Happy National Doughnut Day! To celebrate, I’m sharing a recipe for Vegan Gluten-Free Speculaas Doughnuts!
That’s right, June 7 is National Doughnut Day in both Canada and the United States (and maybe elsewhere!)
As a vegan and celiac, I always thought doughnuts would be out of my life forever. But that was so untrue! And these sweet, dough-y treats are delicious!
What is Speculaas?
Speculaas, or speculoos, is a spice blend known for its use in a traditional Dutch cookie of the same name! If you didn’t know, I was born in the Netherlands! Every year in December for Sinterklaas, my family and I make something called Gevulde Speculaas, which is kinda of like a cookie bar with almond paste sandwiched in between speculaas cookie dough. It is SO GOOD.
Speculaas spice is often a blend of things like cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cardamom, white pepper, anise, and clove. There are many recipes online to make your own blend, or you might be able to find a pre-made version at a speciality European or Dutch food store.
If you can’t find the spice and don’t want to make your own — have no fear! You can easily use cinnamon sugar for the doughnuts!
Making Vegan Gluten-Free Speculaas Doughnuts
These doughnuts are SO EASY to make!
The dough comes together so quickly and in 1 bowl!
The dough does need to rest for 30 minutes, but that give you time to clean that bowl and prepare everything for frying!
To shape these vegan gluten-free Speculaas Doughnuts, take a couple tablespoons of dough and roll it out. Then, attach the edges. The dough is sticky, so that isn’t too difficult!
Then, fry them up! The oil should bubble around the dough. You don’t want the oil too cool, but you also don’t want it too hot or the doughnuts won’t cook through.
The best thing is to test one before cooking the rest.
You can definitely change the “coating” up if you’d like. Try some cinnamon sugar, or a chocolate glaze maybe? Mmmm….
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and Happy National Doughnut day!
Want more vegan gluten-free sweets? Check out these recipes!
- Jumbo, Bakery Style Cookies with chocolate, oats, and coconut!
- Apple Tart
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Oat Bars
These vegan and gluten-free doughnuts are a delicious treat! I roll them in a speculaas spiced sugar, but you could easily do cinnamon!
- 2 tbsp aquafaba
- 1 tbsp vegan butter, melted
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cups Bob's Red Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour Blend
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Vegetable or Canola Oil, for frying
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp speculaas spice (can sub cinnamon!)
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In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the aquafaba, butter, milk, and sugar.
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Mix in the flour, baking soda and powder, and salt. The dough will be a bit sticky and it will firm up a bit in the fridge. But, add an extra tbsp or two of flour if you need.
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Cover and let the dough sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
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When you're ready to fry your doughnuts, heat a couple inches of oil in a deep pot (like a dutch oven) or I have even used a cast iron pan. I tend to heat mine a little above medium heat and that seems to work as a temperature for me. But this will vary depending on your stove and the pot you use.
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The oil will take a bit of time to heat. You want the oil to be at the right temperature when you start frying your doughnuts.
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Prepare a baking sheet with paper towel to place the donuts after they have fried.
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In a shallow bowl, combine the sugar and speculaas spices (or cinnamon).
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The dough will be a bit sticky, so I use use slighty damp hands when I shape mine. Take a couple tbsp of dough and roll it out and then combine the ends. The size should be in between a mini donut and a normal size donut. You don't want them to be too thick, or they won't properly cook inside. Alternatively, you can make small donut holes.
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Fry the donuts until golden brown, a couple minutes on each side (unless you've used enough oil to submerge them) -- about 5 minutes total. If they're browning too quickly, your oil may be too hot so turn it down a bit.
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Place the donuts on the baking sheet and let cool for 30 seconds before rolling them in cinammon sugar.
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These donuts are best eaten fresh!
Pin this recipe to save it for later!
These look like the perfect sidekick to coffee! Love how you used aquafaba here! Bet they’re so good when still warm 🙂
Thank you — and I agree, they pair beautifully with coffee!!
These doughnuts look perfect! I love the texture and that spice mix sounds heavenly on the doughnuts. Yum!
Thank you, Colleen! I love using speculaas spices when I can, it’s such a good spice mix!
I seriously cannot believe how incredibly delicious these guys look! I’ve been a huge fan of everything speculoos ever since my first trip to the Netherlands and Belgium and it’s been an ongoing love story. Lekker!
Awe, thank you! There is nothing better than the smell of speculaas cookies and coffee, one of my loves too!
I personally am not vegan, but know a lot of people that are. I have always been a fan of these sorts of deserts, and bringing these to social events, especially with kids, are very popular and everyone can eat them!
Agreed! Even before my celiac diagnoses I tried to bring food that was as allergen friendly as possible to parties/events. There is nothing worse than seeing great food and not being able to try it! haha
Delicious! These are so nice, a great texture and I love having yummy recipes like this to include (and impress) my guests with food sensitivities. Great recipe, thanks!
Thank you so much Sabrina!! 🙂
Great doughnuts. I’ve made them a couple of times for my dairy free and GF friends. They love them!
If I could offer one tip though. If you roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper and then freeze on a sheet tray, you can cut these out with doughnut cutters and get perfectly shaped doughnuts and doughnut holes. Fry them directly from the freezer. The scraps can be re rolled and cut out again.
Thanks Mel — that’s great to hear! And thanks for the tips — do you mind if I share them in the post?
Just not sure…….do you let the dough sit 30 minutes before you roll out to shape as doughnuts or do you shape 1st and then let sit in the frig. for 30 minutes.
Hi Patricia, let the dough sit for 30 minutes then shape the dough. Someone commented a tip saying that after the rise they roll the dough between parchment then place the dough in the freezer to firm up. They then cut them with doughnut cutters and fry them. I hope that helps!
You don’t specifically explain how to make the speculaas spice mix. Do you just put equal parts of the spices you mentioned above recipe?
Hi Lainey, I purchase speculaas spice as a blended spice. If you can’t find it at a grocery store, you can make your own. I don’t have a speculaas spice recipe, but there are lots online you can use!
Is it possible to have metric measurements for ingredients I tried converting them but it went totally wrong
Hi Sharon, I’m sorry at this moment I don’t have metric measurements for this recipe. I will put it on my list, but due to other life things I am not getting to my blog as much these days so it may take awhile. Sorry!
This looks so good! What a great way to enjoy this treat while sticking to the good stuff!
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
They are best eaten fresh, preferably the day of!
Best gluten free and vegan doughnut recipe ever! The freezing tip from another commenter helped me so much. They were sticky but I froze overnight then dusted in cassava flour to cut out. Such a tasty treat. Thank you so much Marieke!!!!
Thank you!! I’m so glad you liked them 🙂
These look awesome and I can’t wait to try them. I want to make chocolate doughnuts with strawberry glaze, Do you think I could get away with subbing some of the gf flour with cocoa powder? Have you ever tried adding other mix-ins or flavors? Thanks in advance!
I haven’t tried any other mix-ins or flavours – sorry! You should be able to add cocoa powder though – I would try removing 1/2 the amount of flour of cocoa your adding. For example, if you add 1/4cup of cocoa take out 2 tbsp of flour. I hope that works!! This is good inspiration to work on a new doughnut recipe 🙂
What a great recipe. Just one question though, how many doughnuts does this recipe yield?
It depends how big you make them, but I got about 8-10 if I remember correctly!
I am half Dutch and grew up eating speculaas cookies so this looks wonderful. However, I have only ever baked donuts. Is this recipe bake-able? I’m sure I’d fry them at the wrong temperature and they’d be awful,
Hi Diane, I love speculaas cookies! To be honest, I have not baked these donuts so I can’t say. I’d try 375 for 12-15 min, but I can’t guarantee that will work.
Such a simple and great recipe!
I did not think that gf and v doughnuts could be that easy. Thank you! They turned out great!
Thank you! I’m glad you like them 🙂