240 ml chickpea brine drained from a can of chickpeas
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Vegan Donuts
Warm milk and water until they are about 90F, or lukewarm. Don’t make it too hot, or it will kill the yeast.
Add yeast, sugar, vegan butter, 3 cups of flour, salt, and vanilla in.
Mix with a spatula until the dough comes together.
Start kneading with the dough hook attachment of the kitchen aid, or knead by hand. If using a mixer, knead for 6-8 minutes. If kneading by hand, it will probably take about 10 minutes.
Add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour as necessary, if the dough is too sticky.
It should be a soft dough, and quite tacky, but not very sticky. Should be manageable, and not stick to your fingers too much. If that’s happening, add a bit more flour as you knead the dough.
Once dough is smooth, transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a clean towel, or plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature, for about 60-90 minutes, until doubled in size.
Remove dough from the bowl.
Place it on a lightly floured counter.
Sprinkle a bit of flour on top.
Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough a bit, until it’s about 3/4” thick.
Now use a round cookie cutter to cut dough rounds. I used a 3” cookie cutter.
Place each donut on top of a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat, lightly floured.
Gather the trimmings, and lightly knead them together to form another dough ball, flatten it out, and repeat the process of cutting donut circles.
Cover donut circles with a towel or plastic wrap.
Let them rise for 45-60 min.
Once they have doubled in size, you can start frying them.
Heat about 3 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pan, until 350F.
Carefully lift each donut from the tray and fry them in the hot oil.
A trick I learned at a bakery I worked at, was to let the donut dough rise in the fridge overnight, before cutting the donuts, and this way, they would rise from a cold temperature and would be way easier to manage and wouldn’t deflate so much as you lift them up to put them in the frying pan.
When I made these donuts, I didn’t have a chance to do that, but I always try to do that when I make donuts, and the difference is very noticeable.
You can fry a few donuts at a time, depending on the size of your pan. Fry each donut for 60-90 seconds on each side.
Let them cool down all the way before proceeding with filling, and topping with the chocolate.
Vegan Chocolate Ganache
Place chopped chocolate, or chocolate chips, in a heat proof bowl.
Heat coconut cream until it almost comes to a boil.
Pour over chocolate.
Let it stand for 1 minute.
Stir with a whisk, or spatula, until the chocolate has completely melted.
If you can still spot chocolate chunks in there, place the bowl in the microwave for a few second intervals, stirring in between, until all the chocolate has melted.
Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Vegan Marshmallow Fluff
Place chickpea brine in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, and let mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, until it has reduced. This step will make so your chickpea brine is more concentrated and make for a more stable frosting. Most recipes don’t call for this step, and you can skip it if you want to. In that case, instead of using 240 ml (1 cup) of chickpea brine, use 120 ml (1/2 cup).
Once you have your 1/2 cup of reduced chickpea brine, make sure it’s not even slightly warm before making the frosting. I like to make this a day ahead and leave it in the fridge. It will be really concentrated and have the consistency of egg whites.
Make the vegan marshmallow fluff right before filling the donuts. Because the aquafaba based meringues are usually a bit less stable, and they collapse after a couple of hours.
Start whipping the aquafaba (chickpea brine) with a mixer, medium speed.
Once it begins to foam up, add cream of tartar in. Beat for another 30 seconds or so, until it becomes whitened in color.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla in.
Beat on high speed for 5 minutes, until stiff peaks form.
Place it in a piping bag.
To assemble
You can either poke a hole on each donut, or cut each donut in half.
Pipe some of the marshmallow fluff filling inside.
Dunk the top of each donut in the chocolate ganache.
Sprinkle vegan graham cracker crumbs on top, while the chocolate hasn’t set.
Storage
Store donuts in the fridge for up to 3 days.
The marshmallow fluff won’t last so long, as it will begin to melt, because it’s made with aquafaba, but still, the donuts will be so moist and delicious inside you will love every bite of it.
Notes
This is the recipe for my Vegan Graham Crackers I used to make the crumbs to put on top of the donuts. Check it out!