I recently worked with The Groovy Food Company, creating a recipe using one of their newest products: Virgin Coconut Oil infused with Turmeric. This time around it’s all about their Organic Creamed Coconut, which I couldn’t wait to try as I’m obsessed with all things coconut – to eat and any form of toiletry!
Made from the freshest unsweetened coconut meat and pulverised to create a rich, deliciously sweet, creamy paste, the creamed coconut provides a great plant-based alternative to milks and creams.
A versatile kitchen essential, a simple spoonful can be combined with water to make a coconut milk or coconut cream or used as a replacement for desiccated coconut. It is delicious added to drinks and used in shakes, and is also a great cooking ingredient, adding a rich aroma and flavour to many dishes: from curries to sauces, bakes to cakes.
The Groovy Food Company’s Creamed Coconut is sourced from Soil Association certified organic coconut plantations in South East Asia and is a greener alternative to ready-made coconut milks, as each 500g jar of creamed coconut is the equivalent to five cans of coconut milk, meaning less packaging and less waste; as you can make as much as you need.
My challenge was to re-create something from their selection of recipes and I went with the awesome-sounding Chocolate Cake Donuts – yum! I actually modified it slightly though to make it vegan (leaving out the original egg) as I personally prefer the texture without them. I added cacao nibs and extra desiccated coconut on top of the icing for extra crunch and flavour, but you could add whatever you want. Chocolate + coconut = a match made in heaven!
Ingredients:
- 150g self-raising flour (I used Dove’s Farm gluten-free)
- 40g cocoa powder (I used Indigo Herbs cacao)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- Pinch of Salt
- 120mls The Groovy Food Company Organic Creamed Coconut
- 175 g The Groovy Food Company Organic Coconut Sugar
- 1 large egg (I added 1 flax egg with Linwoods flaxseed)
- 3 tbsp The Groovy Food Company Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, melted if solid
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 230g icing sugar
- 2 tbp coconut milk
- Sprinkles or chopped nuts, as desired (I used cacao nibs and desiccated coconut)
Method:
- Heat oven to 164°C and grease the doughnut pan.
- Set a sieve over a large bowl and add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift, and then fold together for even distribution.
- In a smaller bowl, whisk the creamed coconut, coconut sugar, [flax]egg, coconut oil, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix with a whisk or wooden spoon until everything is blended. The batter will be thick.
- Spoon batter into a piping bag (or into a large re-sealable plastic bag with the corner cut off) and pipe into the greased doughnut pan, making sure to not overfill. Alternatively, you can spoon the batter into the pan.
- Bake for 13 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Cool the doughnuts in the pan for 3 minutes, and then carefully turn the doughnuts onto a rack to finish cooling.
- Once the donuts are completely cooled, make the glaze. In a small bowl, combine the icing sugar and 2 tablespoons creamed coconut. If you’d like a thinner glaze, add more milk, and if too thin, add more icing sugar.
- Place a rack over a baking sheet to catch any drippings. Once by one, dip the cooled doughnuts into the glaze and allow excess to drip back into the bowl. Place on the rack and top with sprinkles. Allow the doughnuts to sit for an hour or two to let the glaze dry before eating.
