Maple Cream Filled Fried Vegan Doughnuts
I’ve done some experimenting with baked doughnuts, but honestly if they’re not fried, I might as well make cookies or a cake. So it’s time for our homemade, filled and frosted fried vegan doughnuts. Maple doughnuts, of course! These doughnuts are cooked to golden perfection, soft and airy in the middle and crisp and flaky on the outside. The center is bursting with a smooth, silky, vanilla and maple flavored cream. The top is coated with a rich, sweet, buttery, maple frosting. The perfect weekend endulgence!
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Maple Doughnuts are the Best Doughnuts: Change My Mind
There’s always been a clear best doughnut in my mind- the maple doughnut. Sometimes I preferred the maple cream filled doughnut, but other times I was a fan of the less messy, non-filled variety. Not only is maple an amazing flavor- the sweet, maple, salty, golden, deliciousness – but it is highly associated with summer and vacation in my mind. Both the state of Vermont, and our neighbors to the north in Canada have a soft spot in my heart, and both provide good quality maple syrup. Every summer until very recently (thanks, COVID), we would go up to Canada. And, just a ferry ride away is a treasure common in Canada- Tim Hortons! A quick side note- I wasn’t vegan yet, and unfortunately Tim Hortons doesn’t offer vegan donuts. Some locations do have Beyond Meat items, and I can testify that they are delicious! Some mornings my Dad would wake up early, and hop on the first ferry of the morning- it was around 5 am. He would head over to Tim Hortons when the ferry was unloading and reloading passengers, pickup a box of doughnuts, and come home, still long before I opened my eyes. And when I got up in the morning, there they were. Perfect, golden, maple doughnuts. Most of the doughnuts would be maple, or maple filled, because they were everyone’s favorite. They didn’t have the artificial flavor that other doughnuts had. And the coating wasn’t waxy, like chocolate ones tended to be. You just didn’t mess with the pureness of a good maple doughnut.
Looking for More Maple Maple Goodness? Try one of these Vegan Maple Recipes!
- Super Refreshing Ginger Maple Pineapple Seltzer
- Maple Butternut Squash Dessert Crepes
- White Chocolate Maple Walnut Vegan Biscotti
- Pinole Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Syrup
- Easy 4-Ingredient Filo Maple Vegan Apple Tart
- Almond, Oat and Vegan Apple Cookies
- Pumpkin, Pecan and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
How to Make Cream Filled Fried Vegan Doughnuts
This is definitely a weekend project, as it’s going to take some care and attention, with multiple components, plus you have to do some deep frying. But honestly, if doughnuts were too easy to make, I would eat them waaay more than is healthy, so it’s good to keep these guys as a special treat. Here are the basic steps-
- Make the Dough. Doughnuts use a yeasted dough, which means that they need time to rise after the dough comes together.
- Make the Cream Filling. While the dough rises, you can make your filling. For these doughnuts, we’re going to use cashew milk thickened with cornstarch. You can use any vegan milk you like, but I think cashew milk has a nice richness and creaminess to it.
- Roll and Cut the Doughnuts. Once your dough is risen, punch it back down and grab your rolling pin. You’ll want to get a dough about 1/4 of an inch thick. To cut them out, you can use any circular cutter- a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or (like I did) a mason jar lid!
- Fry the Doughnuts. Here’s where a good thermometer comes in handy. Try to keep your oil temperature around 350F (175C) to get your donuts perfectly golden brown, and so they don’t cook to quickly and crack and burn.
- Fill the Fried Vegan Doughnuts. Using a sharp, long piping tip (like this one), inject cream into the center of each doughnut by making a small whole in the side.
- Frost the Doughnuts. To make the maple frosting, combine some melted vegan butter and maple syrup, and heat it up. Whisk it with powdered sugar, and then dunk the tops of your doughnuts in the glaze. If the glaze starts to harden while you’re still frosting, you can always warm it up a little to soften it again.
Maple Cream Filled Fried Vegan Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 1 tsp. instant yeast
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- ¼ cup vegan yogurt
- 1/3 cup cashew milk (or other plant-based milk)
- ¼ cup vegan butter, melted
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- Vegetable oil, for fying
- 3 cups cashew milk (or other plant-based milk)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¾ cup cornstarch
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Add ¼ cup of warm water to a mixing bowl, and the stir in the sugar and yeast. Let it sit for five minutes to activate, and then add the vegan yogurt, melted vegan butter, cashew milk, and salt. Mix together, and then add the flour, half at a time, so it’s all incorporated. Move the dough to a clean and floured countertop, and kneed for a few minutes, until you can gently poke it with your thumb and the dough will return to its shape within the next few seconds. Once the dough is well incorporated, return it to the bowl, cover it with a damp dishcloth, and place it in a warm place to proof for 1 ½ hours.
- While the dough is proving, you can make the cream filling. Place two cups of cashew milk in a pot, along with the maple syrup. Start heating. In a jar or bowl, combine the remaining cup of milk with the cornstarch and vanilla, whisking or shaking until there are no lumps. Add the cornstarch slurry to the milk on the stove, and whisk well. After a few minutes the mixture will start to thicken. Remove from the stove, and push the thickened cream through a fine metal sieve to remove any lumps. Put the strained cream into a large piping bag with a doughnut filling tip. Set it aside.
- Once the dough is proved, punch it down. Next, on a clean countertop, roll out your dough until it is about ¼ inch thick. Cut out your doughnuts- I used a wide mouth mason jar lid for mine. Because these are filled doughnuts, we want to cut out large circles, not the classic whole in the middle type. Collect the scraps, and roll them out again. If you’re doing mason jar lid sized doughnuts, you should get around a dozen donuts.
- Add a couple inches of oil into a large pot, and heat the oil to 350°F (175°C). While the oil heats, prepare a baking tray with a cooling rack on top to let the finished doughnuts drain. Place the doughnuts in the hot oil, making sure only to do 2-3 at a time so you don’t drop the temperature of the oil too much. After 2-3 minutes, use a slotted spoon to flip each donut over. They should be a nice light golden color. Wait another minute or two, then remove them from the oil and onto your prepared rack. Repeat until all the donuts are made.
- Let the doughnuts cool before filling them. Once they are room temperature, use your piping tip to perforate a small hole in the side of your donut. Squeeze some of your cream filling into the center. Repeat with each doughnut.
- Make your glaze. Heat the vegan butter and maple in a small pot until all the butter is melted and it is warm. Use a whisk to combine with the powdered sugar to make your glaze. Dip the filled doughnuts into the glaze, gently shaking off any extra. Return to the cooling rack, and wait about 30 minutes until the glaze is hardened to enjoy.
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These are delicious!
I made them using oat milk in the doughnuts but canned coconut milk for the cream filling & I added a splash of maple extract to it.
I also added some maple extract to the glaze (too much of it, so I had to try and even out the flavor with some more maple syrup and powdered sugar!) and they came out delicious!
I cheated and used a deep fryer for easier temperature control of my oil, though 🙂
So glad you liked them, Lainey! And if I had a deep fryer, we absolutely would have used it too. Maybe it’s time to invest in one?