Who doesn't love fluffy vegan donuts?! These are super easy to make, fried, not baked. Coat them in chocolate, glaze, powdered sugar and add sprinkles!
Soft and fluffy on the inside, golden and crisp on the outside. These fried vegan donuts are the real deal.
And the best part is that you can get creative with coating and glazing the donuts! I've coated them in chocolate, pink glaze, and powdered sugar. Then added coconut flakes and sprinkles on top.
Damn, they are delicious.
How to make Vegan Donuts
The ingredients
Making donuts isn't hard at all and you only need a handful of ingredients:
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- instant yeast
- plant-based milk
- a bit of oil for the dough and more oil for frying
The basic steps
Donut Glazing, Coating, Toppings
There are endless possibilities to coat/glaze/top the donuts. Here are a couple of my favorites:
- chocolate: melt baking chocolate or chocolate chips in a double boiler, whisk in a bit of coconut oil.
- pink glaze: I've used a store-bought pink glaze for these, but you can also make your own by using beet juice for this pink rosewater glaze
- powdered sugar
- white sugar mixed with cinnamon
- sprinkles!
- coconut flakes
Donut FAQ
Sure! I don't have one either. You can fry them in a pot or wok. Just fill enough oil so that the donuts can swim but leave enough space in the pot/wok because the oil will rise and we don't want any oil spillage or worse. Okay? Be careful with hot oil.
Don't toss it! Reuse it! Let it cool off completely, then strain it to remove crumbs, then fill it in a bottle and use it the next time you're frying!
I wouldn't recommend storing these donuts for too long because they are best when fresh. They will already be drier the next day. So I recommend inviting your friends over for a donut party! If you have to, I would store them at room temperature in an air-tight container for a maximum of 1-2 days.
Check out my how to deep fry in a pot-guide!
More Vegan Donut Recipes
- Powdered Sugar Snow Star Donuts
- Vegan Donut Holes coated with chocolate and sprinkled with pistachios
- Baked Donuts with Rosewater Glaze
I had such a great time making these donuts, glazing and coating them and adding sprinkles (of course!). So I hope you will enjoy these as much as I did! Let me know if you give them a try!
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Cheers, Bianca
Vegan Donuts
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- ½ cup plant-based milk (e.g. almond milk) | at room temperature!
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- frying oil
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, and instant yeast in a large mixing bowl, then add the oil and plant-based milk (at room temperature).
- Stir to combine, then knead (or let a stand mixer with a dough hook knead it) until a smooth dough forms. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour.
- Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours until the dough doubles in size.
- Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 1⁄2-inch thickness. Use a glass to cut out the donuts and a test tube/glass bottle opening/small shot glass/whatever-you-have-at-home to cut out the donut hole.
- Heat your frying oil to 350°F/175°C: You can use a deep-fryer if you have one or a pot or wok filled with just enough oil so that the donuts can swim in it. Make sure not to add too much oil in the pot because the oil will rise and you don’t want an accident to happen. Fry the donuts on each side until golden brown.
- Transfer the donuts to a paper towel to remove excess oil. Let them cool off before applying the glaze/chocolate or powdered sugar.
Notes
- chocolate: melt baking chocolate or chocolate chips in a double boiler, whisk in a bit of coconut oil.
- pink glaze: I've used a store-bought pink glaze for these, but you can also make your own by using beet juice for this pink rosewater glaze
- powdered sugar
- white sugar mixed with cinnamon
- sprinkles!
- coconut flakes
Katie says
The visuals of these donuts would definitely catch my kid's attention.
Adding this to the occasional treats for them.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Bianca says
Awesome! I hope they enjoy them! :)
JOANNA says
This looks amazing! I will definately give it a try!
I hope I will manage as I am not a great cook!
Susan says
Do you think you could air fry these?
Janna says
Hi! I just tried this recipe last night. Although still delicious, mine turned out hard and dense, more like a funnel cake than a fluffy donut.
Do you think I should have added the yeast, sugar and milk together first and let the yeast get frothy before adding to the flour? Just wondering where I went wrong. Still yummy and though :)
Alexa says
I did these last night and although the taste was really good, the texture was definitely dry and chewy (and not in a good way). Do you guys have any suggestions as to what can be added to the dough to make the doughnuts turn out more fluffy and soft?
Rome says
I tweaked it a little bit and added half a cup more almond milk, half a cup of warm water to the sugar yeast mixture and let the yeast activate for 15 minutes, half a cup more all purpose flour until the dough becomes more like a blob and a sprinkle more if it’s too wet, oh and a teaspoon of vanilla to the yeast mixture as well. Turned out a little more fluffier and lighter, kids loved it even more!
Baron says
i made this recipe just today! i had to make some tweaks based on what i had on hand. i had coconut oil, not canola, so i melted it and used what ended up being more like two tablespoons.
i also only had regular dry active yeast, so i had to activate it in my soy milk with a little bit of sugar. that worked fine, although i ended up needing more yeast in the end. the dough was too dry and not rising properly, so i activated about another 1/2 tsp in a TB of warm water and a lil pinch of sugar. once it was foamy i worked it into the dough with some more flour. it took a while and felt weird, but it rose alright. if i had started with activating 1.5 tsp of the active yeast, it probably would have been fine.
i also made mine in an air fryer because that’s what my roommate had. 6 min each at ~375, flipping partway. i was really excited because my other roommate is vegan, and i was happy to get a fluffy recipe that everyone can eat!
Mira says
I tried this recipe with a few alterations. I used 2 tablespoons of oil instead of one as I wanted my dough to be a bit tackier, as well as adjusted the yeast amount to 1 1/2 tsp instead of one as a comment on here suggested and used water instead of plant milk as I do with all my vegan baking since I don't see a difference. I also kneaded the dough for 2-3 minutes on my mixer to work the gluten. The donuts turned out fluffy and delicious this way, would definitely recommend!!
Vai says
They were quite dry and chewy. I did everything to a T except I air-fried them instead of deep frying them. I even proofed them after cutting out the donuts to make sure they rose to the full capacity. Also used active dry yeast but I made sure to activate it before adding it in to the flour mixture, so that shouldn't have created an issue.
Helen says
Hi! Can I bake the donuts?? 🍩
Kayah says
This is the recipe I have been looking for and I will try it out and submit results tomorrow!