Air Fried Cinnamon Sugar Bread Bites

The perfect air fried fluffy dough bites surrounded by a sweet “cinnamon sugar” coating. HELLO. This recipe is also totally grain-free, refined-sugar-free, & gluten-free too!

A Grain-Free Sweet Snack Recipe!

Made with a blend of almond flour, tapioca flour, and coconut flour, these dough bites are completely grain and gluten-free!

Since I’ve started following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to manage my severe ulcerative colitis symptoms, I still haven’t gone back to the grains. Honestly, with recipes like this one, I don’t see myself going back any time soon! Even after being “in remission”, I still follow the SCD loosely and stick to a Paleo-based way of eating (with the addition of a few fermented dairy & soy products).

Link: “How I Started Adding Non-SCD Foods Back Into My Diet“

Link: SCD Legal/Illegal List

These sweet, grain-free cinnamon sugar bites are so fluffy that it’s hard to believe they’re made out of nut flour!

Baking with Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is one of those fermented dairy products that I eat frequently now. Plain Greek yogurt is packed with gut healthy probiotics and protein. It also has a very low amount of sugar (and no added sugar) so it’s been a win-win for me to keep it in my diet to keep my ulcerative colitis symptoms at bay!

PLUS Greek yogurt is magical to bake with! Trust me, it’s incredibly hard to make nuts into fluffy, bread-like dough bites…

So here’s the deal with Greek yogurt: it has a lot of life in it. What “life” am I talking about might you ask?

Because there are so many alive, respiring bacteria cultures in yogurt (aka probiotics) they emit a lot of carbon dioxide, like we do! The carbon dioxide gas gets trapped in each little ball of dough in the air frier to create fluffy pockets of gas as it bakes. In addition, the natural acidity of the yogurt activates baking soda to also release carbon dioxide gases. In other words, between the two of these things, you’ll most likely wind up with a soft & bite of heaven!

Personally, I also love the slight tangy flavor it has to balance out the sweetness of desserts! Greek yogurt also packs a healthy protein punch, so I feel like it helps keep me fuller for longer. Like I said before, its a win-win situation when it comes to adding this ingredient into recipes!

Sugar-Free Cinnamon Sugar?

What about the cinnamon sugar?! How is that paleo/SCD-friendly?!

I don’t think its a secret anymore- everyone knows that refined sugar is the most likely culprit when it comes to chronic diseases. Not only is processed sugar void of any and all potential nutrients BUT it’s even been shown to be highly inflammatory in several studies. With that said, this is how this story is thought to work:

• Excess dietary sugar needs to be stored in the body.
• To do this, the liver starts to create fatty acids from scratch (de novo synthesis)- since that’s the most efficient way to store “leftover” energy for later.
• Creating these fatty acids from scratch often results in free fatty acid metabolites (FFA’s), which are highly reactive to produce “free radicals” in the body.
• “Free radicals” are reactive oxygen molecules that can cause many different metabolic reactions to happen- which can be highly inflammatory when they all happen at once.

The end! Given, that was highly simplified. But all the big ideas are there!

• Link: “Effect of Dietary Sugar Intake on Biomarkers of Subclinical Inflammation” (Corte and others, 2018).
• Link: “Dietary sugars, not lipids, drive hypothalamic inflammation” (Gao and others, 2017).
• Link: “High Intake of Sugar and the Balance between Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Gut Bacteria” (Satokari, 2020).

Especially for anyone else struggling with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or any other chronic disease, I personally believe that removing sources of added sugar from your diet will be a game changer!

Speaking of game changers, lets talk monk fruit!

I used monk fruit, a paleo-approved natural nonnutritive sweetener, for the sweet cinnamon coating on these bites! All you have to do is mix a couple tablespoons of monk fruit with a tablespoon of cinnamon. SO EASY. To make it better, monk fruit is about 200 times sweeter than regular table sugar (sucrose), so you don’t have to use as much to get the same flavor!

A Healthy Air Fryer Recipe!

Perfect for game days, a post-workout snack, or even a healthy breakfast! These little bites are sweet, chewy, and fluffy on the inside with a slightly crispy outside- no deep fryer needed.

For real though, I’m the air fryer’s number one fan.

In fact, I just leave it on the countertop ready to go in my apartment! I cook everything from veggies to meatballs to fun desserts in my air fryer. Literally anything I can get my hands on!

How to Make Cinnamon Sugar Bites:

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Step 2: Add in the Plain Greek yogurt, honey, & vanilla extract. Stir until a thick dough forms.

Step 3: Use a tablespoon to scoop out evenly sized balls of dough. Roll each one lightly between the palms of your hands to smooth. Place in the air fryer basket and cook for 8 minutes at 325F.

Step 4: While the dough bites are baking, make the cinnamon sugar mixture. Combine monk fruit sweetener with cinnamon and sea salt in a small dish and set aside. Melt the coconut oil in a separate small dish.

Step 5: Roll each one of the bites in the melted coconut oil followed by the cinnamon sugar mixture. Enjoy warm! (Or store in the freezer and warm them up as needed).

Optional: drizzle with a coconut butter glaze.

More of My Favorite Greek yogurt Recipes:

• Frozen “Peanut Butter Island” Dessert
• SCD Mediterranean Tuna Cakes
• Paleo No-Bake Pumpkin Pie
• Single-Serve Cinnamon Rolls

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