These are THE BEST Vegan doughnuts you’ll ever make. They’re light, soft and fluffy with a delicious sweet jam filling, topped with an almond icing. They’re not only delicious, but adorable shaped as little flowers for Spring / Summer. Vegan, dairy-free, egg-free and easy to make.
Flower shaped doughnuts
Happy Spring! I can’t believe it’s already April! I’m so excited to share with you my gorgeous flower shaped doughnuts. I mean, how CUTE are they?! The flower shape is surprisingly easy to achieve, with no special equipment needed! The fun flower design was inspired by a Instagram friend, @_yu.jung. The best thing is they look super impressive, yet they’re easy to achieve. You don’t need any special cookie cutters or equipment to make these delicious doughnuts. The recipe card is filled with step-by-step instructions including the full ingredients list to help you to make the BEST EVER flower shaped doughnuts!
Ingredients you’ll need:
This recipe uses simple and minimal ingredients. Whip up the doughnut dough
- Self raising flour – This recipe works best with self raising flour, and helps create a super light and fluffy dough.
- Active yeast – Make sure to use dry active yeast. I use two 7g packets.
- Caster sugar – Use a fine white sugar. Alternatively you can use granulated sugar or golden caster sugar.
- Dairy-free milk – The best dairy-free milk to use is soya milk, but you can use alternatives such as almond, oat or cashew.
- Dairy-free butter – Use a vegan block butter for best results.
- Flaxseeds – Mix the flaxseed with water to create the egg substitute. I use cold milled flaxseed, linked here.
- Water – Room temperature water is great!
- Icing sugar – Sieve the icing sugar to remove any lumps.
- Almond extract – Add a splash of almond extract into the icing to flavour. Alternatively you could use a squeeze of lemon juice for a zesty glaze.
- Jam – I used strawberry jam, but you can use your favourite flavour jam, such as cherry, raspberry or blueberry for example.
- Oil – Use a neutral oil for frying such as sunflower oil.
Shaping the flower doughnut
These doughnuts look effective but they’re super easy to make! Remember, you can find the fully written method and ingredients in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Roll dough into a ball
To simply shape the flower doughnuts (this recipe makes 12 doughnuts in total), roll each piece of dough into a ball and place on a sheet of baking paper.
- Press the dough ball down
Using the palm of your hand or something like the base of a glass, press the ball down to flatten slightly. Don’t press down too hard, or you can end up with a really flat doughnut!
- Petals
Using a sharp knife, make 6 cut equally spaced out around the edge of the dough ball to create the ”petals”. Pinch the edges of the ”petals” to make them a little more round in shape.
Proving time
My doughnut recipe is my GO-TO when I am in need of classic styled, delicious doughnuts. The secret is allowing the dough to have a good prove. You need to proof the doughnuts in a warm place for approximately 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. To help with the proving, you can lightly cover the dough with some clingfilm or a tea towel. This will retain the heat and prevent the dough from drying out.
If your house / kitchen is on the cooler in temperature, a simple trick is to heat your oven to 20ºC and prove them in there. Placing the dough in the lightly warm oven will help maintain a humid atmosphere for the yeast and will help with the rise.
Frying the doughnuts
Once the doughnuts have doubled in size, it’s now ready to fry! This doughnut recipe requires a large saucepan and oil. The best oil for frying is sunflower oil. It’s always best to use a oil which is neutral in flavour!
Lower the doughnuts into the hot oil and watch them fry! Depending on the size of the pan, you might be able to fit a few doughnuts in at a time. Allow one side to turn golden in colour, then flip them over to cook the other side. The oil will be extremely hot, so use a wooden spoon or something with a long handle to gently flip the doughnuts over.
Once ready and fried, transfer the doughnuts onto some kitchen paper. The kitchen paper will help soak up any excess oil. Watch me make these doughnuts here.
Decorating flower doughnuts
The BEST thing about the decoration of these doughnuts is that it’s SO easy! Mix together some icing sugar and lemon juice, dip the doughnuts in to glaze then pipe in some jam. I love this design, its super cute!!!
I have listed some alternative decorations below:
- Dust them with icing sugar and serve them plain.
- Dip the tops of the doughnuts in melted Biscoff spread and sprinkle over some crushed Biscoff biscuits.
- Colour plain icing with vegan friendly food gels, for fun and vibrant doughnuts.
- Fill and decorate the doughnuts with whatever you fancy. This could be jam, a vegan ‘Nutella’, Biscoff spread, lemon curd, orange curd or even leave them plain and coat them in sugar. The options are endless!
If you make, and love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you & happy baking! Make sure to tag me in your photos on Instagram and Facebook! And if you want to pin this recipe for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, above or below this post, or on any of the photos. Happy baking all!
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Vegan Flower Doughnuts
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 8–10 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
The BEST Vegan Doughnuts – a soft pillowy dough, with a jam filling and glaze. Shaped as flowers, they’re easy to make and delicious!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the doughnuts
- 330ml of warm dairy-free milk
- 14g of active dry yeast
- 75g of caster sugar
- 600g of self-raising flour
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 100g of dairy-free butter (melted)
- 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons of ground flax + 6 tablespoons of water)
- Sunflower oil (see step 10 for details)
Ingredients for the jam filling
- 60g of berry jam (you can use raspberry, strawberry or cherry for example)
Ingredients for the lemon icing
- 200g of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of almond extract
- Dairy-free milk
Instructions
Method (doughnuts)
- Pour the warm dairy-free milk into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and sugar, stir, cover with a tea towel then put into a warm place for around 10-15 minutes until frothy. TIP: To heat the milk, add it into a small saucepan and simmer until it’s warm. If the milk is too hot it can kill the yeast, so make sure its just warm.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour & salt and stir.
- In another separate bowl, add in the flaxseed, melted butter and water, stir to combine and set aside for 10 minutes to thicken. This creates your vegan egg substitute.
- Combine the dry mixture, yeast mixture and thickened egg substitute into a bowl and stir.
- Mix with a hand whisk or attach a dough hook to your stand mixer and begin to knead on medium until nice and smooth.
- Pop the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and place into a warm area (I place mine in my conservatory) and allow to prove for around 2-3 hours or until double in size.
- Once doubled, turn the dough out onto a floured surface, form into a large dough ball and divide the dough into equal balls. Weigh the balls out to 100g each.
- Roll the dough into balls and flatten down with the palm of your hand. Use a sharp knife to cut the ‘petals’. Make 6 cuts around the edges of the dough ball (refer to photos above for example). Gently squeeze the ends of the ‘petals’ together to give them a rounder edge. Repeat for the entire batch of doughnuts.
- Place the doughnuts back into a warm area covered with a tea towel for around 30 minutes until they have doubled in size.
- Add oil into a deep pan until half – 3/4 full and bring to the boil. Allow it to come up to 300 degrees. You can also use a deep fat fryer.
- Once the doughnuts have risen, gently lower them into the hot oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side or until puffed and golden brown in colour.
- Carefully take them out of the hot oil and place them onto kitchen paper to drain any excess oil.
Method (icing and jam filling)
- In a small bowl, sift in the icing sugar and add in the almond extract. Add in a teaspoon of milk at a time until a runny paste. You want the glaze to be quite thin.
- Dip the tops of each doughnut in the glaze and allow any excess to drip back into the bowl. Repeat for all the doughnuts.
- Transfer some jam into a piping bag and pipe into the middle of the ‘flower’. You can also spoon this on if you don’t have any piping bags.
- Dust with some icing sugar and serve. The glaze will set after 10-15 minutes at room temperature.
Notes
To store: These doughnuts are best enjoyed day of making! Make sure to store them in a sealed container in the fridge, and allow to come to room temperature before enjoying. Only store for up to 24 hours.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2-5 minutes
- Category: Doughnuts
- Method: Frying
- Cuisine: American
I can’t wait to make this recipe but your ingredients show 1 teaspoon of salt, then separately 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Is that correct or should one of them be baking powder? Thank you for sharing your recipes!