Vegan Maple Donuts

Bread, Week 6: My friend sent me this recipe for maple donuts that happened to be both vegan and gluten-free. I decided I had to make them, and immediately ordered myself two donut pans.

I looked at my bread manifesto, and I didn't specify anything about donuts. They're similar to muffins, but I've never made baked donuts. Since I was going to make them anyway, and I had some other cooking plans for the weekend, and I have a lingering cold, I posed the question to my friends: are donuts bread? They said yes, so these donuts have become bread for this week. You all go along with what your friends say too, right?

I really enjoyed these donuts. They were very tasty without glaze, but were even better with it. That said, I'm glad I halved the glaze amount, because it would have been overwhelming for me otherwise. The donuts were very moist and tender -  too tender, in fact, to flip to dip in the glaze. I cracked a few of them just when I tried to lift them, and a few of the intact ones broke when I tried to tip them back out of the icing. No real hardship there, though - just drizzle the icing on! Maple is a hard flavor for me to tease out, but I think I could taste it. The almond meal and ground coconut that I used in the donuts gave them a little texture. I enjoyed the almond butter in the icing.

I really enjoyed these donuts, and will definitely make them again if I wanted donuts and had the ingredients in the house.

📖 Recipe

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Saved!

Vegan Maple Donuts

(adapted from The Fresh Direction)

Servings: 8

Author: Leona Konkel

Ingredients

• ½ cup oat flour (I ground my own)
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• 3 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons almond meal
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour (I ground 2 tablespoon unsweetened coconut flakes instead)
• 2 tablespoons ground flax meal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ½ cup coconut milk (since I didn't have almond)
• ¼ cup applesauce
• 2 ½ tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• nuts for topping (if desired) (which I skipped)

Glaze (halved from the original recipe)

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 ½ teaspoons almond butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons coconut milk

Instructions

• Combine dry ingredients. Separately, combine wet ingredients. (I didn’t use a whisk since there was no egg here, but I recommend one. Oil doesn’t mix well!) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until well combined. Divide among 8 well-greased donut cups. Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. Let cool briefly, then carefully invert the pans to remove the donuts; avoid trying to pry or pull them out, as the donuts will tear. 
• While the donuts cool, combine the wet ingredients for the glaze. Stir in powdered sugar until well combined. I like my glaze thick; add more milk if you want yours thinner. The donuts are too fragile to dip into the glaze, so drizzle it over the cooled donuts. Top with nuts if desired.