Easy Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

Whether you spell it doughnut or donut, there's no denying that these little things can be an absolute joy. Unfortunately, for those who try to avoid animal products, it can be hard to know if your options at the store or bakery are a good choice. For those who are health conscious, the idea of eating a ring of fried dough can also be a turnoff. But lo and behold, the baked donut! Super easy, all vegan, and while I'm not gonna say that these are necessarily "healthy," at under 200 calories per donut (if made per the recipe), you can feel pretty dang okay about indulging in one of these.

This recipe makes only four donuts, and with a reason. This is one of the few recipes I frequently make that doesn't keep well. We've all tried stale donuts - they're tough and unpleasant and kinda weird. When stored right, these donuts don't go hard; instead, they go very very soft - and quickly begin to molder. I recommend eating these fresh out of the oven or at the very least within 1 - 2 days. They are still very good and perfectly moist during this time and our little fungal friends haven't yet had a chance to visit. Since my feline roommates are not allowed to indulge in these treats, I store them in an airtight storage container, at room temperature, away from the sun. If you plan to eat them within a few hours, you can leave them covered on a plate.

One last note - if you want to make more of these, it's very easy to scale this recipe. Scaling some baking recipes can be a little scary, but this one is designed for simplicity. No complicated math required!

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Ingredients for the donuts

• 0.5 cup all-purpose flour

• 0.25 cup white/granulated sugar+

• 0.5 tsp baking powder

• 0.25 tsp fine grain salt

• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon

• 5 Tbsp soy milk (or other dairy-free milk of choice)

• 0.5 Tbsp unsweetened apple sauce (1.5 tsp, if you lack this measuring spoon)

• 0.5 Tbsp melted vegan butter

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for the topping

• NOTE: If you only want to cover one side of the donut, cut these measurements in half

• 0.25 cup white/granulated sugar

• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon

• 2 Tbsp melted vegan butter

NOTE: You are going to need a donut pan for this recipe! I have this one (I do not get revenue for clicks - don't worry), and chose it strictly because it was cheap. It works well, though you can see that sometimes you get a bit of a shelf around the donut. Doesn't hurt the flavor at all, though!

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (about 177°C) and spray your donut pan with non-stick spray. Depending on your pan, you may be able to get away without this step. I very rarely use non-stick spray but have found that even with a non-stick pan, it's important with the tools I have on hand.

2. Sift the flour into a small- to medium-sized bowl. You don't need anything fancy here, just place a mesh strainer over the bowl, dump the flour in, and gently tap it until it all falls through the mesh. This extra step makes the donuts noticeably fluffier, but if you don't have a mesh strainer that's fine - you can just skip this step and your finished product will still be delightful.

3. Add the sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (0.5 tsp from the donut ingredient list) to the bowl, and mix together with a whisk or a fork.

4. Add the milk, applesauce, melted butter (0.5 Tbsp from the donut ingredient list), and vanilla to the bowl and mix with the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to mix well, trying to break up any major flour clumps along the way. The batter shouldn't be too thick or too runny.

5. Pour, spoon, or pipe the batter into your donut pan. I tend to just pour straight out of the bowl because I'm lazy, but you can also use a deep spoon or use a piping bag/zip lock back with a corner cut off to do this transfer. Whatever your method, only fill the pan about 3/4 of the way full, otherwise you might lose your hole!

6. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn golden brown. Baking times will vary depending on the size of your pan - mine has 3.75-inch wells, for your reference. When done, let the donuts cool for a few minutes in the pan, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool further.

7. While the donuts cool, mix the cinnamon and sugar from the topping ingredients in a small bowl that you can fit the donuts into. In a separate bowl, melt the butter from the topping ingredients. This bowl should also be big enough to fit the donuts into.

8. When the donuts have cooled for 15 - 20 minutes on the wire rack, you can start adding the topping. Dip one or both sides of a donut into the melted butter, then into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. I like to try and bury them a little bit, to make sure there's full tasty coverage. Do this one at a time for each donut.

9. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

• +Sugar can be a real pain in the neck if you're trying to maintain a vegan or vegetarian diet, especially white/granulated/regular sugar. No, not all sugar is vegan. The issue, however, lies in the processing, not in the actual ingredients Some companies filter white sugar through bone char, and while this doesn't mean you're ingesting animal bones or products, some people take issue with this, myself included. Fortunately, there are some brands that never use bone char and ways to check for others. As a rule of thumb, sugar labeled "organic" or "unrefined" are vegan-friendly, white included. VegNews has a decent rundown on some vegan-friendly brands and What Sugar Blog has a great explainer about how to determine if a specific bag of Domino Sugar (one of the most popular brands in the USA) is from a vegan or a non-vegan lot. If you only want to support vegan-friendly brands, I recommend you stay away from Domino, as not all of their products count, but these tips are good in a pinch.

Adapted from Nora Cooks