These crumb cake doughnuts are infused with the flavours of earl grey tea and have a buttery, crunchy topping and a drizzle of vanilla glaze, just like your favourite crumb cake. They are so simple to make and take less than 10 minutes in the oven.
I really love baking doughnuts. I always seem to have all of the ingredients in my pantry just ready to go, and I love how many different flavour combinations there are.
Already on my website you’ll find;
- Baked Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
- Biscoff Baked Doughnuts
- Glazed Baked Doughnuts
- Vegan Maple Glazed Doughnuts
If this doesn’t convince you yet that a doughnut pan is a must have in your baking tool kit, then let me tell you about today’s version; crumb cake doughnuts infused with the flavour of earl grey tea and finished with a vanilla glaze.
This version is inspired by the humble coffee cake, which usually doesn’t have coffee added as a flavour but rather represents the act of eating the cake with a cup of coffee. These doughnuts are exactly what you would expect to serve with a morning tea, but I’ve taken it a step further and actually added tea to the doughnut batter.
So whatever you beverage of choice; tea or coffee or maybe a hot chocolate, these are the perfect sweet accompaniment.
How to make crumb cake doughnuts
There are three parts to this recipe; the doughnut batter, the crumb topping and the sweet glaze to finish them off.
We start by heating the dairy-free milk (I like to use almond, but any works here) so that it’s warm, and then adding in the tea bag to infuse all the delicious flavours of earl grey into the milk. This is going to give our doughnuts a fantastic flavour. Set this aside to steep and the milk to cool to room temperature.
Next, make the crumb topping. Add your flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and cold dairy-free butter to a small bowl and mix it together with a fork until it resembles a crumb. You may also like to get your hands in here to rub the butter into the flour to help this process.
From here, put this bowl in the fridge. We want to make sure the crumb is nice and cold when we add it to the doughnuts to make sure it doesn’t sink into the doughnut batter and rather forms a nice crunchy top.
Finally, bake the doughnut batter. Nothing fancy here, just mix the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients and then combine the two.
Once you have a nice thick batter, add it to a ziplock bag or a piping bag and snip off the tip. This is going to help you get the batter neatly and evenly into the greased doughnut pan.
Fill the pan halfway with the batter, then top with the crumb mixture. Bake for about 9 minutes. When you pull the doughnuts out the top will still be soft so you’ll need to let them sit for about 10 minutes until the top firms up and gets crunchy. Gently turn them out onto a wire rack.
Repeat this step of baking if like me you only have a 6 hole doughnut pan as this recipe yields 8 doughnuts in total.
Make your glaze by whisking together the icing sugar, vanilla and warm water until smooth and creamy. Drizzle over the top of the cooled doughnuts.
These doughnuts are best eaten straight away while the tops are super crunchy, as after time they will soften. They will still taste great but you wont get that textured crunch.
Because these doughnuts come together and bake so quickly, they are an easy treat to whip up just before guests arrive and I guarantee they will love to be greeted with the smell of freshly baked doughnuts. I mean seriously, who wouldn’t!
So if you’re looking for something to bake that tastes delicious but wont have you in the kitchen for hours, then this is the perfect recipe for you. It’s so simple to make and the perfect recipe for beginners.
More recipes for morning tea:
Blueberry Almond Crumb Cake (Gluten-Free)
Easy Cinnamon Tea Cake
Chai Spiced Tea Cake
Melting Moments
Crumb Cake Doughnuts
Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
- ½ cup dairy-free milk
- 1 earl grey teabag
- 1 ¼ cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg room temperature
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
For the crumb topping:
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons dairy-free butter
For the vanilla glaze:
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and lightly spray a doughnut pan with cooking oil.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, heat the milk until warm and add the earl grey tea bag. Sit aside and let steep.
- In a small bowl, make the crumb topping by mixing together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and dairy-free butter with a fork until a crumb-like texture forms. Set aside in the refrigerator to keep cold.
- In a medium size bowl add flour, baking powder, and salt and mix gently with a whisk to combine.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, vanilla and oil. Add in dry ingredients and mix through, slowly adding in the dairy-free milk that’s been infused with the earl grey tea, until the batter is smooth.
- Pour batter into a large piping bag or ziplock bag and cut off the tip. Pipe the batter into the doughnut pan ensuring each hole is only half full. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top in an even layer.
- Place in the oven and bake for 9 minutes or until cooked through. Let the doughnuts cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes (until the top get’s crunchy) before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the glaze, whisk together all the ingredients until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the doughnuts. These doughnuts are best eaten the day of baking as after that the crunch topping can go soft.
Notes
Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
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