I love doing baking tofu doughnuts. Not only is it a great way to use up any leftover silken tofu, but the actual doughnuts themselves have this soft, chewy texture and are the furthest thing from dry! I wanted to showcase a fun flavor combination, since I was playing around with ruby chocolate and Fruity Pebbles from another recipe, and utilize some of those components as a garnish for this one! In this case, the doughnuts are topped with a glaze made from Fruity Pebbles, and finished with a topping that was made out of ruby chocolate, tapioca maltodextrin, and Fruity Pebbles, which has this tangy, fruity flavor to it, and a buttery, crunchy texture that is very addictive. Especially against the soft doughnuts. The doughnuts themselves are egg and dairy free, while you can make the glaze dairy free using a dairy free or plant-based milk. Unfortunately, ruby chocolate cannot be made vegan at this time, and that is really the main thing keeping this recipe from being fully vegan, but you can try substituting the ruby chocolate with either of Valrhona’s Raspberry or Strawberry Inspirations(vegan fruit-puree based chocolates) for a similar-ish flavor profile, and that coupled with the milk to plant-based milk substitution in the glaze will actually result in a fully vegan recipe! The main reason why I went with ruby chocolate in this case was because the tang is more subtle and it is less tart than the red berry-based Inspirations, and that prevents the Fruity Pebbles from being overpowered. I personally love the combination of Fruity Pebbles and ruby chocolate, and after tasting this recipe, I hope you will too!

From a technical standpoint, this recipe is fairly easy. The doughnuts are baked in a doughnut baking mold, and the batter for that comes together rather easily if you own a stick blender – the tofu will need to be pureed first, just to avoid a lumpy batter. The glaze is super straightfoward too, and made even easier to make if you own a spice grinder. In the event that you don’t own a blender, a whisk and some elbow grease can help with blending up the tofu by hand, while with the Fruity Pebbles for the glaze, a ziplock bag and either a rolling pin or a heavy pot is your best friend for grinding that down. The most technical component here is easily the crunchies. You need to first make a ruby chocolate powder using ruby chocolate and tapioca maltodextrin, which will be used to coat the crunchies themselves. Then the crunchies are made by melting down more ruby chocolate, coating Fruity Pebbles in that, refrigerating that mixture, breaking that into smaller clusters, and tossing them in the powder to finish. The technique is very reminiscent of something I did back in high school for my Japanese cooking project, where we had to roll toasted bread crusts in chocolate to make these crunchy chocolate clusters. They were a delicious way to use up leftover bread, but in this case, that technique is being used to use up leftover Fruity Pebbles in a crunchy, addicting way!

Makes 8 tofu doughnuts:
For the ruby chocolate powder:
1oz ruby chocolate
1/4 cup tapioca maltodextrin

Melt down the ruby chocolate and mix with the maltodextrin to form a powder. Store in an airtight container until time to use.

For the Fruity Pebbles crunchies:
4oz ruby chocolate
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup Fruity Pebbles

Melt the ruby chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a double boiler. Mix in the salt and the Fruity Pebbles and spread the mixture onto a lined sheet tray. Freeze the mixture for 10 minutes and then break into smaller pieces. Toss the pieces in the ruby chocolate powder, as this will help keep the chocolate from weeping or sticking to any surfaces.

For the vanilla baked doughnuts:
1 cup all-purpose flour
6oz puréed silken tofu
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together into a thick batter. Transfer to a piping bag. Pipe the batter into silicone doughnut baking molds, filling each one up about 1/3 to 1/2 the way full. Bake these at 350 F for 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate until time to assemble.

For the Fruity Pebble icing:
1 cup Fruity Pebbles
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
a pinch of salt

In a blender, puree the Fruity Pebbles with sugar until combined into a fine powder. Pour into a bowl and mix with the other ingredients to form your icing.

To assemble:
Dip the cooled down doughnuts into the glaze, then press into the Fruity Pebble-ruby chocolate crunchies, and then place onto an icing rack, allowing any excess glaze to drip off.