Light and perfectly sweet vegan donuts. Serve them covered in chocolate and sprinkles or brushed with melted vegan butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar!
I always thought donuts would be difficult to make but they’re crazy easy! They’re so easy you’re going to be wanting a permanent supply of these on hand.
They bake in 15 minutes and taste just as good as a bakery.
When they’re baked, you can decide how you want to top them! We have instructions for cinnamon sugar donuts and chocolate (and sprinkle) topped donuts.
How to make vegan donuts
It’s a simple mix of flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg for the dry ingredients, and then some soy milk, vanilla, applesauce and vegan butter (or coconut oil) for the wet ingredients. Mix it up into a batter and then divide evenly between the donut partitions on your donut trays. Bake for 15 minutes!
The only tricky thing is getting the batter into the donut partitions neatly. Using a spoon can be a little messy. The best way is actually to put the batter into a piping bag and pipe it. That way you can be quite neat. But a spoon also works!
You definitely want a donut tray for this one. You can get donut trays on Amazon and it’s ideal if you get two of them because it’s perfect to make 12 in one go. Since the donuts are quite small, doing only 6 at a time is a very small batch.
How do you know your vegan donuts are cooked?
Well, you basically want them to be lightly browned on top and for a toothpick inserted into them to come out clean, then you know they’re cooked.
Remove them from the donut tray and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before dipping in melted chocolate and sprinkles or cinnamon sugar.
Baked vs Fried
While fried donuts are great of course, what’s nice about these baked donuts is that they’re much lighter.
They’re also super easy and I suspect (I haven’t tried a homemade fried donuts version yet) that they’re much easier to make than the fried variety.
How To Store Vegan Donuts
These donuts are best when served fresh. But they can also be stored covered at room temperature for a couple of days or in the fridge for up to a week.
If you make them chocolate covered though and the weather is warm then the fridge will be the best place to store them so the chocolate doesn’t melt.
Can You Freeze Vegan Donuts?
Yes, they are freezer friendly for a couple of months. Let them thaw overnight in the fridge and warm for a few seconds in the microwave before enjoying.
Can You Make These Vegan Donuts Gluten-Free?
If you switch the all purpose flour for a gluten free all purpose flour blend that should work great.
More vegan breakfast/desserts
Baked Vegan Donuts
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 12
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Light and perfectly sweet vegan donuts. Serve them covered in chocolate and sprinkles or brushed with melted vegan butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar! Ready in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (190g) All Purpose Flour*
- 3/4 cup (150g) White Sugar
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 3/4 cup (180ml) Soy Milk*
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 5 Tbsp Vegan Butter (Melted)*
For Chocolate Topping:
- 1 cup (175g) Vegan Chocolate Chips or Chopped Vegan Chocolate
- Sprinkles
For Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
- 2 Tbsp Vegan Butter (Melted)
- 1/2 cup (50g) Sugar
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare two donut trays by spraying with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Mix together.
- Add the soy milk, vanilla, applesauce and melted vegan butter and whisk in, removing any large lumps.
- Place the donut batter into a piping bag and pipe it into the donut partitions evenly or use a spoon (but it can get messy).
- Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned on top.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring the donuts to a wire cooling rack.
- Allow to cool completely before doing the topping.
- For the chocolate topping, melt the chocolate by placing it in a microwave safe bowl and heating in 30 second intervals, bringing it out to stir every 30 seconds until completely melted. Dip the donuts into the melted chocolate and then place onto a parchment lined baking tray and use a teaspoon to add the sprinkles. When all the donuts are done, move the tray into the fridge briefly for the chocolate topping to set.
- For the cinnamon sugar topping, add the sugar and cinnamon to a bowl and mix together. Melt the vegan butter and use a brush to brush the butter onto the top of a donut and then immediately dip it into the bowl of cinnamon sugar. Place the donut onto a parchment lined tray and use a teaspoon to add more cinnamon sugar to the top of the donut. Repeat for all the donuts.
Notes
*Weigh your flour for the most accurate results.
*You can switch soy milk for almond milk if you prefer.
*The melted vegan butter for the donut batter can be replaced with melted coconut oil.
*Each topping (Chocolate or Cinnamon Sugar) is enough for a full batch of 12 donuts. If you want to do half/half then reduce the quantities for the toppings.
*Nutritional information is for a full batch of 12 with chocolate topping.
*Recipe adapted from Vegan Yum Yum.
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Donut (of 12)
- Calories: 247
- Sugar: 15.9g
- Sodium: 192mg
- Fat: 12.3g
- Saturated Fat: 5.5g
- Carbohydrates: 30.8g
- Fiber: 1.6g
- Protein: 3.4g
Keywords: vegan donuts, baked vegan donuts
*This recipe was first published in 2016 and updated in 2019 with new photos and clearer instructions.
These are so yummy! I got a donut pan and immediately wanted a vegan donut recipe and found this one. Easy to make. I didn’t have nutmeg and they turned out so yummy anyways. I made a vegan frosting of my own to put on top. Honestly though, I would eat them plain. So good! I will say, some more guidance on filling the rings would be handy (for us first timers). I put way too much batter as it turns out, so I have muffin tops on one end, and donuts on the other. Lol.
★★★★★
Thanks so much Lynn!
This was the perfect donuts to have with coffee. Comes together very easily. I followed your advice and used weighing scale – it yielded exactly enough batter to fill the 6 cavity donut pan (I only made half of original recipe) only changes I made was to reduce sugar and used 1/4 cup but given the glaze, I can cut it down even further. Other than that, perfect!! Thanks!!!
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
I’ve just made these and they are absolutely delicious! I couldn’t find applesauce, so used extra melted butter, as suggested. They are quite cake-like but so darn tasty!
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks so much for the great review Ian! 🙂
Hi from Australia! What’s applesauce please? And are there any substitutes for it? Thanks so much.
It’s like puréed apple. You can buy it in jars and it’s usually available worldwide. If you can’t get hold of it then you can use extra melted vegan butter instead.
Hello, I’ve made tons of recipes from loving it vegan and have absolutely loved all of them! I was wondering if you could pipe these out and bake them or use any alternative way without the pan? I currently don’t have one and am super excited to try this recipe!
Hi Kili, so glad you’ve enjoyed the recipes! Have you got a muffin pan? Because these can be made in a muffin pan if you don’t have a donut try but the results will of course be a little different! Unfortunately you can’t pipe them out and just bake them as they wouldn’t hold their shape.
Super doughnuts, tasted great! I specifically asked for a doughnut tray for Christmas after seeing the chocolate ones, but started with these. Yum! Really easy too. Looking forward to making the chocolate ones next. Thanks Alison.
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad they worked out well. Thanks for the wonderful review! 🙂
How can I make a chocolate donut with this recipe?
Hi Miriam, check out our recipe for vegan chocolate donuts. 🙂
Wow. 5 stars. incredibly simple and delicious. I made the cinnamon sugar version. Made it, and cleaned it up in under 30 minutes, including the topping. What a quick, but super delicious snack.
I thought the batter was a little thick, but I trusted it. I thought there was not quite enough batter, but I trusted it. I’m thankful for trust hahaha. so good.
★★★★★
Yay! Yes I love how quick and easy these are, and so glad you trusted the recipe and that it worked out great! Thanks for the wonderful review. 🙂
Wow! Thanks for this recipe!! This one didn’t work on cassava flour, but then I tried it again and use another gluten free flour and comes out perfect!
★★★★★
So happy to hear it worked out great in the end! Thanks for the awesome review. 🙂
I made the donuts today, they taste delicious but the are very crispy in the bottom. Are they supposed to be like that?
Hi Clo, I find that if I am a bit too heavy with the non-stick spray then they get the crispy bottom. Not sure if that applies but if it does you can just back off a little on how much non-stick spray you use on your donut tray and that should solve that issue.
Thanks for these vegan delicacies! I made these today on National Doughnut Day testing it for a friend’s wedding reception coming in December. The batter was a bit thick so I added 1/4 c. boiled cider. I used coconut oil instead of the vegan butter and I used coconut cream instead of the almond milk because I had it. Yum! It would increase the calorie content, but coconut milk would work, too.
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the great review Hellen. 🙂
Hey can I use almond flour instead of unbleached flour?
Hi there! I don’t think that would work at all, but if you want them gluten-free then a gluten-free all purpose baking blend is going to work best. 🙂
Hi, just wondering if i can use anything like coconut oil instead of vegan butter since zi don’t have any at the moment
Hi Caroline, yes you can use coconut oil, this is listed in the notes. 🙂
Thanks you Alison for sending me this donut that I requested. I will probably make them this week.
Awesome Claudia, hope you enjoy them! 🙂