Vegan homemade donuts!

It’s national donut day and if you have the time tonight, celebrate by making donuts! These tasty guys are my favourite kind – old-fashioned cake donuts with a generous pinch of nutmeg, and a nice vanilla glaze.

These are a vegan version of what Tim Horton’s “sour cream” donut could be if they really tried to elevate their donuts.

They do need to be fried in oil to get that crinkly, tasty texture, but even so they are a simple recipe to make. Blend, whisk, mix, rest, roll, cut, fry, glaze. Eat, eat, eat.

You will obviously get a bunch of donut holes, too, but we ate all the ones I made before I took the pictures. Oops!

Vegan Old-Fashioned “Sour Cream” Donuts

By Agent Minty, heavily adapted the recipe posted at The Messy Baker. Makes approximately 16 donuts plus holes.

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup (90g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups (180g) pastry or cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 block medium tofu
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp corn starch
• 1 Tbsp dairy-free “milk” of choice
• 2 Tbsp (30g) shortening
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 + 2Tbsp icing sugar
• 3 Tbsp warm water
• 2 tsp corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• at least 3 cups of Canola or other neutral-flavoured oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a food processor or blender, puree tofu until completely smooth.
3. Remove 3/4 cup +  4 tsp (200g) of the tofu puree and combine with vinegar, corn starch, and milk. Set aside (unused extra tofu can be discarded or used in a smoothie).
4. Cream together shortening and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 1 minute in a stand mixer.
5. Alternate repeatedly adding 1/3 of flour, then 1/2 of milk, beating mixture between additions. The dough will be sticky afterwards and a bit lumpy.
6. Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 40 minutes or longer.
7. Fill a heavy, deep pan at least 2inches deep with oil. Heat on med-high until a candy thermometer in the oil indicates that the oil is 325°F/165°C.
8. While the oil is heating, roll out the dough on a well-floured surface until it is 1/2-inch thick. Cut into rounds about 2 or 3 inches across, with a hole in the centre (I used the lid from my bottle of vanilla extract). Scraps can be gently pouched together and rolled out again to cut out more donuts. You’ll see I also tried making the donut shape mentioned in Laura Wilder’s Farmer Boy, the passage mentioning it can be read here.
9. Whisk the water into the icing sugar, mix in the vanilla and corn syrup, and set aside in a bowl near where your donuts will cool. Ensure that you have a wire rack set up with paper towels or a tray underneath, for cooling the donuts and that the oil is still the correct temperature.
10. Brush extra flour off the donuts before frying – this will reduce splattering!
11. Place 2-4 donuts at a time into the hot oil, allowing them to cook for 10-15 seconds on the first side, flipping them, cooking for another 1-2 minutes until golden brown on that seconds side, then flipping again (so the first side gets fully cooked).
12. Remove donuts from oil and place more in one donut at a time. While second batch is cooking, dip the first batch in the vanilla glaze and set donuts to drip and cool on the wire rack.