Soft, light, & decadently healthy red velvet donuts – with a secret ingredient and NO food coloring!
Did you notice the theme with my most recent recipes?
I’ve been having fun trying healthier alternatives to food coloring, first with my Magical Rainbow Unicorn Dip, and now with these vibrant red velvet donuts. They are baked instead of fried, are free of refined sugars and food dye, and they are also safe for vegans. The homemade donuts come together with just a few minutes of work and are healthy enough to eat for breakfast.
♥ You won’t miss the food coloring and refined sugar!
When I think of red velvet, I immediately think of Sprinkles’ red velvet cupcakes, complete with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting.
But these donuts are so much better than that… mostly because donuts are so much better than cupcakes. You can eat them plain, or with chocolate glaze, or topped with melted coconut butter or my Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting.
If you want to do the chocolate glaze, either dip the finished donuts in melted chocolate (mixed with a little oil if desired for a smoother sauce) OR mix together 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, 2 tbsp melted coconut oil, and scant 3 tbsp cocoa powder and gently heat until it becomes a thin sauce.
Refrigerate to “set” the chocolate glaze. If you use the coconut-oil version, it’s best to store the donuts in the fridge because coconut oil melts at room temperature.
More Healthy Donut Recipes:
Homemade Blueberry Baked Donuts
P.S. These healthy red velvet donuts would be perfect for Valentine’s Day breakfast!
Healthy Red Velvet Donuts
Adapted from Blueberry Baked Donuts
Red Velvet Donuts–Refined Sugar Free!
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Ingredients
- 1 tbsp milk of choice
- 1 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or agave or honey
- 3 tbsp beet juice – or see substitution note below
- 3 1/2 tbsp oil – If you don’t mind fat-free texture, you can use applesauce (35g)
- 1 cup flour, loosely packed (works with all-purpose, spelt, or gf all-purpose) (125g)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions
*If you don’t have beet juice, you can omit and increase the milk of choice to 1/4 cup and add natural red food coloring to achieve the red velvet color if desired. (They taste just as delicious without the food coloring too!)
Combine first 6 ingredients, and set aside. Grease a donut pan OR mini muffin pan, and preheat oven to 350 F. Stir together remaining ingredients, then pour wet into dry once oven is preheated, and stir until just evenly mixed. Don’t overmix. Bake 10-12 minutes (depending on flour used), or until donuts have risen and batter is no longer wet. Let sit 5 minutes before removing from the pan. Frost with a basic glaze (a chocolate glaze recipe is listed earlier in this post) or even straight-up coconut butter, which is my favorite!
Link Of The Day:
Amy says
These looks great, so easy to make (I’d probably do the sub for the beet juice, since I have all ingredients by that one on hand). One question, though – I thought red velvet batter by definition had some cocoa powder in it, but I don’t see it in your list of ingredients. Just confirming before I dive into this recipe on my snowbound day.
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I initially thought about using cocoa powder but decided against it in order to keep the red as vibrant as possible. But you can definitely add cocoa powder if you wish! When I want to turn a non-chocolate cake or muffin or donut recipe into a chocolate one, I often will start by simply subbing some of the flour out for cocoa powder, so that might be a good place to start experimenting. Or you can just make them as-is and add mini chocolate chips to the batter or use the chocolate glaze recipe from the post to include some chocolate.
Ashley says
By definition, red velvet is a chocolate cake. Therefore, I would not say this recipe is red velvet. More like plain donuts with red coloring, Which is great, just a little misleading.
Aimie says
Misleading? Lol it’s a donut recipe. Plus it is Katie’s blog and recipe so she can call it whatever she wants. My goodness internet commenters get offended by the silliest things.
Amy says
I will probably do that change, maybe sub 2-3 T. of the flour with cocoa powder. Thanks!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I went ahead and made up a batch just now. (Because, excuse to make donuts.) It works with 1/4 cup cocoa powder and 3/4 cup flour 🙂
Yasmine says
Were they still reddish?
Amy says
I ended up using 2 T. cocoa powder (and I used 1/4 c. almond milk with food coloring, because I didn’t have beet juice), and even with a LOT of red food coloring, they ended up too brown, ultimately coming out kind of purplish. Next time, I will use 1 T. cocoa powder and see how that works. They are cooling right now, so I haven’t had a chance to taste them yet.
Amy says
Oh, and I did it as mini-muffins because I don’t have a donut pan. It makes 15 mini-muffins, fyi. 🙂
Kimmie says
Could I replace the beet juice with like pomegranate juice? Or would that mess with the end product? Also, I don’t have a donut pan, could I use a muffin tin instead?
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I have never tried so don’t know how the color will be. Taste and texture will–I’m sure–be fine.
k says
Isn’t pomegranate juice much sweeter than beet juice though?
Aimie says
These look great Katie. Do you make beet juice from beets or use the kind that comes already as juice in a bottle?
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I’m sure fresh will work if you know how to make it. I used the kind that already comes as juice.
Bonnie Schmitt says
Would coconut or almond flour work? Should I add more liquid to keep the batter from being too dense?
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I have never tried so really can’t say. But be sure to report back if you experiment!
Hannah says
I am making these today! It’s close enough to Valentine’s Day, right? 😉
Whitney says
A crazy thought entered my mind after reading this recipe (which looks delicious, and I can’t wait to try it): take the new unicorn cheesecake dip recipe and frost these donuts with it! Would it be wrong to combine so much deliciousness and bright, happy, delightful colors in one recipe? It almost sounds too good to be legal.
And then, I thought about taking blueberry juice and making blue velvet donuts with the same frosting. Or a little spinach for green! So much color! You could experiment with a whole rainbow of incredible donuts! Katie, you’ve made my whole morning so happy, once again.
Heidi says
Hi, what’s the recipe for the frosting?
Izzy Bruning says
oh my goodness! These look amazing, and given me the perfect excuse to go out and buy a doughnut pan, because you can never have too many baking supplies 😉
Izzy https://pinchofdelight.wordpress.com
Jana Gana Mana 52 seconds says
Oh this looks fantastic!!!
Sara | Last Night's Feast says
These look divine!!!
Kai says
This looks sooo good! To bad my boyfriend isn’t a Red Velvet fan =( I’ll have to make them for myself haha!
You’ve motivated me to buy a Donut Pan!
ie says
Hey Katie,
Do you know if this would work with substituting beet powder for the juice? I only have the powder. I’m assuming I would up the liquid. Thanks!
Randi says
I made these today in a mini muffin tray since I don’t have a doughnut pan. They turned out really well, delicious and light and fluffy. The only “problem” is that my muffins turned out barely pink and certainly not red like your photo. The batter was redder before I baked them, no idea what happened. I used the liquid from a can of beets, could that be why? either way, they’re super yummy, and really what else matters?
Rosie says
Canned beetroots is different to beetroot juice, which is more concentrated and hence a darker colour. The canned beetroot juice is mostly water and salt. Also, colours always fade from batter to baked, natural or not. Hopefully that helps Randi!
k says
Will rolled oat flour work okay?
k says
Also, what will happen if I make these in a regular muffin pan, OR a cake pan?
k says
Just to let you all know concerning the dish apparatus- I made this in a large glass baking dish, as one uses for cakes. I also multiplied the recipe by 6.
What happened is that because I guess it takes longer to cook through as a cake, the pink color got cooked out and it ended up mostly an orangey yellow, with a slight remnant pink color spared on the very top layer. Besides the color issue, it came out great and cooked perfectly! Not too sweet at all so definitely use some type of glaze as she says! It was so delicious.
Jess says
I just made these, replacing the beet juice with cherry juice. They were delicious! I used the chocolate sauce made with coconut oil provided earlier in the post, and I absolutely loved this recipe!
Maureen Hann says
Thank you for the recipe! I am wondering why there it calls for vinegar when there is no baking soda in the recipe to react with it as a leavener (just baking powder which reacts to the oven’s heat). Some recipes use both the vinegar-soda combination and baking powder for a nice rise and tender crumb. Please advise – did you leave out the soda accidentally from the copy or is the vinegar there for another reason?
Genevieve says
Tried them tonight with buckwheat flour, they turned brown, as if I had put cacao in the mix, and they are crumbly and sand like! LOL! Not the best of idea! Will try again with another flour, hope they turn out red ok moist! Oops!!!
Richard says
These look amazing! I’ve just pinned it and I’m going to try making them for my Girlfriend tomorrow. Wish me luck, haha! Rich
Amy Stainthorpe says
Woah – these look amazing! And you’re right, perfect for a Valentines Day treat. I’ve also just seen a photo of your cauliflower crust pizza – I’m off to look at that recipe now! Thanks
Cassie Autumn Tran says
Amazing recipe as always, Katie! The beet looks absolutely vibrant in each donut!!
Molly says
Katie, I love your blog and troll it at least once a day. 🙂 I made these donuts using gluten-free all purpose flour due to having an allergy. They taste amazing, but as they baked, I noticed the beet juice colored disappeared. When I pulled them out, they were just the normal brown color. Do you think this is due to the fact that I used gf flour? Please keep the amazing recipes coming!
Cynthia says
I misread the instructions and put in a tablespoon of vinegar instead of a teaspoon. Let me tell you, the extra vinegar is NOT a good idea. Now that I see what I did wrong, I will try it again…correctly.
Mariela says
I made these to the T and they were oh my goodness!!!! delicious!. I used a combination of flour: 2/3 cup millet, almost 1/3 cup brown rice flour, finished the cup with potato starch. It worked as a charm. I used food coloring, and I dipped them in the chocolate/coconut butter/honey dip suggestion from the top of the page. Wow. Shame I have only one pan, so I made only one batch, which lasted me less than a day. I’m making more today. And ordering more doughnut pans! Thank you, Katie!
Katherine says
I’ve never used beets so I am wondering, where or how do you get beet juice?
Jason Sanford says
You can buy it at whole foods, walmart, online (jet.com, vitacost, amazon), sometimes target, or just buy beets and boil and puree them. (Or just google how to make your own beet juice)
Marry says
I’m a donut lover. The red donut stole my heart. A great recipe.
Amanda says
I would like to see the calorie count on ALL of the recipes.
Amanda says
………………. but, I LOVE this recipe!!
RKM says
Is the white glaze in the last photo coconut butter? Thanks!