This past month, I’ve been re-discovering recipes buried in our news section, and giving them a fresh new home in our recipe section. My latest find is these Vegan Mini Baked Donuts. They’re the perfect treat to share on Mother’s Day, don’t you think? They use everyday pantry ingredients and take mere minutes to whip up, just in case you need a batch ASAP!
The recipe is from Vegan Yum Yum: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-Free Recipes for Entertaining and Everyday, by Lauren Ulm. Sadly, Lauren is no longer blogging, but her well-loved, full-color cookbook lives on. It contains inviting recipes like Blueberry Waffles with Lemon Icing, Baked Mac and Cheeze, Creamy Tomato Barley Risotto, British Lemon Maple Scones with Mock Clotted Cream, Hurry Up Alfredo, and the Mini Baked Donuts shared here.
These vegan mini baked donuts include options for several toppings, including the sprinkles shown above, and the easy chocolate glaze shown below. Lauren says:
I set out to create a vegan doughnut recipe that didn’t involve frying. All you need is a “petite doughnut pan,” which should be available at kitchen stores or online. Look for something nonstick. My standard party dessert has been cupcakes up till now, but now that I know how easy doughnuts are to make, I’ve been converted.
Nonetheless, if you don’t have a mini donut pan, you can bake the batter in a mini muffin pan. They will be just as delicious as donut mini muffins!
Special Diet Notes: Vegan Mini Baked Donuts
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, optionally soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Scant ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- Pinch ground cinnamon
- ½ cup dairy-free milk beverage
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Egg Replacer for 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons dairy-free buttery spread
- ½ cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon dairy-free milk beverage
- ¼ to ½ cup sprinkles
- 3 ounces dairy-free dark chocolate, broken into chunks
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a whisk to mix thoroughly.
- Combine the wet ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium low heat and mix until the margarine is melted. This mixture should not get too hot; you should be able to stick your finger in the mixture and feel slightly warm. If you burn yourself, 1) it's not my fault! and 2) it's too hot for the dough!
- Add the wet ingredients to dry ones and mix until just combined. It should form a very soft dough or thick batter.
- Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out the dough into your ungreased nonstick mini-donut pan. Smooth out the top of the dough with your fingers, clearing off the post in the middle of each one. This will make for more even, prettier donuts, but isn't crucial.
- If you over fill, your donuts will come out looking like they have muffin tops. While not the end of the world, it's not very donut-like either.
- Bake for 12 minutes until the donuts are almost browned on top, and a tester comes out clean.
- Invert a hot pan over a cutting board or cooling rack to release the donuts. Allow them to cool completely before decorating, with the exception of the powdered sugar donuts. If you let them cool loosely covered with plastic wrap, the donuts will stay soft and fluffy.
- Whisk the milk beverage and powdered sugar together. Dip the "bottom" half of the donut (the side with the nicer shape) into the glaze, let some drip off, then dip glaze-side down into sprinkles. Transfer to a wire rack that has been set on top of some parchment paper. The excess glaze will drip through the rack onto the paper for easy cleaning later.
- This is the easy part. Melt one bar of your favorite dark chocolate in the microwave. Remove from the microwave and stir every 15 seconds until chocolate is smooth and barely warm to the touch. I should mention that you should be very careful not to get any water in the chocolate or it could seize, and no one likes that!
- Dip your donuts one-by-one into the chocolate. Place the donut on your wire rack and decorate with sprinkles, if desired.
- Dip the donuts into the powdered sugar glaze first, then drizzle with melted chocolate.
- Roll warm donuts in a bowl of powdered sugar. Yum!

4 Comments
These are some of the best baked donuts I’ve ever made, the texture is out of this world good. I am dairy free while breastfeeding and these hit the spot. They are also toddler and husband approved. I will be making them probably more frequently than I should!
That’s fantastic Alicia! So glad you are enjoying this recipe. And you can never have too many donuts 🙂
These look amazing! Would this work okay with a gluten free flour blend like bobs red mill 1 to 1? I really want to make these this weekend!
It might! since it’s egg-free, too, I don’t want to make promises on the results without testing it myself 🙂