APPLESAUCE DONUTS

Are you ready for fall and all apple goodies? These applesauce donuts taste like fall in the best way with a delicious apple-cinnamon flavor, soft fluffy texture and dreamy caramel apple icing. Or if you prefer, you can make a classic crunchy cinnamon sugar coating for these yummy treats.

Applesauce donuts or apple butter donuts

You can use both applesauce and apple butter to make these donuts. You can use a store bought applesauce or homemade one. Just make sure that it’s a super tasty applesauce, because the sauce is what gives the donuts their rich apple flavor!

I love to use both applesauce and apple butter to make these donuts. I use applesauce in the donut batter and silky smooth apple butter for the glaze. If you use applesauce for the glaze, just make sure to strain the sauce first so that you get a smooth result.

It’s very simple to make both applesauce and apple butter, you can find the recipes here.

Baked applesauce donuts

Baked donuts might not be as crunchy on the outside as fried donuts, but they do taste like real donuts nevertheless. I prefer baked donuts to fried ones because:

• Baked donuts are much easier to make! No need to work with hot oil, and you can bake all donuts at the same time. You do need a donut pan, though, because the pan is what bakes the donuts so evenly and perfectly.
• Baked donuts take a lot less time to make. When you don’t need to fry donuts 2-4 at a time, you can just pipe the dough into the donut pan and bake for just a little over 10 minutes.
• If you’re not a fan of too much oil, baked donuts are better. Of course the oil is what makes fried donuts crunchy and yummy, but sometimes there’s this greasy feel, which is not so appealing.
• Fried donuts usually require a totally different kind of dough, which is raised with yeast. When making baked applesauce donuts, you don’t need yeast, and the dough is very quick to make in one bowl.
• If you love a cake like texture, these baked donuts are simply perfect! The cake texture is very moist and not a crumbly dry crumb. One suggestion is to make these donuts into mini cakes by cutting them in half and piping vegan whipped cream in between. That’s what I did with these gluten-free vegan nectarine donuts and will try with these beautifully fall flavored treats next!

Happy baking!

♥ Tiina

Check out the applesauce donuts recipe here:

Applesauce donuts

These applesauce donuts are delicious vegan baked donuts, which come together in about 15-20 minutes! You can also use apple butter to make these yummy treats.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Servings: 10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: vegan

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Applesauce donuts

• 130 grams / 1 cup flour
• 50 grams / 1/2 cup almond flour
• 100 grams / 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 120 grams / 1/2 cup applesauce or apple butter
• 120 ml / 1/2 cup oat milk (or any other plant-based milk you like) Room temperature, not cold
• 60 ml / 1/4 cup melted coconut oil (or any other neutral oil you like) Melted, but not hot

Caramel apple donut glaze

• 3 tbsp apple butter or strained applesauce (so that it's completely smooth)
• 120 grams / 1 cup powdered sugar
• salt (to make it more of a salted caramel flavor)

Crunchy cinnamon-sugar frosting

• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
• sugar and cinnamon mixed together, about 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon (or more if needed)

Equipment

• Donut pan for 12 donuts

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / 392 F.
2. Grease a 12-donut pan with e.g.coconut oil.
3. Mix dry ingredients together: flours, sugar, baking powder, spices and salt.
4. Combine applesauce, melted coconut oil and oat milk to the dry ingredients and fold together until no big lumps appear.
5. With a spoon, fill the donut pan about 3/4 full (or a little more) for each donut.
6. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the donuts are firm. You can do a toothpick test, and it should come out clean (a few firm crumbs are okay).
7. Let donuts cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing them onto a cooling rack.
8. Mix glaze ingredients and prepare cinnamon-sugar coating if you want to.
9. Glaze half of the donuts with the caramel apple glaze and coat half in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Or glaze all with the caramel apple glaze.
10. Enjoy these delicious fall flavored donuts!

Notes

Here's the recipe for my delicious apple butter! You can use it to make these donuts or you can use any store bought applesauce or apple butter.

You will most likely have some glaze left after making these. Use the glaze on top of any fall flavored cake or banana bread. It is very delicious!