These Vegan Brioche Donuts are buttery, sweet, and everything you want a donut to be. Surprisingly easy to make and delicious to eat.
Donuts are one of my favorite fried foods. In my opinion, the only way to eat a donut is if it’s been fried, rolled, and filled. From one of my favorite bakeries, I tried these vegan brioche donuts filled with blueberry jam with a lemon-thyme glaze.
It was absolutely delicious and I wanted to make brioche donuts at home. I made mine Boston cream style with vegan pastry cream and a chocolate glaze.
It sounds fancy, but the steps are simple and easy to follow. Check it out!
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Ingredients
- Bread Flour. Bread flour has more protien which gives the dough more elasticity. This gives the dough the ability to trap more air bubbles and thus makes a lighter donut.
- Sugar
- Non-dairy milk. I use unsweetened soy milk because it has more protien than most non-dairy milks
- Instant yeast. This yeast can be added directly to the flour without blooming it in warm water beforehand. If you have active yeast, add it to hot water, mix, and let it sit for 10 minutes for it to be foamy.
- Aquafaba. Aquafaba is the liquid from a can chickpeas and the protien in it will help replace the proteins in eggs that help the dough rise.
- Butter. You can use vegan baking sticks or tub butter. If you are using the baking sticks, it needs to come to room temperature before using. It’s best to use softened butter.
Cutting and Filling the Vegan Brioche Donuts
Once the dough has rested in the fridge, turn onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle shape about 3/4 inch thick. Now you can cut it into circles. I used a 3″ cutter which gave me the perfect size for the donuts.
To make it easier to transfer to the frying oil without deflating the donut, cut out little parchment squares about 4″ by 4″. Remember the dough will expand when it is proofed.
Speaking of proofed, put all the dough circles on a tray and cover with a cloth. Put in a warm place to double in size. Should take 30 minutes to 2 hours.
In a pot, put about 2-3″ inches of oil and heat to 360-375 degrees. Using a slotted spoon or spider, put the dough and parchment square in the oil and then remove the parchment paper with tongs. Fry for a few minutes, then flip and fry for a few minutes more until golden brown in color.
Only fry 2-3 donuts at a time, so the temperature doesn’t drop too much
Let cool before filling and glazing with your flavors of choice. If you are rolling in sugar, make sure to do it while it’s still hot.
Enjoy hot and fresh. If you are not going to eat them all. You can store it in your fridge and heat up in a microwave or toaster oven. Then fill and glaze as you want. They will last 2-3 days.
Alternatively, you can freeze them for a month and just bring it up to room temperature and then heat it and fill it as you wish.
Want More?
Try Out Similar recipes below:
Vegan Brioche Donuts
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer
- Parchment paper
Materials
- 480 g (4 cups) bread flour, plus more for sprinkling
- 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 7 g (2 1/4 tsp or 1 packet) instant yeast
- 240 g (1 cup) non-dairy milk or water
- 107 g (1/2 cup) aquafaba
- 113 g (1/2 or 1 stick) vegan butter
- neutral oil for frying
Instructions
- Measure out your vegan butter and leave it at room temperature to get soft.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.
- In a saucepan, add the milk (or water) and heat to about 110°F or to warm, but not scalding. A temperature too hot could kill your yeast. Add in aquafaba.
- Add it to your flour mixture and with a dough hook mix on medium speed until a a dough forms. If too dry, add some more milk or if too wet, add some flour.
- In portions, slowly add sections of vegan butter, so it combines in the dough. Don't add too much at a time because the dough won't grab onto the dough hook and it won't mix properly. Only a tsp at a time is enough. Wait for it to mix into the dough, then add a little bit more.
- Once the dough is done, cover the bowl let proof in a warm place for 1-2 hours. Punch down and then put in the fridge overnight.
- Put on a lightly floured work surface and roll out until about 3/4" thick. Cut with a 3" round cutter or biscuit cutter.
- Cut out little squares out of parchment paper of 4" by 4" and place each dough circle on them. This will make it easier to transfer to the frying oil.
- Let it proof in a warm place for 30 minutes-2 hours until swollen in size.
- In a heavy bottomed pot, heat 2 inches of oil to 360-375°F. Using a slotted spoon or spider, place the dough with the parchment into the oil. Remove the parchment square with tongs.
- Fry donuts 2-3 at a time. Not too much because it can overcrowd the pot and make the temperature drop drastically.
- Fry on each side a few minutes until golden brown with a white ring in the middle.
- Let cool and then use as you want. Fill it with vegan pastry cream, jam, or chocolate. Coat in powdered sugar or a lemon glaze or chocolate glaze. Let cool before filling.
- I did my donuts Boston cream style and filled with pastry cream and chocolate glaze on top.
Notes
- My recipe for Vegan Pastry Cream is here
I hope you try this recipe. If you tried this recipe, let me know in the comments below.
where to put aqua faba?
Hi Biljana. You add it to the warm milk. I have edited the post to add it in. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. (;