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Hi guys, I'm Talia Chai and I'm a registered holistic nutritionist and I am here in the
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Hearty Soul kitchen and today I'm going to show you how to make healthy candy apple donuts
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Don't be intimidated by the title, they're gluten free, they're dairy free and there's
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a lot of nutrients in them even though they're a delicious treat. First step is we are going to make a caramel sauce out of dates
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Really rich in fiber and a ton of other minerals like calcium and phosphorus
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The reason why they're the perfect thing to use instead of sugar and caramel is because
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they have this natural amazing caramel flavor. Normally dates are pretty dry unless they're those really ooey gooey medjool dates
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These are not medjool dates. You're just going to soak them in hot water for like 10 minutes
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It'll make them a million times easier to blend. You'll see. Take your soaked dates, plop them in your food processor and then take a cup's worth
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of soaking water to help them blend. I'm going to add some pure vanilla extract and a pinch of sea salt
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And then last but not least, some raw virgin coconut oil. The reason why I like to do that is because it helps to give it like a glossy sheen so
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it just has this beautiful caramel like texture. Process. It's going to be a while
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You want to get it as smooth and creamy as you can
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So as you can see here, it's not exactly the same as like a gooey caramel texture just
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because the ingredients are so different, but it tastes almost exactly the same
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There you go. Refined sugar free caramel. So easy, right? Yes. Next, what we're going to do is I'm going to prep the apples
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So you're just going to cut the apple crosswise like this into like quarter inch thick little slices
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Err on the side of them being a little bit thicker versus a little bit thinner so that
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they're just easier to work with. The apple slices are going to make up the dough part of our doughnuts, which is pretty
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amazing, right? Like completely flour and wheat free. So we have these gorgeous apple rings and apples, as I'm sure a lot of you guys know
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are really rich in both soluble and insoluble fiber as well. And they are a really, really, really, really healthy alternative to using any type of dough
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So I line them up like this and then what I do is I take like a one and a half or one
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inch cookie cutter. So all you're going to do is go into the center of each apple circle and just pop out the
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little middle that comes out. So that's pretty cool, huh? So this is like a perfect circle with a perfect circle inside
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Looks really professional, but it's so easy to do. Also a side note, this would be a great recipe to make with kids because they can get their
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hands in and like get involved and I think it'd be a really fun one
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And I'm going to spoon out some of this gorgeous day caramel into one out of every pair
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It's okay if it gets a bit messy. I'm going to tell you right now, it's going to get a bit messy
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Okay, so these are all lined up with the caramel on top
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I'm going to take the matching slice and just put it on top
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Make a little cute sandwiches. And then the fun part comes where we get to dip these into melted chocolate
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When you're going to be using chocolate to make it healthier, I would definitely recommend using chocolate that has at least 70% cocoa solids or higher
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There's more fiber in it, there's less sugar, and it's a less processed chocolate, so you're
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actually getting some of the minerals in the chocolate. Real chocolate is really rich in magnesium, it's really rich in iron, and you get to consume
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all of those benefits. So it kind of makes chocolate healthy. Whenever I melt chocolate, I like to melt it with a little bit of coconut oil because
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it gives it, once again, that glossy sheen at the end, and it just makes it a little
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bit thinner and easier to work with. So I'm going to place the coconut oil into the bowl of chocolate chips
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What I'm going to do is take you to the stove area
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And over here, I have a little pot that has some water in it, and it's simmering
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So I've placed this in a stainless steel bowl so it's completely heat-proof and safe
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and I'm just going to place it on top. You don't want it to be too hot
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It's on low. You just want to make sure that the bottom of this bowl is not actually touching the
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water beneath it because that's going to create too much contact and too much heat, and it
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could burn the chocolate. You just want it to sit above, and basically it's a lot of steam coming in and heating
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the chocolate that way. It's 80% done. I just turned off the heat
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Grab a towel. It can get mighty hot. I'm going to place this on the counter right over here
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You can see there's still a couple of chunks, like chocolate chips, that haven't fully melted
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but that's exactly where I want it to be. And now you can see them just gently fully melting
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Look at how glossy this is. Oh yeah. Perfectly melted chocolate, if I do say so myself
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I'm going to take an apple ring like this, and I'm going to drop it into the chocolate
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and I'm just going to gently push it down, smear the chocolate around on top to make
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sure it's fully coated. And then you want to have a parchment lined baking sheet or board or whatever you'd like
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ready to go because you kind of want to move somewhat fast at this point
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So make sure it's fully coated in the chocolate. I'm going to slide the fork underneath and gently lift
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How good does this look? I know. And then I'm just going to let the excess, do a little bounce it in like this, let the
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excess drip off because we don't need to go crazy. And I'm just going to gently place it on the mat and splatter it all around because it's
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more fun that way. Okay, so that's done. And now I'm going to do the exact same thing with the rest of them
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Okay, next comes the fun part. So think candy apples, right? You have your crisp apple coated with like caramel and chocolate
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What is the essential part that's missing? Crunch, right? Yes. So what we're going to do for crunch, instead of toffee or something unhealthy or sugary
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I'm just going to use almonds. So just nuts. What I like to do is toast them myself because I don't like buying nuts that have like added
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oils and salt and all this other stuff that is not necessary at all
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And then just chop them up on your cutting board. And you have fully chopped toasted nuts
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This adds so much flavor, crunch, texture. And all I'm going to do is sprinkle them on top
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Oh my goodness. This is the best part, I think. So we have our beautiful candy apple donuts
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That was not too complicated, right? Pop these in the freezer to set
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You want to pop them in until the chocolate is fully solid
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I'd say like 20 to 30 minutes, probably a solid half hour is something good to prepare for
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You could even make them ahead and do it overnight. And then I'm going to take them out and show you what they look like
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All right, so you patiently waited 20 to 30 minutes. Pop them out of the freezer and this is what they look like
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They are so good. I can't wait for you to see this. Just a couple of tips here
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I would transfer them from the freezer to the fridge after they've set so that they're
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not frozen when you're eating them and they're more just freshly chilled and perfectly set
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with the chocolate. So if you're going to do that, just throw them in the fridge for about an hour before
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you serve them or before you're ready to eat them and then they'll be perfect
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Then I would get some date caramel. You're going to have a lot of extra
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Put it in a bowl so you can dunk them. I'm going to cut this in half so you have like perfect cute little halves
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They're adorable. And I'm actually going to cut this one into a quarter just because this is on camera and
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I'm a really messy eater. And take your caramel, do a little dunky dunk
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So good. Also really cold because these are right out of the freezer, but they're delicious and
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they're chocolatey and crunchy and amazing. Please let us know how it goes, how creative you got, how you liked it
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We'll see you on the next one. Thanks for watching, guys