High Protein Berry Donuts for Former Donut Snobs

You had me at veal, Dubai.

Back in December 2019 — right before the world collectively lost its mind — our family had an eight-hour layover in Dubai on our way to India. Eight hours is not enough time to form a nuanced opinion about a sand-surrounded megacity, but it is enough time to learn one very important thing:

Dubai does breakfast exceptionally well.

Our layover started at three a.m., which meant two immediate priorities:

1. Find coffee
2. Find more coffee

And that’s how we ended up at Denny’s in the United Arab Emirates at an hour normally reserved for night farts and kitten snuggles.

After fifteen hours of flying and approximately three espresso-based drinks per person, none of us were camera-ready. There are very few photos from this portion of the trip, and honestly, that’s for the best.

By six a.m., a wildly caffeinated Hungry Mountaineer family boarded a packed Dubai Metro train and headed toward the city center, determined to experience a real Dubai breakfast. We saw the sights, including the Burj Khalifa, and then stumbled into the most veal-heavy breakfast buffet I have ever encountered in my life.

Veal sausage.
Veal eggs Benedict.
Veal deli meat in quantities that felt personal.

It took us an embarrassingly long time to realize: there is no pork in the UAE. In Dubai, veal is the luxury breakfast protein — lean, milk-fed, and culturally preferred. Back in 2019, veal was the wellness food. Who knew.

Fast-forward to life in California, where you can barely find veal at all, thanks to the audacity of Prop 12 that passed in 2018, giving farm animals more rights than small business owners, middle-class taxpayers, and anyone who’s ever tried to get a permit approved in under six months. That veal-packed Dubai breakfast now feels like something I hallucinated. Which brings me, logically, to donuts.

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Confessions of a Donut Snob

If I’m going to eat sugar and carbs that will haunt me for days, that donut better be worth it. This is why I eat donuts approximately once a year, on average.

Growing up in the ’80s, my grandmother lived near the last remaining Dunkin’ Donuts in La Habra, California. Those childhood donuts were aggressively sweet, and when Dunkin’ made its comeback in Southern California years later, I learned an important adult truth: nostalgia does not improve frosting quality.

These days, if I’m indulging, it’s usually something bougie and unnecessary. But here’s the problem: I live two hours from good donuts, and I don’t actually need a sugar bomb that delivers a two-day donut hangover.

So instead, I did what any reasonable food blogger in 2026 would do:
I mashed homegrown blackberries, covered my hands in almond flour dough, and made high protein berry donuts at home.

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Why These High Protein Berry Donuts Exist

These high protein berry donuts are my compromise between indulgence and reality. They’re:

• Protein-forward
• Breakfast-appropriate
• Still sweet enough to feel like a treat

Yes, you can deep fry them — and when you do, they turn into more ofa fritter situation, which is magical. But deep frying also means oil waste, cleanup rage, and asking myself uncomfortable questions about my life choices.

So I mostly make these air fryer protein donuts, because 2026 is exhausting and I like efficiency.

And yes — cottage cheese makes another appearance here. I buy it at Costco like I’m preparing for a dairy-based apocalypse. It adds protein, moisture, and somehow makes these donuts feel like they belong at breakfast instead of a county fair.

High Protein Berry Donuts for People Who Love Breakfast but Fear Sugar

These are still donuts. They still contain sugar. You can swap in alternative sweeteners if you want — but if I’m going to eat a donut, I want it to taste like a donut, not a protein bar in disguise.

1 cup of organic sugar

1/2 cup of blackberries

1/4 cup of Cottage cheese

1 cup of almond flour

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

3 teaspoons of almond milk or regular milk

3 teaspoons freeze-dried berries, blitzed up in your NutriBullet

Coconut oil for deep frying

In your NutriBullet, combine the cottage cheese and the blackberries. Blitz until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and add in the vanilla, sugar and cinnamon. Mix in your almond flour and form into your favorite donut shape. Spray them with coconut oil spray.

If I’m going to get boujie and fry these High Protein Berry Donuts, then I prefer to fry these in my Dutch oven. But most the time, I mix up this easy batter and just bake them for 20-25 minutes at 350 in my air fryer.

While you are cooking your donuts, in your Nutribullet where you already blitzed the freeze-dried berries, add your milk choice and powdered sugar. Combine until very smooth. Set aside. When your High Protein Berry Donuts are cooked, let them cool for five minutes, then dunkthem  in the smooth frosting. Set them aside for just a few minutes before shoving these High Protein Berry Donuts at your face.