These Healthier Baked Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Donuts are perfect. They are comfort in a bite! Unlike traditional donuts, these are actually healthy and are gluten-free, oil-free, and 100% plant-based. If you love homemade treats, try Berry Muffin Baked Oatmeal, 3-Ingredient Banana Oat Bites, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Cinnamon Bun Banana Bread.
Why I Love This Recipe
- Baked, Not Fried: You don’t need to deep fry donuts to get that delicious, golden-brown color and fluffy texture.
- Gluten-Free: These donuts are naturally gluten-free as they’re made with a gluten-free flour blend as the base.
- Quick: These easy donuts take just 10 minutes to bake in the oven. No frying, no mess, no yeast, nothing complicated!
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Notes on Ingredients
- Flour: You’ll need an all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. We have not tested any alternative flours in this recipe.
- Coconut Sugar: Just ¼ cup is needed to sweeten these donuts. You can substitute with date sugar.
- Apple Sauce: Makes the donuts super moist and acts as an oil and butter replacement. Be sure to use unsweetened.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can omit and replace with additional cinnamon, but pumpkin pie spice adds such a yummy, autumnal flavor.
Please take note that this is important information about the ingredients used in this recipe and the FULL recipe with measurements and details can be found DOWN BELOW in the recipe card.
How do you make Healthier Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts?
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a donut pan.
- Make the flax egg.
- Mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.
- Mix wet ingredients in a separate medium-sized bowl.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until no lumps remain.
- Add the batter to the donut pan and bake for 10 minutes.
- Top with cinnamon sugar mixture immediately when they’re hot and then serve!
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Commonly Asked Questions
Sure, if you don’t have a donut pan, you can use a greased muffin tin. Just keep in mind that the cooking time may vary so check the muffins regularly.
You have to add the cinnamon-sugar mixture when the donuts are hot, as SOON as they come out of the oven. You can just sprinkle it on the tops or you can toss the donuts in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Check back at the 10-minute mark. They should be golden brown, have risen, and look fully cooked. You can use a toothpick to check and make sure. If they aren’t quite done yet, continue to bake them for a couple minutes longer, check again, and repeat the process if needed. All ovens vary slightly but they should generally take 10-15 minutes.
“I made these donuts for a New Years Eve dinner, and everyone loved them! The texture is really great and the taste is amazing!”
– Monica
Extra Helpful Tips
- Add the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top as soon as they come out of the oven and are still hot. This allows the sugar to sort of “melt” into the donuts so it will stick!
- Serve immediately! They are honestly best when served straight out of the oven.
- If you do save them as leftovers, heat them up in the microwave for 20 seconds before eating.
If you tried this Healthier Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 5-star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Healthier Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
Equipment
- 1 donut pan
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon flaxseed ground
- 3 tablespoon water
- 1 cup all purpose flour gluten-free blend
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- ½ cup almond milk unsweetened, or any non-dairy milk
- 2 tablespoon applesauce unsweetened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Cinnamon-Sugar Topping
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 tablespoon coconut sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a donut pan.
- Make the flax egg by mixing ground flax and water in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes until the mixture has thickened.
- Mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl (gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice).
- Mix wet ingredients in a separate medium-sized bowl (flax egg, maple syrup, milk, applesauce, vanilla) and then combine with the dry ingredients. Mix until there are no lumps.
- Spoon batter into the donut pan. You should get ~6 donuts.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Mix cinnamon sugar topping while the donuts bake and then immediately after baking, roll the donuts in it! Serve immediately!
Notes
- Add the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top as soon as they come out of the oven and are still hot. This allows the sugar to sort of “melt” into the donuts so it will stick!
- Serve immediately! They are honestly best when served straight out of the oven.
- If you do save them as leftovers, heat them up in the microwave for 20 seconds before eating.
Kristin says
This sounds amazing!
roz keith says
What could be bad about donuts! Love the sound of these.
Silvana says
Absolutely delicious! Just the cinnamon recipe I have been looking for, thank you for sharing!
I baked them a little longer than 10 min, about 15, weren’t quite cooked after 10, maybe due to oven. Quick and easy to make, I’m on to the second batch, one wasn’t enough!
Danielle Keith says
Yay!! So glad
Teonna Scott says
Very tasty & kid approved. Thanks so much. Trying to figure out how to make a pumpkin version.
Patty says
These were really good. I didn’t have a donut pan so made them as muffins. Had to cook them a little longer and they would be better as donuts. Lol. I will definitely be getting a donut pan and doubling the recipe to make a whole dozen!
Monica Geller says
I made these donuts for a New Years Eve dinner, and everyone loved them!😋 The texture is really great and the taste is amazing!🤯 but I did have to cook them for 20min, so just keep in mind that it just kind of depends on the oven. (I think anyway) I thought it was going to be hard to find a vegan homemade oil-free donut recipe, but it was so easy to find this one, so thank you danielle!❤️
Babs says
I was SO very happy to find this WFPB oil-free donut recipe. I used whole wheat pastry flour and they were delicious! I baked them 10 minutes and they came out of the pan just fine, but I think they could have gone another few minutes, and I’ll do that next time. There will definitely be a next time!
Dawn says
I don’t have a donut pan so made the muffins. I wouldn’t use paper liners again and would just grease the pan. The paper stuck. After I got the paper off I rolled them n the cinnamon sugar. The flavors are good. I did cook it 5 mins longer and at the same temperature. A toothpick came out clean. I think another minute or two would have been good because it was a little doughy. I’m wondering if that would be better after they cool since it’s a muffin.
Jordan says
So good!