Vegan Maple Bacon Doughnuts! These amazing doughnuts are lightly spiced and baked to perfection. Finished them off with a sweet maple glaze and crispy coconut bacon for a delicious morning pastry.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
Why has it been over 2 years since I last made a doughnut recipe for the blog!?
My last doughnut recipe was in April of 2015 and it happens to be the last recipe I wrote before going on my 1 and a half year hiatus. Huh, perhaps I have answered my own question as to why there has been such a doughnut drought up in here as of late.
But fear not my darling friends; that is all about to change!
I have returned with doughnuts and this recipe is possibly my favorite one so far. These vegan Maple Bacon Doughnuts are everything you would hope a morning pastry to be: soft, sweet, salty, and seasoned to perfection!
Let's take a closer look.
Recommended Ingredients & Equipment
Making baked donuts is incredibly easy and satisfying. Who doesn’t love a soft and warm sweet pastry filled with spices and dipped in the glaze? And better yet, they are so simple to master.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Soy Milk - I recommend soy milk because it curdles the best. Other non-dairy milk will often curdle but not as well. This may affect the overall texture of the doughnut.
- Apple Cider Vinegar - This is my vinegar of choice when making vegan buttermilk (vinegar + soymilk) but white vinegar, white wine vinegar, and lemon juice are great alternatives.
- All-Purpose Flour – For a gluten-free option, use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.
- Baking Powder & Soda
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- White, Brown, and Powdered Sugar - Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements. For a healthier sugar alternative, I recommend coconut sugar.
- Vegan Sour Cream - This is the binder of the recipe. I suggest looking for Daiya or Tofutti brands. If you can't find vegan sour cream, applesauce is a great alternative. Check out my guide on replacing eggs for more ideas.
- Oil – This recipe calls for coconut oil because it doesn’t add flavor. You can also use avocado, olive, or canola oil. If you want to eliminate the oil altogether, swap it out for the same amount of applesauce.
- Vanilla Extract
- Maple Syrup
- Coconut Bacon - For the coconut bacon you will need large coconut chips, soy sauce, maple syrup, liquid smoke, and salt. You can also buy coconut bacon online. (<<affiliate link)
Recommended Equipment
Most importantly, you will need a couple of donuts pans. With a donut pan you can make all the baked donuts you want this fall.
It’s also nice to have is a good piping bag. When baking donuts (rather than frying) the batter is soft like cake and will need to be piped in the donut pans. You can get reusable piping bags or one-use plastic bags. Either way, they are super cheap and nice to have on hand.
In addition, you’ll need basic kitchen equipment such as a mixing bowl, utensils, and a wire cooling rack. (<<affiliate links)
Check out the full list of my recommended kitchen tools and gadgets.
How to Make Vegan Maple Donuts:
Step One - Make Vegan Bacon
To make the coconut bacon, whisk together the liquid ingredients in a small bowl. Add the coconut chips and toss them together so that the coconut chips are completely coated.
Spread the coconut chips onto a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the coconut chips are crispy and very fragrant. Keep a close eye on the coconut bacon; it will burn quickly!
Remove the coconut bacon from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature before using.
Step Two – Make the batter
First, mix your dry ingredients together. That’s your flour, salt, and spices.
In a separate bowl whisk together your wet ingredients. That’s the sugars, sour cream, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. You don’t want to over mix or your doughnut will become tough and gummy.
Don’t worry about lumps – a few lumps are just fine.
Step Three – Fill and Bake
The batter will be soft, so a piping bag is the best option here. If you don’t have one, you can make a makeshift piping bag by pouring your batter into a ziplock bag, cutting off the tip, and piping from there.
Fill your donut molds mostly to the top.
Bake the donuts for just about 15-18 minutes. When done the dough should spring back when gently pressed. You can also check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the donut. A clean toothpick means you’re good to go!
Once the donuts are ready, pull them out of the oven. Let them rest 5 minutes before flipping them onto a wire cooling rack. Let the donuts cool completely before dipping them into your glaze or sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar.
Pro Tip: This cooling time is necessary otherwise the donuts might crumble and the glaze will definitely melt off.
Serving And Storing
Serve donuts immediately as a morning pastry or afternoon snack. Serve with a homemade Chai Latte.
Store leftover donuts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. They can also be frozen for up to 2 months. When ready to eat, pull them out of the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
Tips and Tricks
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Generously spray the donut pan before piping in the batter to ensure the donuts do not stick to the pan.
- Take care not to overmix the batter. Overmixed batter becomes tough and gummy.
- For cleanest results, pipe in the batter with a piping bag.
- Let the donuts rest in the pan for 5 minutes before flipping them onto a wire cooling rack. Let donuts cool completely before dipping them in the glaze to prevent the glaze from melting or donuts from falling apart.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
Can I make this recipe gluten-free?
For sure! For gluten-free doughnuts, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.
I don’t have a doughnut pan. Would these work as muffins?
Yes! When making muffins, I prefer using a mini-muffin pan (<<affiliate link) for these as they do tend to be a bit sweeter than muffins.
More Vegan Donut Recipes
Vegan Maple Bacon Doughnuts
Ingredients
Maple Doughnuts
- ½ cup soy milk
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup vegan sour cream
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Maple Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
Coconut Bacon
- 3 cups unsweetened coconut chips
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325.
- In a small bowl combine soy sauce, maple syrup, liquid smoke, and salt. Place coconut chips in a larger bowl and toss with maple syrup/soy sauce mixture. Lay in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep a close eye on the coconut to prevent burning. Remove from oven and set aside to let cool while making the doughnuts.
- Turn oven up to 350 degrees. F. Spray two doughnut pans and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Set aside to allow milk to curdle.
- In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add brown and white sugar, sour cream, oil, and vanilla to soy milk mixture. Whisk together. Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry. Mix together until a uniform batter has formed.
- With a piping bag, pipe the batter into prepared doughnut pans so they are about ⅔rd full, each. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before flipping out onto cooling racks to let doughnuts completely cool.
- While doughnuts are cooling, mix together the ingredients for the glaze. Add maple syrup slowly until the glaze is pourable but still thick. Dip doughnuts into glaze and top immediately with coconut bacon.
Notes
- Generously spray the donut pan before piping in the batter to ensure the donuts do not stick to the pan.
- Take care not to overmix the batter. Overmixed batter becomes tough and gummy.
- For cleanest results, pipe in the batter with a piping bag.
- Can I omit the oil? Sure. If you would like to make any of these recipes oil-free, simply swap out the oil for applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
- Can I make this recipe gluten-free? For sure! For gluten-free doughnuts, I recommend using a 1:1 baking blend.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Maggie says
So yummy! The donut itself was incredible. I used applesauce instead of coconut oil and added quite a bit more syrup and a little bit of oat milk to the frosting to get a consistency that worked for me. Highly recommend this recipe! Thanks for this one!
David says
Made the recipe! Yummy! Just one thing... 2c of powdered sugar with 1/4c maple syrup does not work at all. I had to use almost 1c total of syrup to get it to the point where it would make a glaze