Recipe: Pork Belly Donuts (Crullers)

Continuing my previous post about Whipped Cream Cake, Fiance and I continued our culinary journey on Sunday morning with, are you ready for this?, pork. belly. donuts. Yes, you read that correctly, we made pork belly donuts. I must say that they are exactly as delicious as they sound. For those of you who don't believe me just try these and you will become a believer. Oh and of course the donuts were gluten free. See, you can have what you want. It just takes a bit of searching to find it.

 The pork belly was a little tough to find in my area but I finally found it at a local international market. For the crullers, I used the recipe from, where else?, Art of Gluten Free Baking. If you want to save yourself a little bit of time Fiance and I suggest cooking the pork belly the night before you want to make the donuts. We also suggest not cooking it until it's well done. You are going to fry* it again after all. 

I followed Jeanne's recipe to a tee. The batter is really sticky but it's simple to make. Do all your prep before you begin to put the batter together. It'll keep things running smoothly and you won't have to worry about digging for ingredients later. One thing that I don't think Jeanne mentions is how much oil you will need. She does say that you will need 3 inches of oil. I bought a large bottle of it and it wasn't quite enough. I would say go for the gallon size bottle. You'll eventually use all of it at some point anyway.  I also fried my donuts in a dutch oven. Lodge makes fabulous dutch ovens and they're easy to clean when you're done using them. 


After I finished mixing all the ingredients for the donuts I generously sprayed a few sheets of tin foil with cooking spray. Then, using a pastry bag, I piped the donuts onto the prepared foil. After the donuts were piped on I pressed a bite-sized piece of pork belly into the dough. I pushed it all the way down so that it wouldn't fall off while cooking. After that I followed the recipe for how to cook the donuts. I cooked mine for about 7 minutes but I should have let them go a little bit longer. They were a little bit doughy on the inside. No matter though, they were still delicious. 


To finish off the donuts we used the maple glaze and holy wow! The glaze tasted just like maple syrup. I can't wait to try the other glazes. 


Prep time: 15 - 20 minutes (not including cooking pork belly)
Cooking time: 6-10 minutes per batch
Yield: approximately 18, 3" donuts


Gluten Free French Cruller Ingredients:
6 TBL butter (3/4 stick; 85g) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 C (235 ml) water
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 C (175g) Gluten Free Mama Almond Blend
3 whole large or extra large eggs
2 large or extra large egg whites
Oil for frying (I use Rice Bran oil, but you can use canola or another high heat oil). I used canola

Maple Glaze**:

1/4 C (60ml) heavy whipping cream
1 TBL vanilla extract
2 tsp maple extract

2 C (240g) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar, sifted
Whisk together whipping cream and vanilla extract.  Add maple extract.  Whisk in confectioner’s sugar until smooth.


We used the back of a spoon to apply the glaze to the donuts.

Unless you plan to eat all the donuts yourself (that's a lot of donuts!) I would highly suggest inviting your friends,family, or neighbors over to join you. These donuts won't keep very long and it's best to eat them as soon as possible after you make them.  


One quick side note: I recently purchased the Gluten Free Mama Almond Blend to try it out. I wanted to find a flour that wouldn't cause the goodies to dry out too quickly. I have to say that this brand has not let me down. I still love Bob's Red Mill AP flour but if you're going to make cakes, cookies, or anything that you'd like to keep moist for longer than a day or so I recommend going with Gluten Free Mama's flour mixes. 

Bon Appetite!


*Disclaimer: These donuts, like all donuts, are not at all healthy.
** see recipe on www.artofglutenfreebaking.com for other glazes.