Mini Donuts, Gluten Free and Vegan

I was inspired when Lolo over at VeganYumYum.com recently made vegan mini donuts, only they weren’t gluten free. So I bought some mini donut pans and set about altering the recipe a bit by replacing the all purpose flour with Bob’s Red Mill GF baking flour, which I’d had collecting dust in the cupboard for a while. Normally I’m not a fan of premixed flours, but I’ve had this sitting around and needed to use it.

The first attempt went ok, but the donuts came out nearly perfect once I added a little more flour and baking powder. I personally like my donuts with no glaze, as you can see in the picture, but I’ve included Lolo’s glaze recipes below.

These little guys are cakey but still light, a rarity for gluten free baked goods. Lolo’s recipe originally called for nutmeg and cinnamon, but I omitted them because the first batch turned out too “spicy” for my taste… if you want to, you can add 1/8 tsp of each to the dry ingredients.

Baked Mini Donuts, Vegan & Gluten Free
Adapted from VeganYumYum’s Mini Donut Recipe
Yield: 24 Donuts

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup + 3 tbsp Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup soymilk (I used unsweetened)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
egg replacer for 1 egg
4 tbsp Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 350º F

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk to mix thoroughly. Combine wet ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium low heat and mix until earth balance is melted. The mixture should only be slightly warm, just enough to melt the margarine.

Add wet to dry and mix until just combined. It should form a very soft dough.

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Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough into your **greased** nonstick mini-donut pan, filling them about 2/3 full. Smooth out the top of the dough with your fingers, this will make for more even, prettier donuts, but isn’t crucial. A note on greasing the pan: I tried this ungreased, and wowie, was it a mess. It was baking carnage, I tell ya! Save yourself the tears and spritz a little oil on your pan.

Bake for 12 minutes. They should not be browned on top, but a tester will come out clean. Invert hot pan over a cutting board or cooling rack to release donuts. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

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Glaze
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 tbsp hot soymilk

Whisk sugar and soymilk together, then dip donuts, top first, into glaze until half of donut is covered. Let drip for a second, then set of parchment to dry.

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Chocolate Dip

Melt 6 oz of high quality sweet chocolate over low heat in a double boiler. Remove from heat and stir until chocolate is smooth and barely warm to the touch.

Dip your donuts one-by-one into the chocolate until completely covered. Place donut on your wire rack to drip off excess chocolate and allow to set for about half an hour before handling.

Enjoy!