Vegan Maple Glazed Donuts

Ingredients:

These maple frosted donuts are made with a handful of ingredients that make them super flavorful, sweet, and tender. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Vegan Butter: I prefer Violife, Earth Balance, Trader Joe’s Dairy Free Butter or Country Crock Plant Butter. You can learn more about the best vegan butter for baking here.

• Cinnamon: This helps create a cozy spiced flavor in the donut.

• Nutmeg: For a characteristic cake donut flavor.

• Granulated Sugar: To add sweetness. You can also make these donuts with half granulated sugar and half light brown sugar for a rich flavor. 

• Vanilla Extract

• Maple Extract: Don’t skip this! It’s what adds such an intense maple flavor to the glaze.

• Vegan Yogurt: I used Siggi’s Plant Based Sweetened Plain Yogurt, but any will work. This acts as the egg replacer in this recipe.

• Dairy Free Milk: I recommend oat milk or soy milk.

• All-Purpose Flour: I used King Arthur’s All Purpose Flour. For the best results, measure the flour with a digital scale or the spoon and level method.

• Baking Soda & Powder

• Salt

Best Vegan Egg Substitutes for Baked Donuts

To make sure these are the best vegan maple donuts, I tested them with a few different egg replacers and without an egg replacer.

Without the egg substitute in this recipe, the donuts have a crumblier, looser texture (more like a muffin than a donut). I also tested this recipe with flaxseed as the egg replacer and the texture was, again, much more like a muffin than a donut.

This recipe requires 1 egg worth of egg replacer. I recommend using dairy free yogurt. 

You can also use 1 tablespoon of the Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer powder and 2 tablespoons of warm water to create the vegan egg. Let the mixture sit for 2 minutes to thicken. Be sure to combine the powder and water together 2-3 minutes before you need to mix it into the batter.

NOTE: If using Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer omit the baking soda in the recipe, as this egg replacer has leavening already included in it.

Helpful Equipment

• Large Bowl: To make the donut batter
• Donut Pan: To bake or air fry the donuts. I used one by the brand Bellemain which is nonstick and creates the perfect sized donuts.
• Piping Bag: This is optional- to pipe the batter into the pan, which helps create a more uniform donut-like shape.

Step By Step Instructions

STEP 1: Prepare your donut pan by spraying it with cooking spray.

STEP 2: In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the softened vegan butter and sugar. Then, add the dairy free yogurt, vanilla extract and maple extract. 

STEP 3: Add half the dairy free milk and half the flour on top and mix until just combined. (This is a similar creaming process that I use in my vegan pound cake– it helps prevent over-mixing).

STEP 4: Add the remaining dairy free milk and sift on the remaining dry ingredients on top (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon). 

STEP 5: Mix the wet ingredients with the dry until just combined and it forms a very thick batter.

STEP 6: Spoon or pipe the batter into the greased donut pan. If spooning the batter, even out the tops of the donuts with the back of a spoon.

STEP 7: Air fry at 375F for 6-7 minutes or bake at 375F for 11-12 minutes. Let the donuts cool for 3-4 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Maple Glaze Ingredients:

After the donuts cool, you can make the glaze and top them with it. This easy maple glaze only needs 4 ingredients. They are:

• Powdered Sugar: also called icing sugar
• Maple Extract

NOTE: Some maple extracts have coloring added to them which will result in a darker glaze color (see below). The photos in this post with a darker glaze were made with a maple extract from Kroger’s generic brand and the photos with a lighter colored glaze were made with McCormick’s Maple Extract. Both had great flavor.

• Maple Syrup
• Vegan Butter: this glaze calls for melted butter that’s been cooled. 

How to Make the Maple Glaze

In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, maple syrup, melted vegan butter, and maple extract. It should form a very thick glaze (like the photo above).

The icing should be very thick and drizzle slowly off your spoon, forming thick ribbons.

If it looks like your maple icing is too thin, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time to the mixture until it reaches the desired consistency.

Glazing the Donuts

Next up is dipping the cooled donuts into the glaze. The bottoms of the donuts are smoother, so I prefer to dip that side into the glaze. Make sure the donuts are completely cooled before glazing them. If they are still warm, the maple glaze will become too thin and seep into the donuts.

Place the glazed donuts on a wire rack with a paper towel underneath to help catch the drips. To help the glaze harden, let the donuts rest at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Then, these vegan maple glazed donuts are ready to enjoy!

Air-fried Donuts vs. Baked Donuts

I found that the air-fried donuts cook faster, have a bit of a crispier “shell” on the outside, and are more moist on the inside.

The baked donuts take about twice as long to cook and are fluffier on the outside. I honestly really enjoyed both versions, and I found the main benefit of air frying them was saving time and the crispier shell.

Serving and Storage

These baked vegan maple glazed donuts are absolutely delicious on their own but would be even better with a cup of coffee or a latte. 

You can store any leftovers in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature. Or you can store them on a baking sheet with parchment paper loosely covered with plastic wrap for 1-2 days. 

⭐️ Believe it or not, I actually think the texture of these donuts is even better the next day! The cake crumb absorbs some of the glaze and becomes shockingly similar to a fried cake donut. So good! ⭐️

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