Vegan Donuts - Italian Ciambelle

Cambia lingua / Switch language: Italiano

These vegan donuts are soft, moist, sweet, chewy and made with very simple ingredients. They can be oven baked or deep fried, and can be even made with wholegrain flour for an even healthier treat. We follow the traditional Italian recipe for making donuts "ciambelle", and make some tweaks to use only plant-based ingredients.

🎥 YouTube Video

📋 Recipe

Vegan Donuts - Italian Ciambelle

Author: Nico

These vegan donuts are soft, moist, sweet, chewy and made with very simple ingredients. They can be oven baked or deep fried, and can be even made with wholegrain flour for an even healthier treat. We follow the traditional Italian recipe for making donuts "ciambelle", and make some tweaks to use only plant-based ingredients.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Proofing Time 2 hrs 20 mins

Total Time 2 hrs 55 mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Servings 16 donuts

Calories 234 kcal

Equipment

• Round pastry or cookie cutter 8cm / 3 inches (or a wide glass)
• Round pastry or cookie cutter 2,5cm / 1 inch (or a bottol cap)

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 200 g (0.8 cups) plant milk soy or almond
• 130 g (0.7 cups) sugar
• 25 g (0.9 oz) fresh yeast or 7g (¼oz) dry yeast
• 100 g (0.4 cups) soy yogurt
• 80 g (0.6 cups) sunflower seed oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 600 g (4.8 cups) all-purpose flour
• 2 L (0.5 gal) frying oil only if you want to deep-fry the donuts

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

• 2 tbsp plant milk
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Melted Chocolate Topping

• 130 g (4.6 oz) dark chocolate or dark chocolate chip cookies
• candied orange optional

Powdered sugar icing

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• some hot water

Instructions

 

Photos ONPhotos OFF

Preparing the dough

• In a bowl, add lukewarm plant milk, sugar and crumble the yeast in it. Mix well until the yeast is fully dissolved.
  
• While stirring with a whisk, add: soy yogurt, oil, vanilla, cinnamon.
  
• Add the flour, a little at a time, while stirring with a wooden spoon. Keep adding flour as the dough absorbs it.
  
• When the flour is fully incorporated, transfer the dough on a worktop and knead with your hands for about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with extra flour if the dough sticks to your hands.

  You should aim for an elastic but rather soft and moist dough. It shouldn't stick to your hands but it should feel moist.
  
• Put the dough back into the bowl with some flour on the bottom. Brush the dough with some water and cut a cross on top of it.

  Cover it with a cloth and let proof in a warm place until it doubles (or even better triples) in volume (about 2 hours).

  TIP: to help the yeast, we proof our dough in the oven. We turn it on for 1 minute, then off. The gentle heat will help the dough proof.
  
• Transfer the dough onto your worktop. Gently press it down with your hands until you are able to fold it on itself. Fold it at least once, better twice.
  
• With a rolling pin, flatten the dough to about 1.3 cm (0.5 inch).
  
• Cut the dough in discs with the larger round pastry cutter. Then make a whole in the middle of the discs with the smaller one.

  Put the leftover dough scraps back together, flatten them and get more donuts out of them, until you run out of dough.

  TIP: if you don't have the pastry cutters you can use a large glass and a bottle cap instead.
  
• Put the donuts on a baking rack lined with a silicon baking mat or with parchment paper. Let proof for another 20 minutes before either frying them or baking them.
  

For oven-baked donuts

• Preheat the oven to 180C/356F and bake the donuts for 15 to 18 minutes, until slightly golden on top. Don't overcook them or they'll dry out on the inside.

  TIP: it is best to use a baking rack and NOT a baking tray because the tray will overcook the bottom of the donuts.

  TIP: in this case a silicon baking mat is better than parchment paper because it will protect the donuts from taking the shape of the baking rack. If you don't have a silicon baking mat use 2 or 3 sheets of baking paper to make a sturdier base for the donuts.
  

For deep-fried donuts

• Warm up the oil to 180C / 356F. Make sure the oil doesn't get hotter than that. The donuts will burn on the outside.
  
• Gently dip the donuts in the frying oil. Then turn them around as soon as they get color on the bottom. It should take you around 1 minute to fry each donut.
  
• Let the oil drip, then place on a tray covered with kitchen paper.
  

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

• Mix the cinnamon and the sugar on a plate and prep some plant milk on another plate or shallow bowl.
  
• One by one, dip the surface of the donut in the milk, then in the cinnamon sugar.
  

Dark Chocolate Topping

• With a knife, chop the dark chocolate. You can also use chocolate chips if you prefer.
  
• Melt the chocolate bain-marie.

  Bain-marie: In a pot, add boiling water. Then take a bowl that fits in the pot, and place it on top of the hot water (the pot should be off the heat). The bottom of the bowl should be touching the hot water in the pot. Put the chocolate in the bowl and stir it with a spatula until the heat of the water completely melts the chocolate.
  
• Dip the top of the donuts in the chocolate. Place on a cooling rack and add a piece of candied orange zest on top.
  

Powdered Sugar Icing

• Mix together the icing sugar with the hot water till you have a smooth white cream.

  Dip the top of the doughnut into the icing and serve.
  

YouTube Video

Notes

HOW TO MAKE WHOLEGRAIN DONUTS?

For wholegrain donuts you can use the same measurements and procedure but:

• Replace all-purpose flour with 50% wholewheat flour and 50% first clear flour.
• Replace the sugar with unrefined cane sugar.

Also, we suggest using the MELTED DARK CHOCOLATE TOPPING for Wholegrain Donuts.

• Replace the cinnamon in the dough with grated orange zest.
• Replace the cinnamon sugar topping with melted dark chocolate topping (+ candied orange peel, if you have it).

NB: Nutritional values are for oven-oven baked donuts with cinnamon sugar coating.

Nutritional Values

Nutrition Facts

Vegan Donuts - Italian Ciambelle

Amount Per Serving

Calories 234 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Fat 6g9%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Potassium 70mg2%

Carbohydrates 41g14%

Dietary Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 11g12%

Protein 5g10%

Vitamin A 56IU1%

Vitamin B6 1mg50%

Vitamin C 2mg2%

Vitamin E 2mg13%

Vitamin K 1µg1%

Calcium 35mg4%

Folate 85µg21%

Iron 2mg11%

Manganese 1mg50%

Magnesium 9mg2%

Zinc 1mg7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Did you make this recipe?Tag us on Instagram @Italiaplantbased

👨🏻‍🍳 Tips

• Help the yeast proof by turning on the oven for 1 minute until it gets slightly warm. Then place the dough in the oven and let proof for 2 hours. Proofing will make your vegan donuts super soft.
• Brush the dough with water before covering with a cloth when proofing. We do this to reduce the use of plastic. This way you don't need to cover the dough with film and your Italian ciambelle will be environmentally friendly.
• Fold the dough on itself before flattening it completely. This create layers of dough and yeast that will help the ciambelle rise while cooking and be super soft and airy.
• Get round pastry cutters for best results. Alternatively, you can use a wide glass and a bottle cap to shape the vegan donuts.
• Bake on an oven rack and NOT on a baking tray as the tray will cook the base of the vegan donut too fast, resulting in a hard bottom.

🥫 Storage

These vegan donuts (Italian ciambelle) are best eaten straight after baked or fried. If you want to make them last longer you need to store them in a plastic bag before you put the toppings on. This way the vegan donuts are protected from oxygen and won't get dry as fast, and will last for up to 1 week.

In case you already put the toppings on, still store them in a plastic bag to extend their shelf life.

🍜 Variations

With donuts you are only limited by your imagination. You can top them with pretty much anything you like. We like to keep our variations simple:

1. Wholegrain Donuts

Our favourite variation is to make these vegan Italian donuts wholegrain, by adding wholewheat flour and unrefined sugar. The donuts turn out just as delicious and airy, if you let them proof well, but they are a lot healthier as the wholegrain flour adds fibre and nutrients.

How to make wholegrain donuts?

For wholegrain donuts you can use the same measurements and procedure but:

• Replace all-purpose flour with 50% wholewheat flour and 50% first clear flour.
• Replace the sugar with unrefined cane sugar.

If you make wholegrain donuts we recommend using the melted chocolate topping.

• Replace the cinnamon in the dough with grated orange zest.
• Replace the cinnamon sugar topping with melted dark chocolate topping (+ candied orange peel, if you have it).

HOW TO MAKE MELTED CHOCOLATE TOPPING?

• With a knife, chop up the dark chocolate. You can also use chocolate chips if you prefer.
• Melt the chocolate bain-marie.
  Bain-marie: in a pot, add boiling water. Then take a bowl that fits in the pot, and place it on top of the hot water (the pot should be off the heat). The bottom of the bowl should be touching the hot water in the pot. Put the chocolate in the bowl and stir it with a spatula until the heat of the water completely melts the chocolate.
• Dip the top of the donuts in the chocolate. Place on a cooling rack and add a piece of candied orange zest on top.

2. Powdered sugar icing

To make this delicious topping, just melt half a cup of powdered sugar with a couple of tablespoons of hot water. Mix them till you have a smooth white cream and dip the top of the donut in it.

If you like donuts, you might also like our Vegan Apple Fritters. They are almost irresistible on their own or dipped in Vegan custard.

🍰 Related recipes

• Will you be cooking this dish at home? Let us know in the comments below!