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I have been making vegan apple cider donuts commercially for over 15 years, all the while, tweaking and improving them. This recipe is the result of improvements made over the course of way over 1000 baking sessions!
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In my opinion, an essential element of great vegan cider doughnuts is a pronounced apple flavor. Like my apple fritters and vegan apple pie, I achieve that in three ways in this recipe. The first trick is a fairly common theme among reputable apple cider donut recipes, the second thing just makes good sense, and the third is something kinda insane that I started doing just within the last couple of years, that really brings these to the next level.
🍩 Better donuts in an alternate reality
Cinnamon sugar coating is how most people love apple cider donuts, but I have served these dozens of other ways over the years. I offered a dairy-free apple cider donuts of this recipe with a cardamom glaze and topped with rosewater toasted pistachios that made it to the front page of the New York Times Dining section. I also regularly offered both apple cider donuts and vegan pumpkin donuts glazed with a fresh cranberry glaze.
My method for that is blend a cup of vegan royal icing with a couple of tablespoons of bourbon cranberry sauce. The sky's really the limit, and there are a lot of autumnal flavors that pair really nicely with apple cider. Have fun, be creative with them!
👉Equipment for these vegan apple cider donuts
Listen, what I am sharing with you here is how I make perfect cider donuts. The way I do it involves owning a stand mixer and a donut dropper, which are two things a ton of people don't have. Honestly, even a candy thermometer might not be chilling out in your drawer. And guess what- that is ok!
This recipe includes some workarounds:
👉If you don't have a donut dropper, you can follow the guidelines for forming the donuts with a pastry bag, or by forming a thicker dough that can be rolled and cut.
👉If you don't have a stand mixer, you can mix by hand using a rubber spatula.
👉If you don't have a thermometer, here's how to check the oil temperature to be close enough:
- Visual cues: You can observe the oil's behavior to get an idea of its temperature. When the oil is heated to around 350 degrees Fahrenheit, it will start to shimmer and appear less viscous.
- Dough test: Another way to estimate the temperature of the oil is by dropping a few bits of dough/batter into it. If the bits sizzle and turn golden brown within a few seconds, the oil is likely at the desired temperature. If they really go nuts and fry up wayyyy rapidly, and if the oil is smoking, you GOTTA turn the flame down a bit honey.
- Wooden spoon test: Dip the end of a wooden spoon into the oil, and if it forms tiny bubbles around it, the oil is likely around 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
It's essential to remember that these methods only provide an estimation of the oil's temperature, and if you need to be precise, you should use a thermometer.
If you don't have any of this gear at all, you should make these Malaysian banana donuts, which don't require anything more than a pot of oil and some regular spoons to make!
🍩 Never struggle with donut making again!
This guide to the best donut recipes is 100% FREE. Learn to bake, fry, and air fry some of your all-time faves 🥰
🍎 Three dimensions of apple flavor
Reduced apple cider
Great apple cider donuts donut ONLY get their flavor from straight cider. Reducing the cider down concentrates the flavor and allows you to get more of the apple cider taste into the donut without having more liquid in the recipe.
Acid
Apple cider vinegar helps to curdle the soy milk, making it more like buttermilk. At the same time, it intensifies the apple flavor in the donuts, and the acid also helps balance the sweetness of the donuts, which make them taste more intense.
That fresh zing!
The third way I impart apple flavor into these donuts is maybe the most obvious thing to do, but it literally took me over a decade to think of experimenting with it, and it is a freaking game-changer for vegan apple donuts!
I puree some fresh, uncooked tart apples with the reduced cider, and it really brings the apple flavor of these donuts to life. Honeycrisp or granny smith apples really work the best for this, but any apple on the more tart side will do. Steer clear of red delicious or golden delicious for sure, because they are just terrible apples and don’t bring much flavor to the table. A lot of you ask: are apple cider donuts vegan. These ones sure af are. Some have also said: are apple cider donuts baked or fried? Well, in this recipe, I’m deep-frying them. And yes, I’ve also added the baking alternative later on.
If you want to learn more about donut making from me, and watch this recipe made from start to finish, check out my vegan cake donut mastery cooking class.
Jump to:
Ingredients for Vegan Apple Cider Donuts
Apple Cider
Made from pressed apples, apple cider brings a natural sweetness and fruity flavor to the donuts. My preference is to use unpasteurized cider, as it has a fuller flavor.
Vegan Butter
Look for a vegan butter with a high-fat content, and low moisture for the best results. You can replace it with coconut oil if you prefer, but like you see in my flaky vegan pie crust recipe, the flavor and texture of Earth Balance is pretty impressive.
Vegan Milk Curdled with Cider Vinegar
This combination is a vegan take on buttermilk. When you curdle plant-based milk with apple cider vinegar, it mimics the tangy and acidic properties of traditional buttermilk. It helps tenderize the donuts while contributing a subtle tang that complements the sweetness of the apple cider. If you don't have apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, or other mild vinegars work as a substitute.
*See the vegan apple cider donuts recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities and cooking directions.
🍩 How to make this vegan apple cider donut recipe
Follow the recipe card at the bottom of the page when you make the recipe, but these here are the important steps you will follow when you make the yummiest donuts you have had in forevahhhhhh.
Step one
Begin by reducing the apple cider by 50%. Cooking 2 cups down to 1 intensifies the apple flavor.
Step two
Cream together the vegan butter, sugar, and egg replacer. Little lumps of fat will otherwise cause imperfect donuts.
Step three
Mix in the remaining liquid ingredients, including the reduced apple cider which has been pureed with fresh apple.
Step four
Mix in the dry ingredients at medium speed. Mix just for long enough to form a smooth batter.
Step five
Load up the hopper of a donut dropper with the batter. Don't have a dropper? See the notes in the recipe for other ways to form these donuts.
Step six
The first couple donuts may be irregular in size or shape. Just drop them back into the bowl of batter and put them back into the hopper so you don't waste any precious donuts!
Step seven
Drop donuts into the hot oil. See in the photo above how the batter liquefies and spreads a little? That, the browning around the edges, and some bubbles on the internal surface of the donuts are the signal to flip them after 2-3 minutes.
Step eight
The second side will cook for a slightly shorter time than the first. You are looking for a reddish-golden brown color to develop evenly on both sides. Remove the donuts from the oil using a spider or slotted spoon, and let them cool a little and drip dry on a wire cooling rack.
🍌 While you got a pot of oil on your stove, whip up some Indonesian fried bananas or Turkish Shakshuka with the leftover oil!
Step nine
After the donuts cool for 5 minutes, coat them in cinnamon sugar and pinch yourself- you are not dreaming. You are in actual vegan apple cider donut heaven! Serve these up with freshly baked vegan cinnamon rolls if you really want to relive your days ordering from our food truck!
🔄 Substitutions and tweaks
Making these without refined sugar
Yes! These vegan apple cider donuts recipe is still terrific with coconut sugar swapped out measure for measure in place of the evaporated cane juice I usually make them with. If you want to make a cinnamon sugar topping for these with coconut sugar, I recommend breaking the sugar in a blender or food processor to make it finer than it comes naturally. My wife often avoids processed sugar (which is why I'm always churning out klepon, and bubur sum sum), but also loves apple cider donuts, so I have made these donuts this way for her on countless occasions, and the thinks they are heavenly!
What about making these Gluten Free?
Rather than just tell you to swap out gluten free flour blend in this recipe and hope for the best, I formulated a separate gluten-free apple cider donut recipe. They come out amazing, and I don’t think anyone would guess they are gluten-free, especially when served warm.
You can drop, pipe, roll and cut, even bake these donuts!
This recipe is so versatile! My absolute preference is to make the recipe as is, and use a donut dropper to extrude them one by one into hot oil. This method yields the most perfectly formed cake-like cider donuts. Using a donut dropper, or following the piping method I have outlined below allow you to have the highest hydration which yields the moistest, most naturally shaped donuts. You can see the difference in my vegan gingerbread donut recipe which includes step-by-step instructions and photos for 4 different ways of making them.
If you don’t have a dropper or a piping bag, the other option is to use less soy milk in the recipe as detailed in the instructions below and for a tacky dough instead of a bater. This dough can then be rolled and cut (either with a doughnut cutter, or a variety of other tools, even a glass) and fried or baked that way.
Baked vegan apple cider donuts
If you don’t want to fry these, they work out great baked as well. You can bake the batter in a donut pan, or place rolled and cut donuts onto an oiled parchment paper lined baking pan and bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-17 minutes.
Top tip
We are making donuts ok, not a salad. If god didn't want us to fry donuts he probably wouldn't have invented donut droppers. For real, it's ok! Try to make these the traditional way as a batter and then use a donut dropper to actually fry them. Live a little!
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Technically yes, you can do this, but then you don't really have that deep dark apple cider flavor as it can be in the donuts that these vegan apple cider donuts do. Still yummy though, just don't tell anyone I told you it was OK, alright?
While I don't really love them this way, you can substitute apple sauce in place of the vegan butter in this recipe, and bake them instead of frying them. Just be careful of them sticking to your parchment paper when you bake them, because no oil!
If you are not serving the donuts immediately, good news! Cake donuts, particularly these specific vegan apple cider donuts store much better than raised (yeast risen) donuts. I think the fact there are some enzymes and pectin introduced into the batter from the fresh apple may contribute to this phenomenon. Simply store them in a not-completely air-tight container at room temperature.
If you desire to keep them for more than a couple days, these apple cider donuts freeze really well! First place them onto a flat tray in your freezer for 2 hours. Once the donuts are frozen, wrap them in plastic wrap and place them into an airtight container in your freezer for up to a month. When you thaw them, simply thaw at room temperature for 2 hours, and then to really bring them back to life, bake them in an oven or toaster oven for 5 minutes at 400 degrees.
After frying these you're gonna be left with excess oil that isn't too strongly flavored. Jackpot!
Logically, you can fry up other sweets like Peruvian piocarones, Korean donut twists, Indonesian Pisang Goreng, and Mexican Bunuelos!
Some great not-sweet recipes you can make in this oil are Indonesian Bakwan Sayur ad Tempe Mendoan, Thai Spring Rolls, Vegan Fried Chicken, or Indian Bhaji.
If you just want to store the leftover oil for another time, here's what you do:
✅ Let the oil cool to room temperature.
✅ Strain it with a fine mesh strainer to remove any particles.
✅ Transfer the oil to an airtight container and store it in a cool, dark place.
Reusing oil more than a couple of times can lead to oxidization of the oil which can make it become rancid faster. So don't use it more than 2-3 times, and don't store it for more than a few weeks!
💣 Bomb sweets
Looking for other vegan dessert recipes you are gonna love? Try these:
The Best Vegan Apple Cider Donuts
Ingredients
- 2 cups apple cider reduced down to one cup
- 1 medium size Honeycrisp apple 145 grams, peeled and diced
- 6 tablespoons vegan butter
- 2 tablespoons egg replacer powder
- 1 ½ cups sugar I use evaporated cane juice
- 3 cups unsweetened soy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 8 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar for the cinnamon sugar coating
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar coating
Instructions
- Place 2 cups of apple cider into a saucepan and cook it uncovered over a high flame for about 15 minutes, or until reduced to 1 cup.
- Place the hot apple cider reduction into a blender along with the peeled diced apple. I recommend using a tart apple such as a honeycrisp or granny smith which will brighten the flavor of the donuts, and balance and freshen up the heavily cooked mellow cider flavor. Blend on high speed for 60-90 seconds until smoothly pureed. Allow the contents of the blender to cool for 20 minutes.
- Place the softened, room-temperature vegan butter (aka margarine), egg replacer, and sugar (evaporated cane juice) into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream the content of the mixer together for 2 minutes on low speed.
- When thoroughly creamed, add the contents of the blender, along with the soy milk, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar to the mixer and continue to mix for 3 minutes on low speed until well combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Mix for 90 seconds on medium speed until just thoroughly combined. Over-mixing will cause the batter to be stringy and the donuts will have a harder time forming perfectly.
- *If you do not have a stand mixer, cream the margarine, sugar and egg replacer together using a hand mixer or whisk. Whisk in the remaining liquid ingredients and then switch to a rubber spatula to mix in the dry ingredients
- For the best results, use a donut dropper to form and fry these donuts. I recommend using a plastic bowl scraper to transfer the contents of the mixing bowl into the hopper of the donut dropper. Doing this before heating the oil will give the gluten in the batter a little time to relax and will result in more perfectly shaped donuts. When using a donut dropper, always press out a couple initial donuts right back into the mixing bowl, as the first couple tend to be smaller and can be misshapen. You can use the bowl scraper or a rubber spatula to put the batter from those test donuts back into the hopper, so that nothing is wasted.
- Another way to form these donuts using the same consistency batter, is to prepare a dozen 3-inch squares of parchment paper. Lightly oil the parchment paper with coconut oil or canola oil. Place the batter into an icing bag with a large circular tip. Once your oil is hot (see below steps) form thick circles of the batter one at a time onto the lightly oiled parchment. You can then transfer the donuts, parchment and all right into the hot oil, and use a pair of tongs to peel the parchment off of the donuts. This is a trickier way to make the donuts, and I HIGHLY prefer using a dropper. But this method allows you to make a high-hydration batter version of these donuts that is much superior to the roll-and cut method.
- Pour a neutral-tasting, high-heat oil, such as canola oil, palm shortening, or peanut oil to a depth of 3 inches into a pot with high sides. A dutch oven is a good choice for this. The high sides will prevent excessive oil splattering which will make clean up easier.
- Heat the oil over a medium flame for 20 minutes, or until a 350-360 degree temperature has been reached. You can check the oil temperature with a candy thermometer.
- Once the oil is heated to 350-360 degrees, it’s time to fry the donuts! Fry only 4-6 donuts at a time, depending on the size of your pot. Not overcrowding the pot will make them easier to flip and reduce the fracturing that occurs when donuts bump into each other, which results in avoidable oil absorption. Fry for 2-3 minutes on the first side until you see bubbling and on the top side. I like to allow a little of the liquified battery to “spread” as it cooks which creates the more old-fashion style crispy exterior. Flip the donuts using a spider or slotted spoon and cook for an additional 2 minutes on the second side.
- Transfer the hot donuts to a cooling rack to cool while cooking subsequent batches of donuts.
- When all donuts are cooled for at least 5 minutes on the wire rack, mix together 1 cup of fine granulated sugar with 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon in a large bowl. Toss the donuts in the cinnamon sugar topping to coat them thoroughly and serve.
Notes
Ignite the perfect frying blaze by heating oil to 350-360 degrees, ensuring a reddish-golden-brown allure in just 2-3 minutes per side. 🍎 Dimensional Apple Mastery:
Master pronounced apple flavor by reducing cider, adding apple cider vinegar for tang, and infusing a fresh zing with tart apples. Opt for Honeycrisp or Granny Smith for a captivating apple cider donut journey. 🌈 Magical Flavor Variations:
Elevate your donut experience with symphonies of flavor. Explore cinnamon sugar classics or venture into cardamom glaze with rosewater pistachios. Dive into a realm of creativity with fresh cranberry glaze, a blend of stewed cranberries, orange slices, cloves, sugar, and a hint of molasses. 🌟 Baking Spells and Freezing Charms:
Choose your path wisely—fry for traditional, moist donuts, or embrace baked magic. Freeze these wonders by wrapping in plastic after an initial freeze on a tray. Thaw and rekindle their magic in the oven for a journey back to donut heaven.
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suzanne says
First of all...YOU ROCK! 🙂
Haven't made these yet but am sure they will be great. Has anyone pointed out to you yet that on the image of the ingredients, above the reduced Apple Cider, you have listed Chives? I checked the recipe and those don't seem to be a part of it. You trying to see who's paying attention? 🙂
I know you're a fan of Earth Balance, but would try this using Miyoko's Creamery Euro Style Butter - unsalted, because it's certified organic and doesn't have sketchy ingredients that I'd prefer not to be using (Soy Protein Isolates for one thing).
Lastly, I compare all vegan Doughnuts I eat to Doughnut Plant Doughnuts (I am prejudiced...they are my fave). It's been so long since I've had yours, I can't say what the comparison would be (though I know I bought yours more than once so I'm sure they were really good). So when I make these, will see how they compare to Doughnut Plant Doughnuts (though I'm sure it's not going to be such a fair/accurate comparison as those are sourdough).
Best wishes always!
Adam Sobel says
Haha! I will edit that image. that's a mistake that no one has pointed out in the 2 years this recipe's been up on the blog!
Keep in mind- these are VERY different from donut plant- in that their donuts are also raised (leavened with yeast or sourdough starter), whereas apple cider donuts are an example of a cake donut (leavened with baking soda and baking powder).
For sure, if you want the most pro-level results, make these with a donut dropper!
Lemme know how you like them. -Adam
Pam says
Sounds yummy. Could these be baked in a donut pan?
Adam Sobel says
Absolutely! Follow the same instructions as are mentioned in my vegan pumpkin donuts
Amanda Galipeau says
I made these roll and cut style today by reducing the soy milk by half, then wrapping the dough in plastic and chilling to make them easier to roll out. They were incredible, and so easy to make!
Adam Sobel says
So glad you made them and loved them, Amanda ❤️
Maria says
Hi Adam, Thanks so much for the recipe. Do you have a gram measurement for the flour? The baking world can't decide how much a cup of flour weighs, so it's always helpful to know how much flour you used in grams to get the desired outcome. I can't wait to try these! Thanks
Adam Sobel says
Yes, it's just a little shy of 1 kg. Approximately 940-950 grams for a single batch of this recipe if you are making it with a donut dropper.
Adam F says
Everybody I shared these donuts with said I could sell them in a donut shop so thanks to you Adam for giving us such a great recipe and instructions. I didn't invest in a donut dropper so just relied on the pastry bag method. They did seem to come out greasier than what I remember buying them from your truck so I don’t have that part dialed in yet!
Ashley says
Do you have to add water first the egg replacement powder or do you use just the powder? Thank you!
Adam Sobel says
Nope. It just gets creamed with the vegan butter as is.
Laura says
Hi Adam, was wondering what kind of spider to use like a widow spider or daddy long legs etc. First time I have heard the strainer referred to as a spider. And I thank you for that, no joke!
Adam Sobel says
LOL. Yeah, that's what we always call them in restaurants. Technically a spider is much bigger than a slotted spoon. Great for removeing a whole ton of stuff at once from hot water or oil.
Michele G. says
I typically use a donut pan but I tried these fried and they were so good. They are more dense when baked but also very good. I will make these again.