Decadent, but secretly healthy, Dark Chocolate Walnut Doughnuts! These gluten-free, vegan, & paleo doughnuts are baked breakfast perfection! Serve them with a cup of coffee or your afternoon tea!

What’s life without some DOUGHNUTS! I haven’t shared a doughnut recipe in months! (My apologies!) To be honest, I haven’t even made them or gotten out my doughnut pan since the Fall :/ One day a few weeks ago, I was getting out a bread pan and I saw my poor little doughnut pan just sitting there (crying) in the dark cabinet. I felt bad, but I just wasn’t feeling it. That changed a couple of weeks ago (as you can tell)!

I’m glad I got that pan out. Once I made these doughnuts, I fell back in love with the baked (healthy) decadence! A nice little breakfast carb, dipped into some protein sludge. Always, always welcome in my belly 😉 So what sparked the doughnut “bug”?

SILK® NUTCHELLO™!! This is the second (of 3) recipes I’ll be sharing and this time the dark chocolate walnut Nutchello™  seemed like the perfect flavor for some doughnuts 😉 I was most excited about this flavor…doesn’t it just look delicious even in the bottle!? I thought so! That is pure dairy-free decadence! Funny thing is, as you know, walnuts are my least favorite nut. I really never even have them in the house (cashews trump all nuts. I eat cashews every day).

I’m not into shunning any nut though, and this walNUT-milk just had to be used in all its walnutty glory, regardless of my taste preferences. Baking seemed like the perfect use for such a rich and decadent vegan milk. Low-and-behold, that doughnut pan was right there waiting to be used. Milk + Doughnut Pan = baked IDEAS!

The only problem was that I had no actual walnuts in the house (oops). Lucky me, my mom happened to be at the store and I asked her to pick me up some walnuts 😉 #MomHug Actually, she was always the one to be eating walnuts in our house, but of course, the one time I NEED walnuts, there are none :/

There is something about the taste or maybe it’s the softness of walnuts that just doesn’t sit well with me. They just don’t give me the same elation that other nuts do. Haha! But, like I said, I’ve always been determined to like them and this way seemed like it would be a winner! Have you ever had a bad doughnut? I don’t think so!

Walnuts are truly the star here. If I was going walnut, I was going all out! These doughnuts have crushed walnuts INSIDE for some crunch along with that decadent dark chocolate walnut milk. Walnuts are super-duper good for your brain function too! Why? Because they look like the brain! Okay, yes, but no, haha! They do look that way, but they also contain a hefty dose of Vitamin E, folate, melatonin, omega-3s, and antioxidants, which are brain health superstars! Plus, dark chocolate is great for increasing brain function as well! These dark chocolate walnut doughnuts are HEALTHY!

I made them with the plantain method again, so these are gluten-free, vegan, and paleo! The only thing I need to tell you before you get baking is TRY not to drink the entire bottle of Nutchello™ before you even start mixing the batter. It tastes (and smells!) so good! Who would have thunk I would be such a walnut “milk” fan? 😉

Dark Chocolate Walnut Doughnuts

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Will you be baking some doughnuts today? I hope so! They do make a nice little mid-week boost! Although, is it really mid-week since we had Monday off? Eh, that probably means your in even more need of some healthy decadence (and brain power) to help you through if you’re feeling a bit sluggish. What to you say? You in?

More doughnuts?

Triple Chocolate

Gingerbread

Cinnamon Glazed Pumpkin

Apple Cinnamon Crumble

So tell me:

+ Walnut fan, semi-fan, or not so much?

+ Did you drink chocolate milk as a kid? Actually, I was a Nesquick Strawberry type of girl (pure sugar!)

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*This post was sponsored by Silk as part of an influencer activation for the #SilkCrowd and Socialstars™. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review, but all opinions are my own.