These baked vegan chocolate donuts are soft, moist, and topped with double chocolate ganache! They’re the perfect weekend brunch treat or make a quick and easy dessert to end the day.
Best of all, they are super easy to make and mix up in less than 30 minutes!
Free from: Wheat, gluten, dairy, casein, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, mollusks, celery, corn, sesame, mustard, lupin, sulfites, nightshades, tomatoes, and more
In the mood for donuts? Check out these vegan s’mores donuts, gluten free apple cinnamon, or easy baked vegan vanilla donuts.
This recipe was updated in April 2023 with new photos and an improved recipe.
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Why You’ll Love these Chocolate Donuts
- Double chocolate means double the fun!
- Baked recipe, not fried
- Easy to mix up in one bowl
- Topped with a chocolate ganache glaze
- Dairy free, Egg free, Nut free and more!
Ingredients
You only need a few ingredients to make these vegan chocolate donuts.
- Flour: You can use either all purpose flour or your favorite gluten free flour blend in this recipe. I recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure.
- Cocoa powder: You can use either Natural Unprocessed or Dutch Processed cocoa powder.
- Flax seeds: This acts as the flax egg of the recipe and helps to keep everything together.
- Dairy free Milk + Apple Cider Vinegar: You can use your favorite dairy free milk here. I typically use soy milk, but coconut milk, almond milk, oat milk, and rice milk will all work. The apple cider vinegar gets mixed in to make a vegan “buttermilk”.
- Sugar: To make it sweet!
- Vanilla: I love to add vanilla to all my chocolate baked goods to balance the flavors and make it more chocolatey.
- Baking powder, baking soda, salt: The leaveners help the dough to rise in the oven.
- Chocolate Chips and Dairy free Milk: This makes the chocolate ganache to dip the donuts in.
- Sprinkles: To make them fun!
Allergy Substitutions
If you are avoiding food dyes, make sure that your sprinkles are dye free. I like to use Sweetopolita dye free sprinkles, which also happen to be vegan and gluten free.
If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, you can swap for white vinegar at half the amount, or an equal amount of lemon juice.
If you are avoiding corn, make sure that your baking powder and vanilla extract are corn free. See my shop page for my favorite corn free (and other allergy friendly) products.
Flavor Variations
- Sprinkle: Add your favorite sprinkles on top before the chocolate ganache has hardened. I love to use the ones from Sweetopolita.
- Coconut: If you are not allergic to coconut, add some chopped shredded coconut flakes on top of the chocolate ganache before it has set.
- Chocolate Raspberry: Add a tablespoon of raspberry jam into the batter and mix it up for a decadent chocolate raspberry treat!
Instructions
For the full instructions, complete with recipe measurements, please see the recipe card below.
There are two parts to making these donuts: Making the actual donut and making the chocolate ganache topping.
First up, making the donuts!
Start by mixing the flax seeds and hot water together in a small bowl. Let this rest for about 5 minutes to turn gel-like.
Similarly, in another small bowl or mug, mix together the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. This makes a vegan “buttermilk” which will help the batter rise in the oven, and give the donuts that little tang. Trust me, you don’t want to skip this step!
In a large mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients, including the flaxseed gel and milk mixture. Whisk them together before adding the dry ingredients. The batter will be very very similar to cake batter when finished.
Next up, filling the donut pan. This part can get tricky.
Tip! If you are using a metal pan like I am, don’t be afraid to spray a ton of oil onto the pan to make sure they don’t stick.
I have found that using a piping bag is the safest and neatest method of transferring the batter to the pan. If you don’t have a piping bag, a plastic bag with a corner cut off is just about the same thing.
Fill each donut cavity up about halfway. You will have enough batter for 12 regular sized donuts or 24 mini donuts.
Now, it’s time to bake the donuts! These take about as long as a cupcake to bake in the oven, about 23 to 25 minutes.
Remove them from the oven and using a toothpick, immediately remove the donuts from the hot pan and onto a wire cooling rack. Let them cool completely before frosting or else the frosting will just fall off.
Frosting the Donuts
While the donuts are cooling, melt the chocolate and splash of dairy free milk in either a double boiler or in a microwave safe bowl. Mix it until the chocolate is just about melted. Then, you can just keep mixing and the residual heat of the bowl will finish melting the chocolate.
Dip the top of each donut into the melted chocolate and place back on the cooling rack so that any drips can drip off.
Sprinkle with sprinkles (if using) right away. Enjoy!
Recommended Equipment
I love to use a metal donut pan and a little bit of canola spray and the donuts pop out perfectly every time!
As I said above, to make it easier to fill these donuts, use a piping bag with the tip cut off.
FAQs
No. This recipe is specifically designed for baked donuts.
Fridge: Keep these donuts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. I recommend storing them in the fridge for the safety of the chocolate ganache.
Freezer: Store unfrosted donuts in a freezer safe container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then frost and serve as directed. Yum!
More Donuts to Love
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Recipe
Equipment
- Donut pan
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- mixing bowls
- whisk
- Spatula
- Piping bag (recommended)
- cooking spray
Ingredients
Chocolate Donuts
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- ⅔ cup dairy free milk
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons oil
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
- ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon dairy free milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C. Thoroughly spray a donut pan with cooking spray. Set this aside.
- Make the flax seed egg. In a small bowl, combine the ground flax seeds with hot water. Stir together well and set aside for 5 minutes to allow it to gel.
- Make the vegan “buttermilk”. In a small cup, mix together the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. Set this aside as well to allow it to curdle slightly.
- Sift together the dry ingredients. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix together the batter. In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients of the flaxseed mixture, dairy free milk mixture, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix well with a spatula, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Fill the donut pan. Transfer the donut batter to a piping bag (or plastic bag with the corner cut off). Fill each donut about ½ way full.
- Bake. Bake in the preheated oven for 23 to 25 minutes. The donuts will have puffed up and will be done when a toothpick inserted into each pulls out clean. Using a toothpick, carefully lift each donut out of the hot pan and let it cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
- Frost. In a microwave safe bowl, or in a double boiler on the stove top, melt the vegan chocolate chips with a tablespoon of dairy free milk. Mix until fully melted. Carefully dip the tops of each donut into the chocolate ganache and set on a wire rack to allow for drips. Top with sprinkles if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- How to store these donuts
- Fridge: Keep these donuts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. I recommend storing them in the fridge for the safety of the chocolate ganache.
- Freezer: Store unfrosted donuts in a freezer safe container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then frost and serve as directed. Yum!
- Allergy Substitutions
- If you are avoiding food dyes, make sure that your sprinkles are dye free. I like to use Sweetopolita dye free sprinkles, which also happen to be vegan and gluten free.
- If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, you can swap for white vinegar at half the amount, or an equal amount of lemon juice.
- If you are avoiding corn, make sure that your baking powder and vanilla extract are corn free. See my shop page for my favorite corn free products.
- Flavor Variations
- Sprinkle: Add your favorite sprinkles on top before the chocolate ganache has hardened. I love to use the ones from Sweetopolita.
- Coconut: If you are not allergic to coconut, add some chopped shredded coconut flakes on top of the chocolate ganache before it has set.
- Chocolate Raspberry: Add a tablespoon of raspberry jam into the batter and mix it up for a decadent chocolate raspberry treat!
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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Niko R. says
The taste was amazing but they were a tough as hockey pucks, not cake like at all. I followed the recipe to a "T" and they didn't rise very much, just to the top of the pan and they were almost full when I put them in the oven. What could I have done wrong? I did use 2 eggs because we don't have egg allergies.
Laura says
Thank you for this honest review! Hmm, I would say that using 2 chicken eggs might be the cause here. Chicken eggs have a lot more "oomph" and power for use as binding ingredients together as opposed to flax eggs. I would suggest just 1 egg next time. Or, you could use this gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe as the main recipe for the donuts. Just replace the butter and sour cream with your favorite dairy free equivalent. I've used vegan butter in this before and it works good. This should get you about 24 donuts. Finally, I'll be sure to add more donut recipes to here with more variations so that we can have delicious donuts that aren't hockey pucks! 🙂 Thanks again and hope this helps.