Cinnamon ‘Cheesecake’ Stuffed Vegan Pumpkin Doughnuts

These soft and pillowy pumpkin spice doughnuts are stuffed with a cinnamon ‘cheesecake’ filling that’ll top anything you get at a bakery! With using just pumpkin puree in lieu of eggs (and dairy-free too!) to create an EXTRA plush yet shockingly simple brioche doughnut dough, these unbelievably vegan pumpkin doughnuts are fried until golden and coated in a deliciously sweet pumpkin spice sugar that will finally prove that you really can have it all and vegan!

Now all you need are my baked vegan apple cider doughnuts and fried cinnamon sugar doughnuts. Then you basically brought a fall trip to the apple orchard home with you- and all vegan too!

Why you’re going to LOVE these doughnuts:

• Tastes like a bakery, all at home: I use a hint of nutmeg in the dough to achieve this! Gone are the days where being vegan means you have to miss out on all of the fun. These vegan pumpkin doughnuts are gorgeously fluffy, pillowy soft and deliciously sweet- and quite literally bakery-quality, all made easily from home.
• Stuffed with a cinnamon ‘cheesecake’ filling: Which yes, is dairy-free! Instead of a custard, which I do love my vegan Boston cream doughnuts, we’re using a cool cheesecake filling that’s thick and fluffy- a perfect complement to the sweetness of the pumpkin spice and sugar!
• No complicated ingredient swaps: Pumpkin puree from a can quite literally replaces the need for any eggs whatsoever (I detail all of the “why” in my vegan egg substitutes guide!), and we’re using vegan butter and dairy-free milk for our traditional dairy ingredients.
• There’s an overnight option! I totally get the love of waking up to homemade doughnuts first thing in the morning- without all of the work. You’ll simply make the dough and filling the night before, even shape them to rest overnight, then fry in the morning and fill!

Simple ingredients:

• All-purpose flour: I have spent SO many rounds of testing (14 to be exact!) on what type of flour is best for a vegan enriched dough. Think vegan cinnamon rolls or vegan bomboloni and the like! And what I’ve determined is that all-purpose flour is FAR superior than bread flour in terms of texture, flavor and even over all look of the doughnut. So definitely use all-purpose here in lieu of bread flour!
• Pumpkin puree: I always use Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin Puree, as it’s the most consistent pumpkin puree for store bought. You can use homemade pumpkin puree, but I recommend really blending it!
• Dairy-free milk: In the recipe card, I note that I prefer using Malk Organic Pumpkin Spice Almond Milk (for extra pumpkin spice flavor!). However, I also give notes for using regular dairy-free milk with pumpkin spice.
• Vegan butter: I currently only use my homemade vegan butter (coming to you soon for a special project!)/. But for store-bought varieties, I recommend using Plant Crock’s vegan butter sticks.
• Granulated sugar: Just a touch to help activate the dough will dough- plus we’ll coat in more with our pumpkin spice blend!
• Pumpkin spice: This is a combination of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and cardamom. You can make your own, but I always just buy Simply Organic’s blend! It’s amazing!
• Active dry yeast: I personally like using active dry yeast in lieu of instant yeast in my doughnut recipes. It’s a bit easier to control the outcome of the doughnut. You’ll be able to see that the yeast is active and fluffy before even starting the dough, which saves time in case the yeast is actually a bad batch (in which case, you wouldn’t know until you’ve made the dough if you used instant! I’ve been there!).
• Vegan cream cheese: This is for our cheesecake filling- it gets SO fluffy. In my testing rounds, it’s best to make sure you have a firmer vegan cream cheese. Tofutti or my homemade vegan cream cheese work great here.

Overview: How to make vegan pumpkin doughnuts:

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Cinnamon ‘Cheesecake’ Stuffed Vegan Pumpkin Doughnuts

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• Author: Britt Berlin
• Prep Time: 60
• Cook Time: 15
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Yield: 10 1x
• Category: Donuts
• Method: Frying
• Cuisine: American
• Diet: Dairy-Free, Vegan

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Description

These soft and pillowy pumpkin spice doughnuts are stuffed with a cinnamon ‘cheesecake’ filling that’ll top anything you get at a bakery! With using just pumpkin puree in lieu of eggs (and dairy-free too!) to create an EXTRA plush yet shockingly simple brioche doughnut dough, these unbelievably vegan pumpkin doughnuts are fried until golden and coated in a deliciously sweet pumpkin spice sugar that will finally prove that you really can have it all and vegan!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts:

• 1 cup (240 mL) Malk Organic Pumpkin Spice Milk, heated to 110F*
• 2 tsp (8 g) dry activated yeast
• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (57 g) pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup (113 g) salted vegan butter, room temperature
• 3 cups avocado or sunflower oil, for frying

Pumpkin Spice Coating:

• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp pumpkin spice

Cinnamon Cheesecake Filling:

• 2 cups (16 ounces) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) Malk Organic cinnamon creamer
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

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Instructions

1. Prep: Please read through all instructions before beginning. Grease a medium bowl with a neutral cooking oil, and set aside. You will need a large doughnut or cookie cutter (3-4”).
2. Bloom the yeast: In a separate large bowl, combine the warmed pumpkin spice milk and activated yeast. Mix with a wooden spoon, and cover, placing in a warm area to activate for about 7-10 minutes. The yeast should begin to foam and smell yeast-like (similar to beer).
3. Make the dough: Once the yeast is activated, you’ll make the dough. In a large bowl or using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add in the  sugar, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, and bloomed yeast mixture. Mix on medium speed to combine. Then add in the flour, nutmeg, and sea salt, until a very shaggy dough forms, about 3-4 minutes. Finally, add the vegan butter, and begin to mix again on medium speed. It will look sloppy and almost batter like for a second, but as the butter continues to incorporate, it will turn back into a dough. Once the vegan butter is incorporated, turn the speed of the stand mixer onto high, and allow the dough to be kneaded in the bowl for about 5-7 minutes, or until soft and pliable. The dough might still be slightly tacky, but should not leave globs of dough on your finger tip. The trick is to knead the dough until it passes the windowpane test.
4. First proof: Place the dough ball into the medium sized greased bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and place in a warm area (ideally above 80F) to rest for about 60-120 minutes, or until doubled in size. While the dough is proofing, line two baking sheets with 8-10 5” squares of parchment paper. You will place each doughnut onto the parchment squares separately for the second proof.
5. Shape the dough: Once the dough has doubled in size, lightly flour a clean surface, and place the dough onto the surface. Gently roll out the dough to be about 1 inch thick or slightly thicker. Then take your large doughnut cutter and start cutting as many doughnuts as you can, removing each round and placing it onto a piece of parchment paper. Gather the remaining dough scraps and repeat until you get 8-10 large doughnuts or until you run out of dough. With a 3″ cookie cutter, I usually get around 10 doughnuts.
6. Rest: Cover the baking sheets of doughnuts and place in a warm area again to rest until almost doubled in size, about 30-45 minutes.
7. Make the cheesecake filling: While the doughnuts are resting, in a bowl, whisk together all cheesecake fillings ingredients. Place into the fridge to remain cold while you fry the doughnuts.
8. While the doughnuts are resting: With 10-15 minutes remaining of resting time, pour the oil into a large saucepan with walls and heat the oil until it reaches about 350-365F, keeping it steady at that temperature for frying. Use a candy thermometer for accuracy. Set aside a cooling rack with parchment or paper towel underneath to sop up excess oil.
9. Fry the doughnuts: When the doughnuts are ready, take the edges of parchment paper carrying one doughnut and place it onto the slotted spoon. Lower the doughnut into the oil with the parchment on (and then you can use kitchen tongs to remove the parchment paper once the doughnut has released from the paper!). Fry the doughnut on one side for 1-2 minutes or until golden on the bottom. Then flip the doughnut using the slotted spoon to fry on the other side for an additional 1-2 minutes. Make sure the oil temperature is remaining between 350-360F. You can place more doughnuts in a time if your pan can hold it, as long as the temperature remains steady. Remove the fried doughnuts with the slotted spoon, and place them onto the cooling rack. For doughnut holes, fry the doughnut holes all together at the end for 90 seconds total, stirring every so often to allow them to flip.
10. Coat: Once all doughnuts have been fried, whisk together the sugar and pumpkin spice. Dip each doughnut into the cinnamon sugar mixture, submerging it completely and coating it all around. Remove from the sugar and place back onto the cooling rack. Repeat for each doughnut.
11. Fill: Insert a large skewer into the seam of each doughnut just to the center of the doughnut (not all the way through the doughnut). Spoon the cheesecake batter into a piping bag fitted with a rounded nozzle. Insert the nozzle into the hole created from the skewer and gently fill each doughnut with just under 1/4 cup of cheesecake batter.
12. Serve and enjoy! Serve the doughnuts immediately and enjoy! I recommend eating these doughnuts fresh the day you made them, but if you do have leftovers, they can be stored at room temperature covered for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months.

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Notes

Malk Organic Milks: For the pumpkin spice milk, you can use dairy-free milk and add in 1 tsp of pumpkin spice blend to the doughnut dough. For the cinnamon creamer, please feel free to use a vegan heavy cream of your choice plus an additional 1 tsp of ground cinnamon.

Overnight option: Make the doughnuts THROUGH completing Step 7. However, instead of letting the doughnuts rest on the countertop while you make the cinnamon cheesecake filling, cover the doughnuts to be placed in the fridge to rest overnight. Then complete Step 7 and place the cheesecake filling back into the fridge covered. The next morning, let the doughnuts sit at room temperature while you heat the oil to 350F. Then fry, coat, and fill!

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 doughnut
• Calories: 692
• Sugar: 27.3 g
• Sodium: 226.9 mg
• Fat: 43.6 g
• Saturated Fat: 17.9 g
• Carbohydrates: 67.5 g
• Fiber: 1.9 g
• Protein: 8.8 g
• Cholesterol: 74.7 mg