading by hand on a clean countertop with extra flour to keep the dough from sticking.
- Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is no longer sticky to the touch and is elastic and pliable.
- Place in a large bowl sprayed with cooking spray (I use avocado spray) and cover with plastic wrap also lightly sprayed so the dough doesn't stick to the top.
- Allow to proof for about an hour or until dough doubles in size.
- -
- When dough is doubled, punch down and roll out to a little less than ½" thickness on a floured surface.
- Cut into rounds with a cookie cutter about 2" in diameter.
- Place on a baking sheet covered in parchment and allow to rest for an hour, covered with sprayed plastic wrap or a damp cloth.
- -
- Heat coconut oil to 350˚ in a shallow skillet with sides about 3" high.
- Carefully place 2 or 3 donuts at a time in the oil and allow to brown on one side.
- Flip donuts over and cook on the other side.
- Remove to a wire cooling rack with a pan underneath so the oil can drip off.
- Continue with remaining donuts.
- Allow to cool completely. This will take about 2 hours. The inside needs to be room temperature before filling.
- -
- *** FOR THE CREAM FILLING ***
- In a small mixing bowl, cream coconut oil and butter together.
- Add sugar and beat.
- Slowly add milk until filling is a nice consistency. It should stand on its own when piped.
- Fill a piping bag with icing using a large star tip.
- Carefully, using a paring knife, open a hole in the side of the donut for the tip to enter. Pipe in filling until it begins to come out the hole.
- Continue with all the donuts. You may have some filling left over depending on how full you make them.
- -
- *** FOR THE GLAZE ***
- Once all the donuts are filled, blend all the ingredients for the glaze in a small bowl large enough to put one donut into it.
- Carefully, coat each donut by dipping and swirling around in the glaze.
- Allow the glaze to drip off on the cooling rack with a pan underneath.
- -
- Allow the donut glaze to dry before serving.
- -
- Alternately, if you don't want to do the filled donuts, cut donuts out as rings and fry rings and holes per instructions above. Allow to cool and glaze if desired.
4 comments
I just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for sharing your recipe online. I made these today for my daughter’s 13th birthday and they are sooooooo perfect!
You’re SO welcome! And, thanks for coming back around to leave me a comment. Happy Birthday to your daughter (and, you too, mama 😉 )! Thirteen is so exciting!
Thank you so much for your spelt donut recipe. I know MANY people who can eat spelt (and Kamut, and einkorn, and farro) but not regular wheat. I have had real trouble cooking with spelt flour, I don’t have a sense of how to knead bread dough differently, etc. Everything I make is edible but not quite right. I look forward to trying these.
I’ve had some trouble baking with spelt too but I found that the white spelt makes it much easier than the whole grain spelt. I don’t use it much but there are some recipes where it really makes a big difference! Let me know how they turn out for you if you make them! Thanks for visiting!