These vegan apple crumble doughnuts are everything you love in a fall dessert, in doughnut form! Made with spiced batter studded with juicy apple chunks and topped with a buttery cinnamon crumble and sweet drizzle of glaze, they’re perfect for dessert, an afternoon treat, or even an indulgent breakfast!
Do you have a favorite type of fall dessert? Let’s put flavors aside for a moment (pretend pumpkin doesn’t exist and just stick with apple today) and focus on form. Well, guess what? With these apple crumble doughnuts, it doesn’t matter — they have it ALL!
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Do you love vegan doughnuts? That’s exactly what these are. And just like my vegan apple pie, vegan apple strudel, and vegan apple crisp, they’re loaded with juicy chunks of sweet apple. More of a vegan coffee cake fan? These doughnuts have the best part — that classic cinnamon crumble topping.
They really do have the best of all the vegan fall desserts you love, and you don’t even have to track down a fancy vegan bakery to get them. They’re easy to make at home, baked (not fried), and take less than a half hour to whip up. Just grab a doughnut pan (a totally worthwhile investment) and see what I’m talking about.
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Flour. The recipe calls for all-purpose wheat flour. I've also made these successfully with whole wheat pastry flour, so you're welcome to substitute that if you'd like.
- Light brown sugar. Like other granulated sugars, conventional brown sugar is often processed using animal bone char. Organic sugar is not, so that's what we're using.
- Spices. You'll need ground cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Salt.
- Vegan butter. Most grocery stores will have this in the refrigerated section, near the regular butter.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Applesauce. I like to use unsweetened applesauce, to avoid the whole potential non-vegan sugar issue.
- Non-dairy milk. Use any type you might normally drink, like soy, almond, oat or cashew. Check out my guide to dairy-free milk if this is a new ingredient for you.
- Vegetable oil.
- Vanilla extract.
- Apple. Pretty much any variety will work, but I like Honeycrisp and Pink Lady for these doughnuts.
- Powdered sugar. Another type of granulated sugar. You know what that means — use organic.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Get ready. Preheat your oven to 350°F and oil a 12 cavity doughnut pan.
Step 2: Make the crumble topping. Stir flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl, then stir in the melted butter. Stick the bowl in the fridge and let it chill.
Step 3: Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set this aside for a moment.
Step 4: Combine the wet ingredients. Stir applesauce, non-dairy milk, oil, and vanilla together in a small container.
Step 5: Mix the batter. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and stir everything together, just until combined.
Step 6: Add the apple. Gently fold a diced apple into the batter.
Step 7: Shape the doughnuts. Use a spoon to distribute the doughnut batter among the cavities, then sprinkle them with the topping.
Step 8: Bake. Pop the doughnut pan into the oven. In about twelve minutes, they should be done. You can test them by gently pressing a finger into the top of a doughnut — it will spring back if it's done!
Let them cool completely on cooling racks before removing them from the pan.
Step 9: Make the glaze. Stir powdered sugar, non-dairy milk, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.
Step 10: Drizzle. spoon the glaze over your apple crumble doughnuts.
Tip: With most baked doughnut recipes, I'll invert the pan and serve the doughnuts molded side up. Not so with these! Make sure to keep that beautiful crumble layer up top.
Your vegan apple crumble doughnuts are done and ready to enjoy. They're SO GOOD with a hot beverage on a brisk day!
Variations
- Skip the glaze. Is that sweet crumble topping enough for you? Feel free to omit the glaze.
- Skip the crumble. And if you'd like, double the glaze and dip the top half of your doughnuts instead of drizzling.
- Pear doughnuts. A fresh pear can be directly substituted for the apple.
Frequently Asked Questions
I haven't tried making them gluten-free, but I have had success using all-purpose gluten-free flour blends in similar baked doughnut recipes.
They'll keep in a paper bag at room temperature for about a day. After that, you'll want to place them in an airtight container or sealed bag and store them in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three months.
You can try baking the batter in a muffin tin, or making doughnut holes in a mini muffin tin. Keep an eye on them while they're in the oven, as the bake time might need to be adjusted. Mini muffins will probably require less time, while full sized muffins will need more time.
More Baked Vegan Doughnut Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Apple Crumble Doughnuts
Ingredients
For the Crumble Topping
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- â…” cup organic light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- ¼ cup vegan butter, melted
For the Doughnuts
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup organic light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- â…“ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 medium apple (Honeycrisp and Pink Lady varieties work well), peeled and finely diced (about 1 cup)
For the Frosting
- ½ cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly oil a 12 cavity doughnut pan (or a couple of 6 cavity pans).
- To make the crumble topping, stir the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a small bowl. Stir in the melted vegan butter until fully mixed. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow the mixture to chill while you prepare the doughnuts.
- To make the doughnuts, first whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl or large liquid measuring cup, stir together the applesauce, milk, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the applesauce mixture to the dry ingredients and stir, just until fully mixed.
- Fold in the diced apple.
- Spoon the batter into the doughnut pan cavities, distributing it evenly and smoothing out the tops of the doughnuts. Sprinkle the topping over the batter, gently pressing it in with your hands.
- Bake the doughnuts for about 12 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Transfer the pan(s) to a cooling rack and allow the doughnuts to cool completely.
- When the doughnuts are cool, stir together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl. Add more powdered sugar if the mixture is too thin, more milk if it's too thick. You want to just be able to drizzle it.
- Remove the doughnuts from the pan(s), gently loosening them with a butter knife, if needed. Place the doughnuts crumb side up on a dish or work surface and drizzle them with the glaze.
- Serve.
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Hi! Is it possible to use cane sugar rather than brown sugar to make these donuts?
I don't see why not! The flavor will be slightly different, but they should still be delicious.
These doughnuts were delicious for Sunday dinner dessert. I needed to cook mine for 3 extra minutes, and they were still nice and moist. Thanks for a great recipe!
I'm glad you enjoyed them! Thanks Vivian!
I made these doughnuts today OMG they are delisous 😋
Yay!! I'm glad you think so!
I'm down with these doughnuts but I agree with you- jelly doughnuts? No thanks. I was so sad that the Whole Foods near me got rid of the birthday cake and cookies and creme doughnuts for jelly filled ones. NOOO!
Oh wow...I'm so sad I missed birthday cake and cookies and cream doughnuts while they were at Whole Foods! My nearest one is about a half hour away so I miss all the good stuff!
I confess I am reluctant to try several of your recipes, even this very excellent looking one, because of your reliance on coconut oil. As it is a source of saturated fat, established to have many of the drawbacks of animal-based saturated fat, I do not use it. I wonder if there is a replacement that can be used?
In the doughnuts themselves you could probably use canola oil, but I'm not sure that would work with the crumble topping. Vegan butter would work, but I'm guessing that's out too. You could skip it and just use the glaze, or try another type of topping if you like.
I have to agree regarding coconut oil saturated fat as this is the first thing I check in on when viewing recipes due to it being very bad for heart conditions and then some.
jelly donuts were always my fav as a kid.. and they are my 7yr olds go to. BUT as an adult - these apple ones look AMAZING!!!!
Thanks Jeaninie!!