[ makes 4 giant ones, 8 medium or 12 bite-size ]
Dough:
2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup cashews, preferably soaked for 4 hours then rinsed
2/3 cup pitted dates
1/8 teaspoon Himalayan salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Glaze:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon vanilla powder
To make the dough: grind all the ingredients into a thick, moist dough in a high speed blender or food processor. This may take several minutes. If it’s still too crumbly, add some more dates or a tablespoon of coconut oil or water. Roll into balls and put in the freezer until cold and firm, around 20 minutes.
To make the glaze: melt the coconut oil on low heat, turn off the heat then whisk in the syrup and vanilla. It will take a second or two but pretty quickly it’ll combine into a thin caramel-y consistency. Dip the solid donut holes into the glaze, covering each one completely. Put them back in the freezer until the glaze has hardened, then repeat until you use up all the glaze (you will probably have to re-whisk the glaze every time before re-dipping). I dipped them and put them back in the freezer three times total. Store the donut holes in the fridge for up to a week.
NOTES: I used pitted, dried Deglet Nour dates that were still quite gooey; I’d recommend using these because they provide an amazing moist caramel-y flavour and sweetness, but any date will do. You can replace cashews with any other nut, seed or dried coconut meat. You can replace rolled oats with buckwheat groats, dried coconut meat or more cashews. You can replace vanilla powder with vanilla extract.
Source: https://www.thisrawsomeveganlife.com/2016/03/raw-vegan-donut-holes-vanilla-caramel.html