The best thing about these vegan baked doughnuts are just how easy they are to make using everyday ingredients. This version is filled with warm spices and topped with a sweet and sticky maple and coconut oil glaze.
Baked doughnuts are one of the quickest and easiest treats to make, and are also one of my favourite things to eat as I often find myself having consumed several before I have even finished taking my photographs.
While I have a few doughnut recipes already that are all dairy-free, I realised I didn’t yet have a vegan version. So today I present my favourite doughnut recipe modified to remove the egg and still result in a light and cakey (and delicious) baked doughnut.
Before I make a recipe, I always take a look on the internet and see what recipes are around. When looking for vegan doughnut recipes, the main ingredient that I found which was used to replace the egg was applesauce. These were all American recipes of course, as in Australia we don’t really use applesauce too much in baking (nor have I ever had any in my pantry).
For this reason I knew I wanted to make sure that this recipe didn’t require any ingredients that would need to be bought specifically for this recipe. Vegan and dairy-free baking to me should still be simple with real pantry ingredients and that’s exactly what we have ended up with here.
Ingredients in vegan maple doughnuts
The ingredients in this recipe are pretty much what you expect with most of them hopefully already hiding in your pantry.
- Homemade buttermilk – for this recipe we use a homemade buttermilk to help give the doughnuts some of the softness that we would expect from a baked good that contains egg. I like to use almond milk and white vinegar, but you could also use apple cider vinegar and soy or oat milk if that’s what you have available.
- Plain flour – the structure and base of your doughnut.
- Baking powder – helps the doughnuts rise and keeps them light.
- Spices – nutmeg and cinnamon here gives the doughnuts their flavour while salt helps enhance it.
- Brown sugar – brown sugar gives these doughnuts a rich, caramel flavour which is so delicious. White sugar would work instead, but you will lose a lot of the flavour that makes these doughnuts so good.
- Vanilla extract – further adding to the flavour profile of these doughnuts.
- Coconut oil – the fat which helps bind the doughnuts together with the absence of egg while also providing moisture so that they don’t dry out. You could use vegetable oil or canola instead with a similar result.
How to make vegan baked doughnuts
Start by making your homemade buttermilk by mixing the vinegar with the milk and setting it aside to curdle. Next add all of your dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk to combine. Finally in a large bowl, add your brown sugar, vanilla and melted coconut oil to a bowl and whisk.
To this large bowl slowly add in the milk and whisk until all mixed through, then slowly add in the dry ingredients, mixing completely before adding in more.
Once you have your batter, add it to a piping bag or zip lock bag to make things easy and fill a doughnut pan, that has been lightly greased with cooking spray, about half full. This batter makes about 8 doughnuts but it will depend on the size of your pan.
Bake the doughnuts in a preheated oven for 8 minutes or until they bounce back when lightly touched. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.
If like me you only have one 6 whole doughnut pan, then just turn out the doughnuts once they have cooled in the pan for a couple of minutes and wash it out with warm soapy water and rinse with cold water. Prepare the pan again with oil spray and fill the with the remaining batter.
Making the maple glaze
To make the glaze we use just 4 ingredients; icing sugar, maple syrup, coconut oil and almond milk.
Start by mixing together your maple syrup and coconut oil. Make sure you are using good quality, pure maple syrup here as it 100% makes a difference.
To this mix, slowly add in your icing sugar a little at a time, whisking completely between each addition. As the glaze starts to thicken add in a little of the milk to thin it out. Keep going until all the milk and icing sugar have been added. You should have a glaze that is thin enough to drizzle but will still coat the back of a spoon.
Dunk the top of the doughnuts into the glaze and then let sit on a wire rack (I like to put a sheet of baking paper underneath to catch all the excess drips and help the cleaning up process), and let the glaze set. Double dip the doughnuts if you want (I do!).
For the doughnuts in the photos, I also tossed some walnuts in the excess glaze to add for decoration, but this is totally optional.
I did try and make this glaze originally with vegan butter instead of coconut oil and did not like the taste so I do not recommend any substitutes for the glaze.
Once you start making doughnuts you’ll love how quickly they come together and because this recipe only makes 8, it’s the perfect small batch recipe so that you don’t have huge amounts of leftovers.
These doughnuts also freeze well, so just put them in an airtight container in a single layer and freeze for about 2 months. Take them out as you want to eat them and let come to room temp or zap for a few seconds in the microwave to get that really fresh doughnut taste.
Next time you are looking for something really simple to make that is sure to impress, I highly recommend getting your hands on a doughnut pan and making a batch of these. It will be a worthwhile investment to your baking collection I guarantee!
If you do make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and rating below! And tag any of your creations on Instagram with #eightforestlane as I would love to see.
Vegan Maple Glazed Doughnuts
Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
- ½ cup vanilla almond milk
- ½ tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted and cooled
For the maple glaze:
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and lightly spray a doughnut pan with cooking oil.
- In a small bowl, add the vanilla almond milk and vinegar and mix. Set aside. In a medium size bowl add flour, baking powder, spices and salt and mix gently with a whisk to combine. In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, melted coconut oil and vanilla.
- Add the milk mixture to the sugar and coconut oil and whisk to combine. Slowly add in the dry ingredients bit by bit, whisking in between each addition 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.
- Place in the oven and bake for 8 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in the pan for 2 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the glaze. Mix together the coconut oil and maple syrup. Add in the icing sugar, a little at a time whisking completely between each addition. Slowly add in the milk to thin the glaze. You want the glaze to be thick but still runny enough to coat the doughnuts.
- Dunk the top of each doughnut into the glaze and then place on a wire rack with a piece of baking paper under it to collect any excess glaze that drips off and set aside until the glaze has set. Store the doughnuts in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Notes
More doughnuts recipes:
Baked Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
Glazed Baked Doughnuts
Biscoff Baked Doughnuts
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sherry says
i love baked doughnuts. so much easier than the regular kind. and you can’t go wrong with maple syrup.
Sally says
I couldn’t agree more!