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An easy recipe for Baked Vegan Sweet Potato Donuts that you can feel good about! These vegan donuts are made with spelt flour, less sugar, and only the smallest amount of oil. Perfect for a cozy fall breakfast!
It is a breakfast week on the blog. After these Savory Lentil Bean Omelets, let’s whip up these baked vegan sweet potato donuts.
Let’s be honest, baked donuts are essentially muffins. However, I find there’s something about that donut shape that makes eating them that much more fun.
It feels super indulgent eating one of these baked donuts, but these babies aren’t half bad because they are baked instead of fried. Plus, they are made with spelt flour instead of white flour and have way less sugar than a traditional donut recipe.
Oh, and let’s not forget that these baked donuts have a vegetable in them. A starchy vegetable, but hey, that still counts towards our five a day.
I tossed a few of these baked sweet potato donuts in cinnamon sugar and glazed a few with my homemade salted caramel. I prefer the cinnamon sugar ones as I like my desserts less sweet. Hubby loved the ones glazed with salted caramel. It’s really up to you how you want to enjoy them.
Ingredients for making this recipe for vegan donuts:
- Sweet potato puree – I use canned. You can also use homemade puree made from baked or boiled sweet potatoes.
- Spelt flour – is an excellent source of manganese, and a good source of protein, copper, and zinc. Another bonus of baking with spelt flour is that some people who are sensitive to wheat can tolerate spelt. Please remember that spelt is not gluten-free, so if you are gluten-intolerant or have Celiac disease, this biscuit recipe is not for you
- Flax meal mixed with water makes for a great vegan egg substitute.
- Maple syrup adds some sweetness to the batter.
- Spices – ground ginger, cinnamon powder, ground cloves and a generous pinch of nutmeg. You can use a pre-made pumpkin spice if you want but I prefer blending the spices myself.
Tips and variations for this baked sweet potato donuts recipe:
- For making vegan pumpkin donuts, you can use canned or homemade pumpkin puree. Or make my yeasted pumpkin donuts.
- I topped these baked donuts with cinnamon sugar and my homemade salted caramel glaze but I also listed some more options for your below.
- I used a standard 6-cavity pan ( 12.5 x 8 inches). Donut pans can vary a lot in size, so the yield might vary. You may need to adjust your baking time accordingly if you have a mini-donut pan.
- Don’t have a donut pan? No problem! You can use the batter to make delicious vegan sweet potato muffins. Just bake the muffins for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- For mini sweet potato muffins, bake these for just 8-10 minutes total.
How to make this recipe for vegan donuts:
1. Whisk all the dry ingredients together. Mix wet in a separate bowl.
2. Add dry to wet ingredients and mix your donut batter until just about combined. Do not overmix. Pipe the batter into your doughnut pan. I do this using a ziplock bag as a DIY piping bag.
3. Even out the tops and bake for 17-18 minutes. Let cool a bit before removing from pan.
4. Toss the vegan baked sweet potato donuts in cinnamon sugar once cooled. Alternatively, glaze them with salted caramel or your favorite glaze.
Alternative glazes for these Sweet Potato Donuts:
- Rum Chocolate Glaze
- Chai Spiced Caramel
- Pumpkin Caramel Glaze
- Chocolate Glaze
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze
More vegan donut recipes on the blog:
- Vegan Chocolate Donuts
- Strawberry Doughnuts with Chocolate Ganache Glaze
- Mocha Chocolate Doughnuts with Salted Caramel
- Gulab Jamun – Indian Sweet Potato Doughnuts
Spiced Vegan Sweet Potato Doughnuts with Cinnamon sugar and Salted Caramel
Ingredients
Wet:
- 2 Tablespoons flax meal
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup ground raw sugar , 2 Tablespoons more for sweeter
- 2 Tablespoons oil, organic canola or coconut
- 3/4 cup sweet potato puree, I use canned. You can also use baked, boiled or nuked and well mashed Sweet potato. Or use Pumpkin puree for spiced pumpkin doughnuts
- 1 teaspoon vinegar, I use apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsps maple syrup
Dry:
- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- a generous pinch of nutmeg
Topping
- Cinnamon Sugar, 1/4 cup coarsely ground raw sugar + 2 tsps cinnamon
- Salted Caramel Recipe linked in notes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk flax meal and water and let sit for 2 minutes. Add sugar and rest of the wet ingredients and whisk well.
- In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add dry to wet and mix until just about combined. It will be a stiff-ish batter.
- Spoon the batter into doughnut pan or pipe using ziplock.
- Even out the tops and bake for 17-18 minutes. Let cool a bit before removing from pan.
- Toss in cinnamon sugar once cool, or glaze with salted caramel or your favorite glaze.
Notes
- For making vegan pumpkin donuts, use canned or homemade pumpkin puree. Or make my yeasted pumpkin donuts
- I topped these baked donuts with cinnamon sugar and my homemade salted caramel glaze.
- I used a standard 6-cavity pan ( 12.5 x 8 inches). Donut pans can vary a lot in size, so the donut yield might vary. You may need to adjust your baking time accordingly if you have a mini-donut pan.
- Don't have a donut pan? No problem! You can use the batter to make delicious vegan sweet potato muffins. Just bake the muffins for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- For mini sweet potato muffins, bake these for just 8-10 minutes total.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2013 and has been updated for accuracy
Made these this morning with pumpkin and they turned out fantastic. I drained the excess moisture from the pumpkin in a sieve before adding it. I’ve made a lot of unsuccessful vegan pumpkin muffin/bread recipes recently so I was happy to find one that worked! These were light and fluffy with just the right amount of sweet. Thanks!
Yes!! thank you for popping over
Hello! I used WW flour and baked on a thin cookie sheet cus my doughnut pans came in from Amazon very thin and I felt the pans would fall between the shelf spines. I sprinkled with coconut salt topping before putting them in the oven. I also used coconut sugar in my recipe so they aren’t super sweet which is what i wanted. I appreciate the recipe cus i had fallen off my oil free journey and stuff and was indulging in store bought. yippee . they held together well and are yummy. Top at service with sweetened toffuti cream cheese
btw, I used applesauce instead of the oil 🙂
What gluten free flours could you use? Maybe buckwheat flour?
I made these with coconut flour since it is what i had. however, i did not have raw sugar and used regular bakers sugar. the topping hardened like a rock. ill assume it is because I didnt use raw sugar???
hi ashley, its most like because of coconut flour. coconut flour works very differently compared to other flours. it absorbs all the liquid and bakes really quickly as well. the recipe will not work with just coconut flour. for substitution, use other gluten-free flours like oat, sorghum etc mixed with a little starch.
sugar subs between raw and regular work just fine.
I have made these several times now. They’re amazing and I’m lucky if they last a day in my house. I make double batches too.