There are many things I never plan to eat again - real donuts and Canadian "timbits" are on that list. I have never been much o...

There are many things I never plan to eat again - real donuts and Canadian "timbits" are on that list. I have never been much of a donut person. I always thought they were too rich for me - I mean they're deep fried cake! I only liked baked Entaminns donuts as a kid because they were more like little cakes than what I knew as donuts. My parents couldn't even convince me to go into donut shops on road trips because I was always too nauseated by the smell.





Fast forward to 2014 and I am suddenly intrigued by donuts. Why? I blame impossibly cute mini donut pans and countless delicious vegan donut recipes sweeping the blog world. Today I have a treat for fitness freaks, vegans and donut lovers alike -- healthy vegan donut holes that are raw and totally delicious!





To be honest, these donut holes were an accident. I wanted to experiment with dried figs. I never use figs but I love fig newton's so why not?! I have made many desserts with dates and coconut and love them so I thought it was worth blending my figs, some dates and coconut together for a new tasty mixture. Well, can you say fucking awesome? I can! Fucking awesome. The figs and dates really balance each other out in a great way. I took the mixture over the top with some virgin coconut oil. As I ate spoonfuls of the mix I kept thinking, 'man this tastes like amazing granola'. I fully recommend eating it that way too, by the way!





I have been served many tasty raw "cookie balls" over the years. I always like them but often find they are too sticky and too sweet for my taste -- no doubt they were mostly dates or raisins. When I blended up this mixture I decided to try rolling it into balls. I left the finished balls out in room temperature for about an hour after rolling them. The extra time helped them dry up a little and when I bit into them I was flooded with memories of timbits! They really taste like donut holes! And their texture is surprisingly similar to real donut holes (not too dry, not too moist, just right). The first version reminds me a little of sour cream glazed donut holes.

After my successful experiment I wanted to try out another flavor. Chocolate! The mix is nearly the same only I added a little 100% cocoa powder and a touch of maple syrup and a little more coconut and coconut oil. To keep these raw try cacao paste and coconut syrup instead of cocoa and maple.

Once rolled and left in room temperature an hour, these little donut holes became my favorites by far! They remind me of chocolate coconut timbits -- which were one of the only flavors I liked as a kid.





Since I started experimenting with these little bliss balls last week I have gone a little (ok, totally) mental and created a gazillion flavors. Today's recipes are for plain and chocolate 'bare' donut holes but stay tuned to Baking Backwards for some crazy glazed donuts to come!

You need to make these! They're so easy, healthy and delicious you can eat them for breakfast!

‘Bare’ Raw Timbits (Vanilla) (gluten-free, grain-free, paleo, naturally sweetened, nut-free, vegan) 3 dried figs

9-11 pitted dates (about 65g)

pinch pink salt

1 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tsp maple syrup (optional)

1.5 tsp coconut oil

½ tsp vanilla extract (optional) Add all ingredients to food processor and blend until crumbly. At this stage you can eat the mixture as cereal or roll into little balls. For balls with a creamier texture, blend a little longer until the crumbs come together like a dough and then roll into balls. For each ball I use 1 heaping teaspoon of the dough.



