Where I come from donuts are connected to a special holiday. The classic donuts are filled with jam, but I like my vegan donuts with vanilla cream a lot more.

Slovenian tradition behind donuts – “Pust” carnival

The holiday takes place in early spring. It is somehow like Halloween – children dress up in costumes and go from door to door asking for sweets and money. The holiday is said to be the break between winter and spring, the time when winter says goodbye and spring finally comes into the land.

The holiday is called Pust and there’s a carnival taking place during the weekend before the fat Tuesday (which is the official Pust day). Pust is actually a person to whom the holiday is dedicated and the holiday is always on Tuesday, but the celebration goes on for 7 full days, from Thursday before that until Tuesday – the whole day. On this day, people “kill” Pust (they set a doll made from hay on fire or drown it in a river) and mark the death of winter.

Donuts are traditionally made from Thursday before the fat Tuesday throughout the weekend (we party on a carnival on Saturday) and on Tuesday the last batch is made. After that people fast for 40 days until Easter.

Vegan donuts with vanilla cream are not traditional, but they are better than the old-school ones

We eat all kinds of fried foods on Pust carnival, like donuts, fritters, and “flancat” [flantsat] – all made of kneaded dough and deep-fried in oil.

The traditional donuts are made with tons of eggs, butter, and cream, filled with apricot jam, and covered in powdered sugar.

Variations exist, of course:

• baked in the oven
• filled with chocolate, hazelnut, or vanilla cream
• covered in chocolate or granulated sugar with cinnamon

I think my variation is one of the best ones. I don’t want to brag about it, but homemade donuts are always better than the ones from the store. The vanilla cream is always better than jam. And vegan is always better than classic. 😀

Not convinced? Don’t take my word for it. Make them and decide for yourself!

Have you tried this recipe? Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @littlekitchenvibes and use #littlekitchenvibes

Like creamy desserts? You’ll love this super creamy vegan chocolate pie. You might want to try vegan spiced pumpkin pie too.

Vegan Donuts with Vanilla Cream

If you want to impress, look no further. These vegan donuts with vanilla cream are stealing hearts everywhere they go.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Resting time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American, european

Servings 12 donuts

Ingredients

  

Donuts

• 500 g flour best is all purpose white
• 1 pack dry active yeast
• 1 pack vanilla sugar 3 tsp
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 50 g brown sugar
• ⅓ tsp turmeric
• pinch salt
• 300 ml oat milk
• 50 ml coconut oil
• 2 tbsp rum

Vanilla cream

• 200 ml oat milk
• 4 tbsp starch
• ½ tsp vanilla essence or ½ vanilla pod
• 50 g brown sugar
• pinch turmeric
• 200 g coconut cream hard part from the can or coconut whipping cream

Instructions

 

• Mix all of the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Milk should be about room temperature, you can warm it up a bit if it's straight from the fridge. Melt coconut oil and add it to milk. Add both to the dry ingredients.
• Using your hand, mix all the ingredients together until they are all incorporated. Start kneading and knead for 10-15 minutes or until your dough is no longer sticky and is forming a smooth ball. It will be sticky at the beginning, there's nothing wrong with that. Just keep kneading for at least 10 minutes.
• When you're done kneading, cover the bowl with a wet kitchen cloth or reusable wax wrap. Let it rise for at least one hour. After that, you can either transfer it to an air-tight container and let it rest in the fridge overnight, or you can continue the procedure the same day.
• (I have to say I really like them when they are kept in the fridge over-night.)
• While your dough is resting and rising, prepare vanilla cream. In a bowl, whisk together starch, vanilla sugar or seeds, brown sugar, and turmeric. Add 5 tbsp of milk (from 200 ml) and whisk it all together so your starchy mixture forms a thick batter.
• Pour milk into a pot and warm it up until it starts to boil. Remove the pot from the stove and pour in the starchy mix. Whisk, whisk, whisk.
• Move it to the stove again and keep whisking. At first, not much will happen, but in a minute or two it will start thickening up. When that happens, keep whisking and whisking, otherwise, you'll get clumps in your cream. Don't forget the edges of the pot, reach into them too. Keep whisking until your cream is thick and smooth. When it boils up again, it's pretty much done. Cover the pot with a lid or reusable wax wrap and let it cool down completely. You can even put it into the fridge once it's cooled enough, to make sure it's really cold.
• Okay, the donuts! Once the dough has doubled in size (or you woke up in the morning) it's time to shape them. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 12 equal parts, each weighing about 80 g (or 8 weighing about 100 g) . Shape them into balls. Put them onto a floured surface so they don't stick to the counter-top or table and cover them with a cloth. Let them rise for additional 30 minutes or more, so they double in size.
• When your cream is cold, whip up coconut cream. Vanilla cream will be super thick, almost like a jelly. No worries, we want it to be that way. Add vanilla cream to whipped coconut cream tablespoon by tablespoon and whip it in. Don't over-whip it, otherwise, your coconut cream (especially if it's from the can) will separate to fat and water. We don't want them to happen, so go slow. Oh, and if your cream is not completely cold yet, don't use it. It will melt coconut cream and you'll get a vanilla soup, not vanilla cream from it.
• Once vanilla cream is added to coconut whipped cream, it should form a smooth, fluffy cream. You can use it for other things too, actually, like cakes, muffins, pancakes, etc.
• FRYING

  Once donuts are doubled in size, warm up the oil. You'll need enough to cover the bottom of the pot about 3 cm up, about 1 litre should be good. Warm it up to 170°C - 180°C but no hotter than that. I highly recommend using a thermometer for that. Slowly warm it up as it will give you the control you'll need over temperature.
• Put the first round in, upside down - the side that was facing up during rising should be in oil first. Fry them in hot oil for 2-3 minutes. Turn them around and fry them for about 1-2 minutes on the other side too. Then place them on a plate, lined with paper towels so it soaks up excess oil. Repeat until all your donuts are done.
• BAKING

  Put donuts onto a baking tray. Warm-up the oven to 200°C. Bake donuts for 13-15 minutes.
• Before filling them up, let them cool down. If you fill them up right away, your vanilla cream will turn into a runny sauce. So once they are cold, fill them up and cover them in powdered sugar, chocolate, or granulated sugar, or anything else.
• Done! Now enjoy them with coffee, tea, or cocoa with some family and friends. 😀

Keyword creme patissiere, donuts, homemade creme patissiere, homemade donuts, vanilla donuts, vegan cream cheese, vegan donuts, vegan doughnuts, vegan vanilla cream