Deliciously cute vegan snowmen doughnuts are perfect for the Christmas season. Great to prepare with your kids and enjoy over the Holidays. On top of that, these adorable snowman doughnuts are vegan, easy to make and filled with creamy custard.
Vegan Snowman Doughnuts
I can’t believe Christmas is only in a month away. What better treat to enjoy than some delicious custard filled, fluffy doughnuts!
I absolutely love this time of year. As soon as Halloween ends, my Christmas tree is up, the gingerbread lattes are flowing and festive films are on the TV. I also love being creative in the kitchen, baking up lots of delicious festive treats, such as cakes, cupcakes and of course… DOUGHNUTS!
Looking for more Christmas recipes, check out my Vegan Stained Glass Cookies, Gluten-free Vegan Yule Log, Vegan Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls plus MANY MORE, click here.
Why you’ll love these snowman doughnuts:
- Vegan friendly – This recipe doesn’t contain any animal derived ingredients.
- Easy to make.
- Flax-egg makes the doughnuts chewy and is the perfect egg-replacer.
- Filled with creamy custard.
- Topped with a sweet vanilla icing.
- Pretzel ‘arms’ add saltiness and crunch.
- Great for Christmas.
- Sweet and cozy.
- Fun for everyone, including kids to make and decorate.
- Perfect for Christmas gatherings / parties.
- They look adorable.
- The flavour is delicious, full of vanilla!
What makes these the BEST vegan doughnuts?
This is one of those recipes where I want everyone in the entire world to take a bite out of these scrumptious little pumpkins and bathe in their warming glory. It’s a little piece of heaven in each bite.
- The TEXTURE : They’re so soft and pillowy but remain really moist and tender, it’s unreal! This is due to the fact that these doughnuts are made with sunflower oil instead of butter. Vanilla is also added to the dough to further that divine moist texture.
- This recipe is egg-free : This recipe contains the best egg replacer for doughnuts which is ground flaxseed. Ground flaxseed is the ultimate egg replacer in doughnuts as it replicates the gelatinous texture of an egg resulting in a super chewy and soft doughnut.
- The dough takes minutes to make : The only waiting time really is allowing the dough to prove, that’s about it. I am so proud of my doughnut recipe as even though it takes time for it to prove and rise.. it is worth every second. You’ll end up with a delicious vanilla snowman doughnut that’s perfectly soft and sweet, perfect for a cozy Christmas movie marathon.
- Creamy custard: You can either make your own homemade vegan custard (I have an amazing recipe in my Award Winning Baking Book, or to make things easier, you could use store bought.
How to make Vegan Snowman Doughnuts:
When you think of doughnuts, you may think they’re hard and technical to make. In fact, they are actually quite simple and easy. They just have a few techniques and proving time which take up most of the prep but it’s totally worth it when you take your first bite out of the snowman doughnuts – DROOL! You can find the full written ingredients and method in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Dough
Heat the milk and stir with the active yeast and sugar. Allow to activate and froth. In a separate bowl, mix the flour. Pour the activated yeast mixture along with the flax egg, melted butter and vanilla. Knead into a smooth dough, cover and allow to prove until doubled in size.
- Snowman shape
Chomp out the dough using a snowman shape cookie cutter. Allow to prove for a second time until puffed up.
- Frying
Heat oil in a large pan, when it’s come up to temperature, lower the snowman doughnuts into the oil and fry for a couple of minutes on each side. Carefully remove and place on kitchen paper.
- Custard filling
Whip up a batch of custard, transfer into a piping bag and snip off the tip. Poke a hole in the sides of the doughnuts and pipe in the custard filling.
- Icing and decoration
Dip each doughnut into the white vanilla icing. Allow to set then pipe on the snowman details, nose, buttons and face. Poke two stick pretzels into the sides of the doughnut for the ‘arms’.
Tips for making homemade doughnuts
- Dry Ingredients – The number one reason why most recipes fail. If there’s too much flour, the doughnuts will turn out super dry and stiff. ALWAYS, if you can, measure the flour out with a set of kitchen scales in gram measurements.
- Mixing – The doughnut batter is mixed in a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Make sure it’s not over mixed!! If the batter is over mixed, the doughnuts may have trouble rising and they will likely turn out tough and chewy.
- Custard filling – To make sure each cavity is evenly filled, pipe in the custard using either a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the tip snipped off. This makes it easy to squeeze the custard into each doughnut section.
- Vanilla icing / glaze – Make sure the icing isn’t too runny or it won’t show on the doughnut. You want it similar texture / consistency to toothpaste. You want it thick enough that you can pipe on the nose and button detailing without it slipping off.
- Cooling – Allow the doughnuts to cool on the kitchen towel / paper before filling. If they’re too warm, the heat will melt the custard and icing and it’ll become become quite a mess.
- Use gram measurements – I cant stress this enough. To ensure perfect doughnuts, make sure to use a set of kitchen scales and gram measurements. This will result in accurate measurements and doughnuts!!! You can pick up kitchen scales from Amazon , linked here.
If you make, and love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you & happy baking! Make sure to tag me in your photos on Instagram and Facebook! And if you want to pin this recipe for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, above or below this post, or on any of the photos. Happy baking all!
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Vegan Snowman Doughnuts
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 10 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
How to make super cute Vegan Snowman Doughnuts with a custard filling and vanilla glaze. Perfect for Christmas Baking.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the doughnuts
- 330ml of warm dairy-free milk
- 14g of active dry yeast
- 75g of caster sugar
- 600g of self-raising flour
- 100g of dairy-free butter (melted)
- 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons of ground flax + 6 tablespoons of water)
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract / seeds from 1 vanilla pod
- Sunflower oil (see step 10 for details)
Ingredients for the custard filling
Ingredients for the vanilla icing
- 200g of icing sugar
- Dairy-free milk
- Black food gel
- Orange food gel
- Pink food gel
- Pretzel sticks
Instructions
Method (doughnuts)
- Pour the warm dairy-free milk into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and sugar, stir, cover with a tea towel then put into a warm place for around 10-15 minutes until frothy. TIP: To heat the milk, add it into a small saucepan and simmer until it’s warm. If the milk is too hot it can kill the yeast, so make sure its just warm.
- In a separate bowl, sift in the flour.
- In another separate bowl, add in the flaxseed and water, stir to combine and set aside for 10 minutes to thicken. This creates your vegan egg substitute. Add in the melted butter and vanilla.
- Add everything into the flour and mix. Mix with a hand whisk or attach a dough hook to your stand mixer and begin to knead on medium until nice and smooth. If kneading on a worktop, make sure it’s floured so nothing sticks.
- Pop the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and place into a warm area (I place mine in my conservatory) and allow to prove for around 2-3 hours or until double in size.
- Once doubled, turn the dough out onto a floured surface, roll out (not too thin) around 1 + 1/2 inch – 2 inch thick , you want the doughnuts to be puffed up.
- Use a snowman shaped cookie cutter to chomp out the shapes. Repeat for the entire batch of doughnuts.
- Place the doughnuts back into a warm area covered with a tea towel for around 30 minutes until they have doubled in size.
- Add oil into a deep pan until half – 3/4 full and bring to the boil. Allow it to come up to 180 degrees. You can also use a deep fat fryer. Another way to check the oil is ready is by dunking the handle of a wooden spoon into the middle of the pan. The oil will bubble up around the wooden handle if ready. If not, it’s not reached temperature for frying yet.
- Once the snowman doughnuts have risen, gently lower them into the hot oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side or until puffed and golden brown in colour.
- Carefully take them out of the hot oil and place them onto kitchen paper to drain any excess oil.
Method (filling and decoration)
- Transfer the custard into a piping bag and snip off the tip. Poke a hole in the side of the doughnuts and fill with the custard.
- In a bowl, add in the icing sugar and the dairy-free milk, a teaspoon at a time until a thick runny consistency. You want it to be a-little thinner than toothpaste consistency. If you add in too much milk and it goes runny, simple add in more icing sugar until correct.
- Separate some of the icing into 3 separate bowls (leaving the majority white). Colour one bowl with black food gel the second with pink for the scarf and orange for the nose.
- Transfer the coloured icings into piping bags and snip off the tips.
- Dip the tops of the snowman doughnuts in the white icing and place on a wire rack to dry slightly.
- Pipe on the nose, scarf and button details with the coloured icings.
- Break pretzel sticks in half and poke either side of the snowman doughnuts for the ‘arms’.
- Serve with a dusting of icing sugar.
- Enjoy!!
Notes
To store: These doughnuts are best served and enjoyed day of making. Keep them fresh in a air tight / sealed container.
Food gel: The best vegan food gel is from Rainbow Dust Colours.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3-5 minutes
- Category: Doughnuts
- Method: frying
- Cuisine: American
