These cake-like glazed vegan donuts need just 10 ingredients and under 30 minutes to be made! Perfect for breakfast or dessert!
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I know I don’t usually share a lot about me, but I will say that each time in my life I gave up dairy (first two times were for my daughters’ reactions and then finally when we went plant based), the thing I missed the most were donuts. These glazed vegan donuts are so simple and satisfy every craving I missed.
Donuts can completely be a comfort food, especially when you have then fresh out of the oven. There’s a reason that Krispy Kreme lights up that sign when they have hot ones ready and everyone runs towards them.
They are soft and almost melt in your mouth they are so delicious. These glazed vegan donuts are no exception. They are completely:
- vegan/plant based
- dairy free
- egg free
- can be Top 8 Free
Vegan Donut Recipe Ingredients
There are two “recipes” in this post; however, even with both you only need 10 ingredients. Y’all know we like easy recipes! The ingredients that you need to make these easy vegan donuts are:
- apple cider vinegar
- dairy free milk (we use almond milk)
- flour
- brown sugar
- baking powder
- salt
- unsweetened applesauce
- dairy free butter
- vanilla
- powdered sugar
That’s it! That’s all you need for the perfect vegan donuts.
How to make Dairy Free Donuts
- To start making this recipe, you need to make vegan buttermilk. You do that by combining apple cider vinegar and the dairy free milk of your choice. When you let the combination sit together for 10 minutes, it curdles like you see with traditional buttermilk.
- Then, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease two donut pans. We used these donut pans for the donuts that you see in our photos.
- Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
- Then, once 10 minutes has passed and your buttermilk is ready, add in the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Add into your greased donuts pans, a little over half full.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cooked thoroughly.
- While waiting for donuts to bake, make your glaze. Whisk together your melted butter, milk and salt. Add in a little powdered sugar at a time, whisking after each addition until a smooth glaze forms.
- Remove donuts from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before topping with the glaze. Serve immediately or let cool to room temperature and store in an air tight container.
Can I make these vegan donuts Top 8 Allergen friendly?
There is flour, dairy free milk, and dairy free butter in this recipe. If you are completely Top 8 Free, use an alternative dairy free milk like oat or hemp for this recipe. Otherwise, just use one that works for your family.
For the dairy free butter, you want one that is also soy free. We prefer Earth Balance soy free in the red tub!
While we have not tried gluten free flour with this recipe, we would recommend using King Arthur Measure for Measure flour. We have had the best results with this flour.
Tips for Vegan Donuts
- Don’t Overmix – one of the biggest things we hear is that they don’t seem as light of fluffy as the photos. The biggest reason for this is overmixing. Mix just until combined and no dry ingredients remain.
- Make it Chocolate: Love chocolate? Try making our baked chocolate vegan donuts next!
- No donut pan? No problem! Use a greased muffin pan (preferably the jumbo one if you have it) and pour your batter about ½ inch high. Bake until cooked through and then cut a center hole out of the donut.
- Gluten Free: Because these are baked cake donuts, you can swap these for an all-purpose or 1 to 1 gluten free mix. You’ll want to make sure there is xanthan gum in the mix.
- To make oil free: add 2 tablespoon more applesauce. Note that this will make your doughnuts more dense.
How to Store These Vegan Donuts
Not that they will actually last as long as this, but these vegan glazed doughnuts will last for up to a week when stored in an air tight container.
They can be stored at room temperature and do not need to be refrigerated.
Pin these Glazed Vegan Donuts for later:
What other vegan breakfast recipes should I try?
Once you try these delicious vegan donuts, you may be looking for other amazing vegan breakfast ideas that you should try. We are sharing both sweet and savory dairy free breakfast ideas.
- Vegan Banana Pancakes
- Vegan Sausage Biscuits and Gravy
- Super Soft Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Perfect Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
- Vegan Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuits
- Dairy Free French Toast
- Dairy Free Banana Bread
All the recipes above are vegan, dairy free, and egg free. Some can be made Top 8 Allergy Friendly.
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Donuts
Ingredients
For the Vegan Donuts
- ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup unsweetened dairy free milk (we used almond milk, see post for allergy notes)
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoon vegan butter, melted
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
Glaze for Donuts
- 2 tablespoon dairy free milk (maybe need 1 more tablespoon depending on batter consistency)
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tablespoon vegan butter, melted
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
For the Vegan Donuts
- Combine the apple cider vinegar and milk in a bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two donut pans. We used these donut pans .
- Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
- Once buttermilk is ready, add in the wet ingredients in with dry and mix well.
- Pour batter into greased pans, a little over half full.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cooked thoroughly.
- Make glaze while you wait.
For the Glaze
- Whisk together your melted butter, milk and salt.
- Add in a little powdered sugar at a time, whisking after each addition until a smooth glaze forms.
- Remove donuts from oven. Let cool for 10 minutes. Dip donuts into the glaze.
- Serve immediately or let cool completely and store in an air tight container.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
This post was originally published on 6/7/2019 and edited on 2/6/2020.
Hi! I loved your recipe 🙂 thanks!!
Just a quick question, I’d like to replace applesauce with something else.
Which one do you think is better, mashed banana or vegan butter?
The applesauce is an egg replacement. We would do banana (if you don’t mind the banana flavor) or flax egg
How much cocoa powder do you add to batter and icing?
Hi Karlyn, if you want chocolate donuts, we’d recommend following our chocolate version recipe you can find here: https://makeitdairyfree.com/vegan-chocolate-donuts/
I have used this recipe 3 times and it’s perfect each time.
So happy to hear you loved the recipe. Thanks so much for taking time to leave a review, we appreciate that a lot. Have a great week!
So delicious and so easy! My kids devoured them quickly! Thank you!
Winning! We’re so happy to hear that it was a hit! We appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. Have a great week.
Hi! What can I use instead of vegan butter?
Are you trying to avoid all oil or just don’t have vegan butter specifically?
Don’t have vegan butter
This recipe doesn’t work at all.. the donuts were super flat. Fresh yeast is needed istead of baking powder
We’d be happy to troubleshoot with you if you want to email us but dozens of people have successfully made these and we’ve made them ourselves multiple times. No yeast is needed for these.
I’m really looking forward to making these but would like to make them without the butter. Do you think I can I substitute the butter with anything else, maybe applesauce or a flax egg?
applesauce will work