Gluten Free Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts (Vegan)

Healthy gluten free baked cinnamon sugar donuts that are completely vegan but taste like they came out of a bakery! Easy to make and taste like cinnamon sugar fall in a bite!

What’s your favorite donut?

Don’t ask me, because I won’t be able to choose!! Although, with fall right around the corner (I’m literally sipping a rooibos chai tea as I write this!), these baked cinnamon sugar donuts are currently stealing my heart.

I thought the vegan birthday cake donuts had me, but man…give me anything cinnamon and a big cup of coffee, I’ll be thankful for life!

I haven’t even gotten to the coolest part about these cinnamon sugar donuts…they’re completely gluten free and vegan, yet you’d never know! There’s even a Paleo option (though we’re focusing mostly on the just gluten free version!).

What would I do without my army of taste testers? Ha!

I ran several versions on them: these gluten free baked cinnamon sugar donuts, but made with regular flour, then with my favorite 1:1 gluten free flour, and finally a Paleo version just swapping in cassava flour. The results were astounding!

Everyone thought they were just regular store bought cinnamon sugar donuts!

If you ask me, that’s how all gluten free vegan donuts should taste! Unable to decipher whether or not it’s a “healthier” version of your average bakery donut 😉

Now, I’m sure I have your cinnamon-loving heart’s attention, so let’s go over what makes it into these gluten free baked cinnamon sugar donuts, and then how to make ’em taste like basically autumn magic!

Ingredients for Gluten Free Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

What I love most about these gluten free cinnamon sugar donuts is that they’re made with some of the simplest ingredients yet taste absolutely decadent and heavenly!

The gluten free vegan donut recipe is based off of my vegan birthday cake donuts, and then we’ll add the cinnamon sugar coating on top (all vegan, all gluten free!)

For the base, you’ll need:

• Gluten free 1:1 baking flour: I highly recommend Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 baking flour (usually in a blue bag) here. This is actually different than Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free flour (usually in a red bag and let me tell you- it is reallyyyyy bad compared to the 1:1! I don’t recommend the red bagged gluten free flour!)- I’ve tested a few different brands, and the specifically labeled 1:1 flour works best! If you’re Paleo, I’ve also tested these with cassava flour, and they worked amazing (details found in recipe card)!
• Cinnamon
  Nutmeg: literally the key to making homemade donuts taste like they’re from the bakery
• Coconut sugar
• Vegan butter or coconut oil
• Coconut milk with Apple Cider vinegar: or ACV for short, this creates the buttermilk that goes into gluten free vegan donuts and makes them cakey!

Now for the cinnamon sugar dip 🙂 You’ll need:

• Cinnamon (of course!)
• Coconut sugar
• Vegan butter or coconut oil

Easy enough, right? Now let’s go over the best pan to use for these gluten free cinnamon sugar donuts!

What’s the best donut pan?

Personally, I’m all about the metal donut pan. It’s sort of small, but you get more donuts out of it, and if you fill it up just right, you still get that beautiful “fried” donut look.

You know, the extra tall walls that just go up and don’t spill over the edge?

The trick is only filling up the pan 3/4 of the way 😉

You can also use a silicone donut pan for these cinnamon sugar donuts, or even a large donut pan! You’ll just have a few less donuts 😉

How do you make healthy gluten free donuts?

Now what’s really cool about these donuts is that I specifically tested both regular flour, a gluten free 1:1 baking flour, and a Paleo nut free flour (cassava flour) on this recipe. Each time, I couldn’t even tell that the cinnamon sugar donuts varied!

The differences between the flours were undetectable!

So know that if you don’t have a gluten free 1:1 baking flour on hand, not to worry! You can absolutely sub in regular flour or cassava (with minor tweak to the Paleo vegan donut version), no stress!

BUT since we’re making gluten free baked cinnamon sugar donuts, and we’re making them vegan, I’m going full in-depth into how to make these cakey bites of cinnamon sweetness for the gluten free version 🙂

Making the gluten free vegan donuts

First, start by preheating the oven to 375F and greasing a donut pan with a little olive or coconut oil.

Next, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and a little sea salt.

Set this aside as you prepare the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine the coconut sugar, applesauce, coconut milk mixed with ACV, melted vegan butter (or coconut oil), and vanilla with a hand mixer.

Pour the wet ingredients into dry and mix until there are no more clumps left in the batter.

Then divide the donuts evenly amongst the donut shapes, making sure to only fill to the 3/4 point. If you only have one donut pan (like I did for a while ha!), no worries! Just make the donuts in batches 🙂

Place the donuts in the oven and bake!

Making the vegan cinnamon sugar coating

After your donuts have cooled a little, it’s time to make the cinnamon sugar coating 🙂 And yes, this is also Paleo and vegan!

Instead of using cane sugar, I recommend coconut sugar, but you can use either or a mix of both!

Simply melt the vegan butter in one bowl, and in a separate, gently whisk together the cinnamon and coconut sugar.

Dip the top of one donut into the melted butter, then lightly into the cinnamon sugar. Place on a drying rack, and repeat for the remaining baked cinnamon donuts!

And there ya have it!

The most perfect gluten free vegan donut recipe that you wouldn’t even know is either of those things 😉 Plus it tastes like a warm fall hug in a bite so you just can’t go wrong!

Pair these with a cup of hot coffee or hot chocolate, and man am I sold!

I hope you love these baked cinnamon donuts as much as I do! If you get to trying them, let me know in the comments below how they went, and of course, I’d love to see your beautiful recreations on Instagram and Pinterest!

Happy Baking and Cinnamon Sugar Dipping!

More gluten free vegan breakfast recipes!

Vegan Buttermilk Pancakes

Vegan Birthday Cake Donuts

Gluten Free Vegan Oat Banana Pancakes

Zucchini Banana Bread

Paleo Vegan Banana Bread

Paleo Monkey Bread

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