Donuts are pure comfort food. We need comfort foods, because sometimes the days are long. It kills me when bloggers make donuts with the promise of “healthy” or “lightened up,” because it’s a donut. Donuts should be sugary and fatty and everything wrong for your body but right for your soul. That’s what makes them a treat and, as I say to my kids, a “sometimes” food. One bite into a donut, even a shitty one, is bliss. Don’t ruin bliss.
I made these donuts with a Biscoff glaze because Biscoff cookies and their cookie butter are both vegan. Plus Biscoff are delicious. Plus the cookies look so pretty in pictures. Plus Biscoff are delicious. I’m not even paid to say that!
I wrote this recipe because in my city there are zero vegan donut options and I don’t know why. I made it vegan because I’m vegan. I promise you. This isn’t a secretly “healthy” recipe. It’s got loads of vegan butter in it, sugar, and it’s deep fried. But. No animals needed to be squeezed or killed to make them so we can call them guilt free.
This recipe takes about three hours total to make; however, if you want to make donuts for a morning treat you can make the dough ahead and refrigerate it until you’re ready to groggily fry some things. They should be served fresh because stale donuts are kinda sad, still good, but sad. So eat them fresh.
Alright, before we dive into this recipe I feel like I need to give a PSA. I’m tired of seeing all of these round baked goods. It’s just bad baking habits and I don’t know why we started doing it or why we continue to. When you cut dough into rounds you’re left with a lot of dough that you need to reroll to cut again. Rerolling creates a lot of gluten and makes your biscuits, donuts, etc. really tough and dry. The easiest fix to this is to just cut squares or triangles. Why this isn’t a thing makes no sense to me. Round food isn’t somehow better. Cut your things into squares and thank me later.
Vegan Biscoff Donuts
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (Not dry active yeast)
- 1/2 cup warm water (90-100°F (baby bath temp))
- 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup soft silken tofu (Must be silken style)
- 3/4 cup oat milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1/2 cup melted vegan butter (Earth Balance is my go-to)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a measuring cup mix together the warm water and yeast. Let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. Instant yeast doesn't need to soak in warm water prior to using, but it does help to dissolve it.
- In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave or on the stove top. Blend with the silken tofu, milk, and vanilla. You can whisk it but blending it is best for creating a homogenous mixture.
- Pour the liquid mix and the yeast water into the dry mix and fold using a heavy spoon until combined. Turn bowl onto a non-floured work surface and knead the dough until smooth. About 5-10 minutes. It will get a little tough but the dough will slacken as it rests.
- Place dough into an oiled plastic, glass, or ceramic bowl. Cover. Let rise for 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
- When your dough is ready to be used, get ready for cooking and decorating. Heat your cooking oil to 375°F. Any deep frying oil is good for this recipe. You will need at least 2" of oil to cook in. Prepare glaze or ganache. See notes for a chocolate glaze. Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet to put your cooked donuts on.
- Divide dough in half. Place half the dough back into the covered bowl. Each half makes roughly 8 large donuts, 16 total, but you can make them smaller if preferred.
- Roll out to roughly 1/4" thick. Cut into donut shapes. I prefer a square donut, like seen in my blog post, because you don't have scrap dough that needs to be rerolled. See blog for reason why. Make sure to punch or cut a hole in the center of your donut. This hole helps the donut to cook evenly and quickly.
- Place the cut and shaped donuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Cook 3-4 donuts at a time, depending on how much space you have in your oil. 3-4 minutes on the first side, flip, cook 1-2 minutes on the other side. Place cooked donut on the cooling rack and repeat until all donuts are cooked.
- The glaze works best if the donuts have cooled for a few minutes rather than right out of the oil or completely cooled. If they are slightly warm they will connect to the glaze better and cool to room temp together.
Notes
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (verify it’s vegan if you’re vegan)
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2-3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 cup Biscoff cookie butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons hot water
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