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    Home » Breakfast

    Baked vegan cinnamon donuts

    Published: Jul 3, 2019 · Modified: Feb 17, 2023 by Cadry Nelson
    This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
    Text overlay: Baked vegan cinnamon donuts. Pile of doughnuts on a plate.

    Cinnamon donuts are a bouncy, sugary treat. These baked vegan donuts are coated in a fine layer of cinnamon sugar.

    They work equally well for dessert or breakfast, alongside a piping hot cup of coffee.

    Stack of cinnamon donuts on a plate.

    Donuts always feel like a celebration.

    There’s just something about that sweet treat that makes you want to pour a cup of coffee, and really savor every bite.

    Sadly, vegan donuts aren’t widely available in every city.

    But it isn’t hard to make baked donuts at home!

    Baked cinnamon doughnuts have a wonderful lightness.

    And they come together in just about a half an hour.

    Baked vegan donuts are easy enough for a weekday breakfast, but special enough for a holiday brunch.

    • Serve them as part of your Christmas morning breakfast.
    • Pack them as a road-trip snack.
    • Put them in a tin, and give them as a vegan food gift.

    In this post:

    Jump to:
    • Vegan Comfort Cooking
    • Step by step instructions
    • Muffin pan alternative
    • How long will they keep?
    • 📖 Recipe

    Vegan Comfort Cooking

    Vegan Comfort Cooking cookbook on table.

    This cinnamon donut recipe is from the cookbook, Vegan Comfort Cooking, by Melanie McDonald.

    You may know Melanie from her popular blog, A Virtual Vegan.

    Mel is from England, and now lives in British Columbia, Canada.

    She often showcases veganized British classics like Yorkshire pudding and mincemeat on her blog, as well as other comfort food dishes.

    Now Mel has taken her recipes to print form with her inaugural cookbook. Vegan Comfort Cooking has a color photo for every recipe, which I love.

    It contains 75 recipes for everything from breakfasts & appetizers through desserts – like today’s cinnamon donuts.

    Step by step instructions

    Here’s how to make this recipe at a glance. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.

    Donut pan on table by flour, non-dairy milk, and cinnamon.

    Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees, and grease your donut pan.

    Then mix the dry ingredients in one bowl:

    • Flour
    • Sugar
    • Baking powder
    • Baking soda
    • Salt
    • Cinnamon
    • Nutmeg

    Mix the wet ingredients in a second separate bowl:

    • Vanilla
    • Vinegar
    • Coconut milk

    Pour the dry & wet ingredients together. Once there’s no dry flour left, stop mixing. (You don’t want to over mix it.)

    Donut batter in baking pan.

    Spoon the thick batter into the wells of the donut pan. Smooth the donut batter out with the back of a teaspoon.

    Pop the donuts into the oven for 12 to 15 minutes. (Or a few minutes longer than that if your oven is anything like mine.)

    You’ll know the donuts are ready to go when the dough starts pulling from the edges of the donut pan, and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

    Baked donuts in pan.

    Let the donuts cool briefly in the pan before gently moving them to a cooling rack.

    Now it’s time to dip them in cinnamon sugar!

    While the donuts are still warm, dip them one by one in a bowl of melted vegan butter. Then move each donut into a mixture of cinnamon sugar.

    Keep going until all of the donuts are coated in cinnamon sugar.

    (Mel gives a butter-free option in the recipe as well, if that’s what you prefer!)

    Cinnamon donut on floral plate.
    Bite taken out of a baked donut.

    Serve the cinnamon donuts while they’re still warm for maximum cozy comfort.

    Or have them for breakfast the next day with a cup of coffee.

    Muffin pan alternative

    Hand holding baked cinnamon donut.

    Don’t have a donut pan?

    I totally get it. I didn’t either until I ordered a couple of new donut pans to make this recipe.

    Even if you don’t have donut pans in your arsenal, you can still make this recipe in a muffin pan.

    You can use either full-sized muffin pans or mini ones for donut holes.

    How long will they keep?

    Overhead baked vegan donuts with coffee and cashew milk in pitcher.

    Cinnamon donuts will keep for 2 to 3 days in a sealed container.

    For best results, store them on the counter, not the refrigerator. You don’t want them to dry out.

    If you need them to last longer than a couple of days, move them to the refrigerator.

    Stack of baked vegan donuts by coffee and non-dairy milk.

    📖 Recipe

    Stack of vegan donuts on a green plate.

    Baked vegan cinnamon donuts

    Author: Melanie McDonald
    5 from 5 votes
    There is nothing quite like fresh, warm donuts, and with this recipe, you get perfectly soft and fluffy donuts with no deep-frying. They are baked in the oven, but by the time they have been dipped in melted vegan butter, and rolled in their warming, comforting cinnamon-y sugary coating, they taste as if they had been fried.
    If you cook oil-free, I give instructions for how to make them without the butter; and if you don’t own a donut pan, don’t worry. You can bake them as muffins or as donut holes in a mini muffin pan instead.
    Print Pin Rate
    Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 35 minutes minutes
    Servings: 6 donuts
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: American, Vegan
    Keyword: baked donuts
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Ingredients

    • Vegan butter or coconut oil, for pan
    • 1 cup + 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
    • ½ cup cane sugar or granulated white sugar
    • 1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
    • ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
    • ½ cup + 3 Tablespoons canned light coconut milk

    For the coating

    • ½ cup vegan butter optional
    • ½ cup cane sugar or granulated white sugar
    • 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

    Instructions

    • Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) and grease 6 wells of a donut pan with a little vegan butter or coconut oil.
    • Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; then whisk together to combine.
    • In another bowl, combine the vanilla, vinegar and coconut milk. Stir them together, and pour into the flour mixture. Gently stir until all of the flour is absorbed and you can no longer see any dry flour. Do not over mix or beat the batter. It will be a thick batter.
    • Spoon carefully and evenly into the prepared donut pan and level/tidy up the batter with the back of a teaspoon.
    • Bake for 12 to 15 minutes,* or until the donuts are coming away from the edge of the pan and a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes and then gently turn them out onto a cooling rack.
    • If you do not have a donut pan, divide the batter among 6 greased wells of a muffin pan and bake at 350°F (176°C) for 20 to 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. For donut holes, divide the batter among the wells of a mini muffin pan and bake at 350°F (176°C) for 8 to 10 minutes.

    To coat the donuts

    • While the donuts are still a little warm, gently melt the vegan butter in a microwave or in a pan over a very low heat on the stovetop. In a bowl big enough to fit the donuts into for dipping, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Using the butter ensures a good amount of sugar sticks to the donuts and helps give a “fried” flavor. However, if you want to keep the recipe oil-free, you can omit the butter, dipping the donuts into the cinnamon-sugar mixture while they are hot, and it will stick to them quite well.
    • Take each donut and dip it into the butter on each side and all around the edges then immediately place in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and coat on all sides. Be really generous with the sugar coating.

    Notes

    They are best eaten freshly made but will keep for 2 to 3 days in a sealed container.
    Tip: The donuts (without the coating) can be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm for a few seconds in a microwave or for 5 minutes in a 375°F (190°C) oven. Then coat as directed.
    *Note from Cadry: Cooking times vary, depending on your oven. For me, it took 17 or 18 minutes until the donuts were done. 
    Reprinted with permission from Vegan Comfort Cooking by Melanie McDonald, Page Street Publishing Co. 2019. 
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    Nutrition

    Calories: 365kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 266mg | Potassium: 122mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 720IU | Calcium: 67mg | Iron: 1.5mg

    Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Vegan Comfort Cooking.

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    About Cadry Nelson

    Cadry Nelson is the writer, photographer, and recipe creator behind Cadry’s Kitchen, a vegan food & lifestyle blog started in 2009. Through approachable recipes, vegan travel guides, and down-to-earth discussions on the social aspects of being vegan, Cadry shows that living a vegan lifestyle is deliciously uncomplicated. Cadry has been featured on NBC News, Mashable, Today, Reader's Digest, Yahoo, Delish, Shape, and Huffington Post.

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    1. Erika

      January 16, 2020 at 4:55 pm

      5 stars
      Thank you very much for your recipe, it is really delicious!!!!

      Reply
      • Cadry

        January 17, 2020 at 12:44 pm

        I’m so glad you enjoyed the donuts, Erika!

        Reply
    2. Shell

      July 09, 2019 at 12:19 pm

      5 stars
      These donuts look delicious! I didn’t know donut pans were a thing. It looks fairly easy and super yummy!

      Reply
      • Cadry

        July 11, 2019 at 1:45 pm

        Thanks, Shell! You should make donuts with the girls sometime. The donut pan makes it very simple.

        Reply
    3. Susan

      July 05, 2019 at 1:25 am

      Cinnamon doughnuts are the best doughnut! They are what I grew up eating, none of this glazed business. This recipe looks wonderful. And I love that they are baked, because deep frying terrifies me quite a lot.
      I checked out the look inside feature on Amazon, and the recipe list on this book looks very tempting!

      Reply
      • Cadry

        July 09, 2019 at 9:16 am

        I know what you mean about the fear around frying donuts at home. All of that hot oil is past my comfort level too. I’d prefer to go out for fried donuts, even if that means I don’t get them very often (because the closest fried vegan donuts are over an hour away). But these baked donuts are very tasty, made with pantry staples, and not scary at all to make. That’s a win!

        Reply
    4. Laura VZ

      July 03, 2019 at 11:05 am

      These look so good OMG!

      Reply
      • Cadry

        July 09, 2019 at 9:14 am

        So good!

        Reply

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    Hi, I'm Cadry!

    I’m a longtime vegan. (16 years!) But I grew up eating a Standard American Diet. I know that all of us crave foods that are familiar, comforting, and delicious.

    That’s why it’s my passion to share mouthwatering plant-based recipes that taste like home.

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