Peanut Butter Banana Protein Donuts

January 24, 2019 By Leanne 64 Comments

Peanut Butter Banana Protein Donuts are soft and fluffy, with a hint of banana and topped with a thick chocolate peanut butter glaze. They’re also gluten-free and dairy-free, and made with wholesome ingredients. Perfect for that mid-afternoon sugar craving!

Happy National Peanut Butter Day! AKA, the best food holiday ever!

It’s been a while since I shared a peanut butter recipe with you guys, so I thought today was the perfect day to break out these Peanut Butter Banana Protein Donuts.

I’m also teaming up with some other peanut butter loving food bloggers today to celebrate all things peanut butter. Be sure to check out the links at the end of this post to see all the fantastic peanut butter themed recipes being shared today.

I have a few protein donut recipes on the blog already, and they’re all pretty popular. But they all have a seasonal theme – pumpkin, gingerbread, carrot cake. You get the picture. So I thought it was time to share a donut recipe that was perfect for any time of year. And what’s more appropriate for year round enjoyment than peanut butter and banana?!

What are Protein Donuts?

Okay, this is pretty simple to answer. It’s a donut loaded up with protein. Also called pronuts, if you’re into trendy names. I’m not exactly trendy, so I’ll just stick to calling them protein donuts.

While I change-up many of the ingredients in my protein donut recipes, some of them are pretty consistent, like vanilla protein powder. It’s just a quarter of a cup added to the recipe, but it’s enough to add a touch of sweetness and a little extra protein.

Some other protein donut staples include eggs, almond flour, buckwheat flour, oats, nuts and/or nut butter. Adding some of these to your recipe also helps boost the protein in your donuts and makes them more filling.

Perhaps the best part about protein donuts is that they’re typically healthier. At least in my house. No refined sugar (except for some dark chocolate) and only wholesome ingredients. So when the sweet tooth strikes, these donuts do the trick!

Reasons to love these Peanut Butter Banana Protein Donuts:

They’re baked, not fried. Yay! (also see ‘wholesome’ and ‘healthier’ above!)

The banana adds sweetness and moisture, without overpowering the donuts.

The texture is perfectly fluffy and cakey, just like legit donuts!

Since they’re made with buckwheat flour and almond flour, they’re gluten-free.

And with almond milk and dairy-free chocolate chips, they’re also dairy-free.

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE GLAZE –> all caps because you’re going to want to slather this on everything!

Tips for making Peanut Butter Banana Protein Donuts:

To keep these donuts gluten-free, be sure to use gluten-free protein powder. And to keep them dairy-free, use dairy-free protein powder and chocolate chips.

This recipe makes 12 mini-donuts. If you only have a 6-cavity pan that makes larger donuts, just increase the baking time.

This recipe makes quite a bit of batter. I like to fill each donut cavity to the top with batter, and make extra-large mini donuts. This results in some of the donut holes getting covered up as the batter rises. If you want smaller donuts, you can spread the batter out into another pan to make about 18 smaller donuts. Just reduce the baking time by a few minutes.

Make sure your bananas are super ripe as they will be sweeter and easier to mash. If you want to ripen your bananas quickly, check out these three ways by The Spruce Eats.

I used natural smooth peanut butter as I didn’t want peanuts in the donuts, and I wanted the glaze to be smooth. If you use crunchy peanut butter, it will change the texture.

And if you use natural peanut butter with added salt, you may wish to eliminate the added salt in the donut recipe.

Other peanut butter recipes you might like:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mocha Nice Cream Pops

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Mounds

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cookie Cups

Apparently, I’ve only ever thought to pair peanut butter with chocolate! So this peanut butter banana combo is long overdue!

What are your favourite peanut butter recipes? Fill me in. I’m always looking for new ones to try!