Trust me, your home will smell like a freaking bakery when you have these turning all fluffy and golden in the oven.

Get fancy and deck them out in all your favourite sprinkles, rock candies, vegan meringue kisses, and gold shimmer as well as freeze-dried fruit powders because why the hell not?!

Ingredients and equipment you need

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Sugar
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Almond extract
• Aquafaba (water from a can of unsalted chickpeas or white beans) Plant milk (any – I like to use almond or soy)
• Flavourless oil (any – I like to use sunflower)
• Apple cider vinegar
• Icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)
• Water Gel food colours (I use Wilton)
• Decorations of your choice (I used sprinkles, rock candy, vegan meringue kisses in blush pink, gold leaf/gold shimmer and freeze-dried raspberry powder).
• 2x mini doughnut baking tins like this one
• Cooking spray

How to make The Best Baked Vegan Vanilla Doughnuts

Tips for making Baked Vegan Doughnuts

I like to use a piping bag to pipe the batter into the doughnut tin but you can also use a teaspoon or ziplock/sandwich bag. Simply cut a hole in one corner and pipe the batter into the pan. Be careful not to overfill the pan cavities because the holes in the middle will close up. Easy, right?

The Best Baked Vegan Vanilla Doughnuts are perfect for making with little ones. They will love dipping and decorating. Make them for parties or take them along to any get together. In fact, they are super for making with kids!

How to store

These vegan doughnuts are best eaten the same day. However, they can be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. You can freeze the unglazed doughnuts for up to 3 months. Be sure to seal them well in an airtight container (Tupperware, for example) lined with baking parchment.

Flavour ideas for Vegan Doughnuts

Besides vanilla, there’s a whole other host of flavours you can try. If vanilla isn’t your thing, switch the vanilla extract for any of the following:

• Grated zest of one orange and/or lemon for vegan citrus doughnuts
• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice/chai masala or gingerbread spice for a spiced vegan doughnut
• 1 tbsp peanut butter for vegan peanut butter doughnuts
• Replace 2 tbsp flour with 2 tbsp cocoa powder for vegan chocolate doughnuts
• Replace the plain flour with a good gluten-free flour blend for gluten-free vegan doughnuts
• Add 2 tsp instant espresso powder for delicious vegan coffee doughnuts
• Finally, you could try a combo of these ideas and make vegan chocolate-coffee (mocha) doughnuts, for example.

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The Best Baked Vegan Vanilla Doughnuts

The Best Baked Vegan Vanilla Doughnuts: Soft and delicious baked vegan vanilla doughnuts, dipped in a thick glaze and topped with sprinkles.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword almond, baking, donuts, doughnuts, party food, vanilla, vegan

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 24

Author Sanjana

Equipment

• 2 x 12-hole mini doughnut baking tin
• Whisk

Ingredients

• 250 g plain flour all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend
• 2 tsp baking powder or gluten-free baking powder
• 75 g caster sugar
• 1/8 tsp fine salt
• 160 ml any plant-based milk such as almond or soy milk
• 3 tbsp cold aquafaba whisked lightly until frothy
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract optional – for enhanced flavour
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 50 ml unflavoured oil such as sunflower oil

For the glaze:

• 225 g icing sugar confectioners' sugar
• 4 tbsp water
• Gel food colours of your choice I use Wilton for intense colours
• Decorations of your choice I used sprinkles, rock candies, vegan meringue kisses, gold shimmer and freeze-dried raspberry powder

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C fan assisted/350°F. Spray 2 mini doughnut baking tins with cooking oil/baking spray.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
• In a jug, whisk together the frothy aquafaba, milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and apple cider vinegar.
• Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and gently whisk until there are no visible lumps.
• Slowly stir in the oil until completely smooth and incorporated.
• Piper or spoon the batter into the tins, filling each one a little more than three-quarters full. Don't overfill or the middles will close up so you no longer have a ring doughnut.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then tap the doughnuts out onto a baking tray. Allow to cool completely.

For the glaze:

• Mix the icing sugar and water together until smooth. It should be thick but slightly drippy in consistency. Use as is or colour with gel food colours if desired.

To decorate:

• Dip one side or drizzle each doughnut in icing and go wild with your favourite decorations. For a watercolour effect, marble two coloured icings together in a bowl and dip.

Vegan Baked Doughnuts: FAQ

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The post The Best Baked Vegan Vanilla Doughnuts appeared first on Sanjana.Feasts.

The smell of fresh doughnuts frying is like nothing else. If they bottled it, I’d wear it as perfume, leaving a faint whiff of “funfair” trailing behind me everywhere I’d go. You’d smell me coming a mile away and know I’d been around hours after I’d gone. From a purely practical point of view (and not at all a gluttonous one), this would also make me a very hard person to kidnap. I should probably stop watching so many Netflix true crime shows.

Back to doughnuts.

My vegan doughnut dough has a stretchy-smooth quality, as well as a slight sweetness which I find hopelessly irresistible once fried. Despite being made up of flour, sugar and oil, each pillowy puff is lighter than air. A combination of almond milk, lemon, yeast and baking powder give them an ethereal weightlessness that you only get when you eat them hot, as soon as they’re made. I defy anyone to spot the lack of eggs and dairy in this recipe.

In my book, no variety of cakey baked doughnut comes close to the utterly fuzzy feeling you get from eating a yeasted, fried doughnut. It of course, involves hot oil and for you to set aside a bit of therapeutic baking time but there are moments you can break away to catch up on your favourite TV show, drink wine and/or have a power nap. The results are special and not at all cake like. The dough needs to be left to rise and this is when the magic happens. Keep it in a warm place like an airing cupboard or even in the oven with just the light left on inside.

Swap almond milk for soy milk or oat milk if you want to make a nut-free version of these doughnuts — both work beautifully. Over the years I’ve realised you can add most of the ingredients to the hot milk mixture with little to no compromise on results, which makes the dough-making process much easier. There’s no adding of butter in stages involved either. Reserve the salt and baking powder and add them to the flour mixture. Once the warm-ish milk hits the flour, all of those lovely raising agents join forces to work their magic as the gluten in the flour develops through the kneading process. You can use your hands to knead the dough if you have arms of steel and the stamina to do it for 25 minutes or so. I do not have such superpowers and my stand mixer is my friend.

More ideas: You can switch the cardamom sugar for cinnamon sugar and fill these with your favourite thick vegan custard instead of jam. Or better yet, fill them with both jam and custard. I’ve done this before and I don’t want to say everyone liked me more that week, but they definitely did. Vegan lemon curd is also a noble choice of filling and it works particularly well with cardamom sugar. I have also successfully steeped my warm milk with saffron strands for a saffron flavoured doughnut and it was dreamy, like the best marriage of Indian mithai and a classic funfair doughnut. Be creative and report back with your results. I’d love to hear from you.

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Vegan Raspberry Jam Doughnuts with Cardamom Sugar

Pillowy puffs of vegan doughnut goodness! These sweet treats are filled with sharp raspberry jam and coated with a spectacular cardamom sugar. You won’t be able to stop at just one.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Indian

Keyword cardamom, dessert, doughnuts, jam, vegan

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Sanjana

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white bread flour plus 20g for rolling out
• 12 g fast-action dried yeast
• 40 g caster sugar
• 100 g vegan margarine
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 250 ml unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 L rapeseed oil for deep frying

For the filling:

• 200 g your favourite shop-bought or homemade raspberry jam I prefer seedless

For the cardamom sugar:

• 150 g caster sugar
• 4 cardamom pods seeds removed and crushed to a powder

Instructions

• Place the flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment.
• Next, add the milk, butter, sugar and vanilla to a saucepan and heat over a low heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool at room temperature to about 38°C/100°F or just warm. Add the lemon juice and yeast and stir. Set aside for ten minutes.
• Add the milk mixture to the stand mixer and switch it on to slow. Once the mixture has come together, knead on medium-high speed for 15 minutes. Keep an eye on your mixer to ensure it doesn’t overheat or climb its way across the worktop (I speak from experience here). Once the dough is soft and smooth, the dough is ready to proof.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and grease the sides of the bowl with a tablespoon of oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a clean, damp tea towel. Allow to rest in a warm place for 60 minutes, until it has doubled in size.
• Knock the risen dough back to remove large air bubbles but do not knead it again. Dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough out until it’s about 2cm in thickness. Use a round cookie cutter to stamp out circles of dough and arrange on a tray lined with parchment paper. Leave some space between them, as you don’t want them to stick together while they prove again.
• Cover loosely with cling film and leave in a warm place for for 30 minutes.
• To make the cardamom sugar, mix together the sugar and ground cardamom in a bowl.
• Fill a heavy-based saucepan halfway with oil. Heat the oil to 175°C/350°F.
• When the oil is heated, carefully slide the doughnuts from the tray using a floured spatula. Taking care not to deflate them, put them into the oil. Do 2-3 per batch, depending on the size of your pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan. I did 2 at a time.
• Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden brown. They will puff up and float to the top of the oil, so you will need to gently move them around the pan to ensure they colour evenly.
• Remove the doughnuts from the fryer and place them on kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil.
• Place the jam in a bowl and microwave on high power for 20 seconds. Stir well to loosen slightly.
• Fit a piping bag with a medium, round tip. Using a straw, make a small hole in the side of each doughnut, about halfway until it reaches the centre. Fill the doughnut with the warm raspberry jam through this hole, about two teaspoons of jam per piece. Repeat for the remaining doughnuts.
• Gently roll the doughnuts in the cardamom sugar until evenly coated. Serve warm.

Notes

Store the doughnuts covered and at room temperature. Best consumed within 24 hours. Will they all be eaten before then? Definitely.

The post Vegan Raspberry Jam Doughnuts with Cardamom Sugar appeared first on Sanjana.Feasts.