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.
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.
Vegan Comfort Cooking
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.
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.)
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.
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!)
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
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?
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.
📖 Recipe
Baked vegan cinnamon donuts
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
Nutrition
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Vegan Comfort Cooking.
Erika
Thank you very much for your recipe, it is really delicious!!!!
Cadry
I’m so glad you enjoyed the donuts, Erika!
Shell
These donuts look delicious! I didn’t know donut pans were a thing. It looks fairly easy and super yummy!
Cadry
Thanks, Shell! You should make donuts with the girls sometime. The donut pan makes it very simple.
Susan
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!
Cadry
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!
Laura VZ
These look so good OMG!
Cadry
So good!