Baking Out Loud: Sweet, Puffy Vegan Donut Deliciousness

Fabulous, wonderful, delicious DONUTS! Better yet, they're VEGAN! Woot! Until recently I hadn't had a donut (which I adore) since going vegan over eleven years ago. My mom lives less than a block from a donut shop, and when I visit I can smell the sweet, warm, glazey goodness every morning and night. The urge to seek and consume is a hard one to fight! So imagine my utter excitement when a recent Vegetarian Times issue had a VEGAN DONUT feature! Yay!

I read through the magazine and made myself be patient until I got to the article, and it was worth the difficult wait. The piece featured several luscious-sounding donut recipes, all but one of which they suggested cooking in a donut baking pan. I'd never seen one, but I took the article's recommendation and found one online to buy right away (I'm such a sucker). Anyway, I chose the "French Toast" donut recipe, and was not disappointed. The results were heavenly, puffy, cinnamon-sugary rings of delish.


My review of the baking pan? It makes making donuts a complete breeze! The texture of the donuts ends up being more dense than that of fried donuts, but still awesome and still craving-satisfactory. It's suggested to fill the pan's individual donut cups, which look like little bundt pans, only partly full. I suggest filling them to the brim or a bit higher, as they don't seem to rise much. I ordered the larger of two pan sizes- the other was a mini- but the large are still not very big. I will order the mini at some point 'cause I can't resist the cuteness of teeny donuts.

Gotta share the recipe! :) Here' goes... Enjoy!



French Toast Doughnuts
from Veg Times Sept 2009 issue

(Makes 18 mini doughnuts or 6-8 large)

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2/3 cup plain soymilk
4 Tbs. nonhydrogenated vegan margarine
1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. egg replacer,such as Ener-G
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Maple Glaze
2 Tbs. plain soymilk
2 Tbs. maple syrup
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar
2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. To make Doughnuts: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat doughnut pan with cooking spray.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in large bowl.

3. Combine soymilk, margarine, and vinegar in saucepan, and heat over low heat until margarine is melted. Cool. Whisk egg replacer with 2 Tbs. water in small bowl; whisk this mixture and vanilla extract into soymilk mixture. Stir soymilk mixture into flour mixture.

4. Fill each doughnut mold half full with batter. Bake 12 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in doughnut comes out clean. Unmold doughnuts on wire rack to cool, and repeat with remaining batter.

5. To make Maple Glaze: Combine soymilk, maple syrup, sugar, and salt in saucepan, and bring to a simmer, whisking constantly. Remove from heat, and cool 5 to 10 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in vanilla extract.

6. To make Cinnamon Sugar: Whisk together sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

7. Dip each doughnut into Maple Glaze and sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar. Let glaze set before serving.