Easy Baked Vegan Donuts that the whole family will love! They're healthier than fried donuts, and you can easily customize them to your liking by making chocolate icing, maple glaze or sprinkle donuts!
It's about time I create a vegan donut recipe! I mean gosh, I have vegan cake, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and bread, but no donuts! Talk about a crime.
I asked via an Instagram poll if people preferred maple or sprinkle donuts, and though maple won, it was very close. So, I decided to provide both options, along with chocolate icing so there's something for everyone!
Recipe features
- Light, fluffy baked donuts -- the perfect texture
- Can easily be customized to your liking to create chocolate, maple or sprinkle donuts
- The entire recipe comes together in 20 minutes, and can easily be doubled if you want a full dozen donuts rather than a half dozen
Ingredient notes:
I'm simply providing further clarification on a few of the ingredients; the full ingredient list is below in the recipe card.
Flour - I only tested this recipe with all purpose, but I'm guessing gluten free all purpose flour will work too
Coconut oil - can sub vegan butter
Milk - ANY kind -- I used almond milk
Step-by-step method
Step 1: Melt coconut oil. The first step is to melt the coconut oil, then let it cool to room temperature.
Step 2: Whisk wet ingredients. Next, whisk the room temperature coconut oil with the applesauce, milk and vanilla.
Step 3: Fold dry ingredients. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to the bowl with the wet ingredients, then use a spatula to gently fold everything together until just combined.
Step 4: Bake the donuts. Pipe or scoop the batter into your greased donut pan, then bake the donuts for 10-12 minutes until slightly golden around the edges.
FAQs and tips
- It's ok if the batter is a little lumpy -- we want to avoid over-mixing the batter or else the donuts will be too dry.
- If you want these donuts to be picture-perfect, you'll want to pipe the batter into your donut pan. I didn't do this because, well, I'm lazy, but it's an option.
- If you don't want to pipe, you'll use a spoon and your fingers to press the batter into your pan.
- To ice the donuts: make whichever icing you want, then dip each donut into the icing and place it back onto the cooling rack for a few minutes, which will allow the icing to solidify.
Truthfully, donuts taste best fresh -- preferably the same day you made them. If you're not going to eat them that day, then follow the steps below on how to freeze them.
Yes! If you want to prep the donuts ahead of time, wait for them to come to room temperature, then individually wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them. Wait to glaze the donuts until you're ready to eat/serve them. To reheat donuts, simply microwave them until warm.
More delicious vegan recipes
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Baked Vegan Donuts
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil melted and at room temperature
- ⅓ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup dairy free milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
icing options:
sprinkles
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon dairy free milk or more
- ¼ cup sprinkles
chocolate
- ⅓ cup vegan chocolate chips melted
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon dairy free milk or more
maple
- 1 teaspoon dairy free butter melted
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar or more
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a large bowl, whisk coconut oil, applesauce, milk, and vanilla together -- make sure the oil is at room temperature or else it'll solidify!
- To that same bowl, fold in the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt until just combined -- don't over-mix!
- Spray your donut pan with nonstick spray, then scoop the batter into the pan. You can pipe it in if you prefer, or you can use a spoon and your fingers to press it in.
- Bake donuts for 10-12 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, then wait 5 minutes before carefully inverting them onto a cooling rack. Wait until donuts are cool before icing them.
for the icing:
- Choose your icing option, then whisk all of the ingredients together. Dip each donut into the icing, then place it back onto the cooling rack and wait a few minutes for the icing to solidify.
Luciana says
I loved the donuts!