This incredibly easy cinnamon vanilla cream-filled vegan doughnut recipe is baked instead of fried for a lighter take on the classic! Filled with a dairy free cinnamon vanilla cream, these baked vegan doughnuts are easy to make and fun to eat!
Is it doughnut or donut?
Let’s just get this out of the way first off. I’ve been personally using them interchangeably but only one is the official spelling.
Indeed, the spelling, “doughnut” is the official spelling for the deliciously sugary (often fried but this one is baked) bread. However, “donut” is the Americanized version that came about in the 19th century and became the more popular spelling in the 20th century.
However, both are used to describe the same delicious treat. For some reason, I’ve always associated “doughnut” with the vanilla cream-filled doughnuts, such as Boston Creme or Bavarian Cream.
So for our purposes here, I’ll be using “doughnut” but may slip in a “donut” or two 😉
The Best Baked Vegan Doughnut Recipe
Now onto the deliciously baked vegan doughnut recipe. This is truly my favorite doughnut recipe of all time.
And it’s not because it took me 5 tries to finally get a version that I liked (and then of course, there’s even more testing after that to ensure it wasn’t just some happy accident!).
These sugary vegan doughnuts are entirely dairy free and egg free, yet taste as fluffy and delicious as a doughnut you’d find in the bakery. They even have that delicious nutmeg flavor.
However, these are baked vegan donuts, not fried! Some may do this to avoid any extra oil, but truthfully, I don’t fry my doughnuts because I’m afraid of spilling 350F hot oil everywhere. I’m a bit of a klutz in the kitchen.
Plus, I wouldn’t want to teach you anything that I’m not 100% confident in (and I don’t want anyone getting hurt). Also, who has 6 cups of oil just lying around?!
I wanted these vegan cream filled doughnuts to be easy and approachable for you. So we’re doing baked instead of fried!
How to make vegan cinnamon vanilla cream filled doughnuts
For this vegan doughnut recipe, we’ll first start by making the dough and shaping the doughnuts.
Once baked, then we’ll prepare the cinnamon vanilla cream filling and fill the baked vegan donuts!
The baked vegan doughnut
The dough of these vegan doughnuts is actually quite similar to my cinnamon rolls.
The full recipe and instructions are found down below in the recipe card. However, I’ll go over a few tips here on how to ensure your dough comes out perfect:
- Make sure you have a warm area for proofing the dough: this is crucial if you want the yeast to properly activate and rise. I recommend an 85-90F area. Sometimes turning on the oven and placing the bowl by there is good enough. You can also turn off the oven, turn on the oven light, and place the bowl into the oven.
- Use a 4-5″ cookie cutter for the shape of the doughnut: we’ll roll out the dough after it has risen and cut circles into it using a cookie cutter. You can make your doughnuts smaller or bigger, but just keep in mind that you’ll then have a different amount of doughnuts and might need more baking sheets for baking.
- Brush each doughnut with vegan butter before + after baking: this helps the doughnuts brown in the oven, and you’ll also need just a bit more for getting the sugar to stick to the outside. However, you can also skip the sugar coating and do just a sugar glaze, like on classic doughnuts.
- Allow the doughnuts fully cool before filling them: this will ensure that the filling doesn’t instantly melt out of the doughnuts!
Cinnamon Vanilla Cream Filling
This cinnamon vanilla cream filling is my favorite part.
And it’s much easier than making a kreme that you might find in a classic filled doughnut recipe.
Simply cream the vegan butter with a hand mixer. Then add in the remaining ingredients: powdered sugar, dairy free milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Once the cinnamon vanilla cream is ready, you can fill a piping bag with your desired piping tip and start to fill your baked doughnuts!
How to make cream-filled doughnuts
Now that you’ve made the doughnuts and the cinnamon vanilla cream filling, we can finally fill our cream-filled doughnuts.
Start by brushing each doughnut with a bit of vegan butter and dipping each into granulated sugar. Since these are baked doughnuts and not fried, the extra vegan butter helps the sugar to stick (while still keeping them a bit lighter!).
Then, use a 1″ wide knife to carefully make a slit into the middle of the side of each doughnut. You’ll stick the knife into the doughnut until you reach the middle of the doughnut (see below picture).
Finally we’ll fill the doughnuts: insert the piping tip into each doughnut, and gently fill each doughnut with the cinnamon vanilla cream filling. You don’t need to apply too much pressure here, or else the filling will over fill.
That’s it! Then enjoy your vegan baked doughnuts!
Substituions & Tips
- Flour substitutions: I have not tested this with gluten-free flour, so I cannot speak to how it will turn out. I really only recommend all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled.
- Dairy free milk substitutions: you can use any dairy-free milk that you’d like here. I recommend oat or coconut milk, but cashew, almond, or soy work well here too.
- Yeast: you can use either activated yeast or rapid rise yeast. Just keep in mind that the instructions are written for activated yeast, and with rapid rise yeast, it will be a much faster rise time.
- Vegan butter: to keep it nut-free, you can use an oat-milk based vegan butter. I recommend Miyoko’s or Forager Project here, although Earth Balance also works well.
- To keep these vegan doughnuts entirely refined sugar free: you can use coconut sugar, even dough to the powdered sugar (just pulse the coconut sugar in a food processor until it’s a fine powder).
- You don’t have to fill these baked vegan doughnuts if you don’t want to: these doughnuts are absolutely lovely just as is- the nutmeg really makes them taste like a doughnut from a bakery!
Tips to make sure you get super fluffy and soft vegan baked doughnuts
Because we’re using applesauce in the dough, I find the dough to be already really soft.
However, here are a few more tips to ensure that you get really fluffy and soft baked vegan doughnuts:
Use a thermometer to measure the milk temperature: you want the dairy free milk to be exactly 110F, or else the yeast won’t properly activate. What’s more, you’ll also really need a warm room or area to proof the the dough. If it’s not warm, the dough won’t properly rise and will fall flat and hard when baked. I recommend between 85-90F. Sometimes, sticking the bowl in the oven (that’s off) and turning on the oven light can create that temperature. Use an oven thermometer here to check.
Properly measure your dry ingredients: you’ll need to spoon and level the flour. Too much or too little flour will mess up your dough. If using a scale, you’ll aim for about 500 g of flour. However, properly spooning and leveling the flour should yield that amount, if not close. Watch this video on how to properly measure flour here.
I hope you love this vegan doughnut recipe as much as I do! If you make them, let me know down below in the comments section, as well as giving them a rating so that others can find them.
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations, so be sure to tag me on Instagram and Pinterest.
Happy cinnamon vanilla cream vegan doughnut baking!
More vegan bread recipes:
Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Gooey Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Easy Vegan Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls
Vegan Nutella Star Bread
New York Style Vegan Bagels
Easy Vegan Pretzels
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
Cinnamon Cream-Filled Vegan Doughnut Recipe
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star5 from 1 review
- Author: thebananadiaries
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 15 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This incredibly easy cinnamon vanilla cream-filled vegan doughnut recipe is baked instead of fried for a lighter take on the classic! Filled with a dairy free cinnamon vanilla cream, these baked vegan doughnuts are easy to make and fun to eat!
Ingredients
Scale
Vegan Doughnut:
- 4–4 1/2cups all-purpose flour
- 1packet activated yeast
- 1/4 cupcoconut sugar
- 1 1/4 cupdairy-free milk, unsweetened
- 1/4 cupvegan butter or coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cupunsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 3 tbsp vegan butter, melted (for brushing the doughnuts before baking and before dipping into sugar)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar (you won’t use all of it, just enough to easily coat each doughnut)
Cinnamon Cream Filling:
- 4 tbsp vegan butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1–2 tbsp dairy free milk
Instructions
- Heat the coconut milk until warm- 110F.
- Sprinkle yeast, sugar, and a tablespoon of flour into the warmed milk in a large bowl, cover, and let activate for 10 minutes.
- When activated, add in the vegan butter, applesauce, vanilla extract, nutmeg, and 4 cups of flour to start. Knead the dough together. Add in the 1/2 cup extra flour if the dough is sticky. The dough shouldn’t be sticking to your hand.
- Knead the dough lightly, for 2-4 minutes, then place the dough into a bowl greased with olive oil, cover with a cloth or wrap, and place into a warm area to let rise for 1 hour. It should be double in size.
- After an hour, lightly punch down the dough and roll the dough out on a clean and floured surface to be a large rectangle (6 in x 12 in).
- Use a round cookie cutter (about 4-5″ wide, depending on how big you want the doughnuts to be), and gently press the cookie cutter into the dough. Repeat to create more doughnuts. Remove the excess dough and use a spatula to transfer to a parchment-lined large baking sheet.
- Lightly knead the dough again until smooth to roll out once more and repeat Step 6 until all of the dough is used. You should get between 12-15 doughnuts.
- Once every doughnut is on the baking sheet, cover again with a clean towel, and place near or on top of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Once the oven is preheated, lightly brush each doughnut on both sides with vegan butter. Place the doughnuts (uncovered) into the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the doughnuts are puffed and lightly browned.
- Remove from the oven and allow the doughnuts to cool completely before making the filling (otherwise, the filling will melt out of the doughnuts).
- Once cooled, lightly brush each doughnut with vegan butter again and dip each doughnut into granulated sugar to cover completely. Place each doughnut back onto the baking sheet. To make the slits where the cream will go, use a 1″ wide sharp knife and carefully make a slit to the center of the doughnut. Repeat for each one.
- To make the cinnamon cream filling, use a hand mixer or stand mixer to beat the vegan butter until creamed. Add in the powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and 1 tbsp of dairy free milk to start, and begin to beat again until fluffy and creamy. If the texture isn’t smooth, you can add in an additional tablespoon of dairy free milk.
- Fill a piping bag with your desired tip with the filling. Press the piping bag into the slit that you made earlier and gently fill with filling. Repeat for each doughnut.
- Serve and enjoy!
