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Soft and moist donuts without milk,
eggs or butter? Hi, I am Chef Nico
and you are watching Italia Plant Based.
Today we'll show you how to make
oven-baked vegan donuts with
very simple ingredients that are
100% plant based.
Let's start with the recipe
for classic donuts. To make them
we'll need plant milk (soy or almond),
sugar, fresh yeast - dry yeast works too
but 1/3 of the dose of the fresh one -
sunflower seed oil, soy yogurt -
unsweetened,
sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and
all-purpose flour.
We start by warming up the milk
then we transfer it in a bowl.
The milk should be lukewarm,
and not to warm, because we
are going to add the yeast to it.
If the milk is too warm or too cold
our donuts won't proof.
Crumble the yeast in the lukewarm milk,
stir with a spoon to melt it in the milk
then add the sugar,
and while stirring, the oil,
the soy yogurt, the vanilla extract and the
cinnamon.
Stir till all ingredients are mixed together
then we can start adding
the flour.
In this classic recipe we use all-purpose flour
but later on in the video we make a
version with wholegrain flour
to make our donuts even more delicious
and nutritious. But here, we add
all purpose flour, little by little
while stirring with a wooden spoon.
We stir energetically with a circular motion.
If you prefer, you can use a food processor,
but we like doing it by hand.
Make sure the liquid
has absorbed all the flour
before adding more.
Keep mixing with your spoon
until you run out of flour.
The dough should start being
elastic. At this point
you can transfer the dough
onto a worktop
and start kneading it with your hands.
We knead vigorously for 5 minutes.
If the dough is too sticky, then add
a bit of flour.
The dough should be elastic, but
soft at the same time.
It should stay moist, but without sticking
to your hands and worktop.
So, don't add too much flour
while you knead
because you risk making the dough too dry
and the donuts won't be as yummy.
Ok, now that the dough
is smooth and ready
we can make a ball out of it
and place it in a floured bowl to proof.
Here we don't need to cover the dough
with film,
there is no need.
We are trying to reduce the use of
single use plastic in our kitchen and in our
home, because 1) plastic is very unhealthy
2) plastic is polluting our planet, so
as an alternative
we can brush the surface of the dough
with a bit of water. Then cut a cross on top of it
and cover it with a kitchen cloth.
Ok, now let the dough proof in a warm
place for about 2 hours,
or until it doubles in volume
(better if it triples).
When the dough is ready, transfer it onto a
work top, press it down gently with
your hands or with a rolling pin
and fold it once or twice on itself.
This step is extremely important
if you want your donuts soft and airy.
Then we flatten the dough
gently till we get to a thickness of
about 1.3 cm (0.5inch).
Now we are ready to shape the donuts.
Take the round pastry cutters
and start cutting the dough in the
classic donut shape.
Ours are 8 cm (3.1 inches) in diameter,
and 2,5cm (1 inch). If you don't have pastry cutters
you can use a large glass
and a bottle cap to make the wholes.
Look!
Aren't they already beautiful?
After we cut the dough
we take the scraps, put them together,
flatten them and make more donuts
till we run out of dough. Then we transfer
the donuts onto a tray
to let them proof a second time
for about 20 minutes before cooking them.
To oven-bake the donuts
our tip is to use an oven rack and NOT
a baking tray, because
the tray will get too hot and overcook our
donuts. So preheat the oven
at 180C (356F) then bake the donuts
for about 15/18 minutes
our until they are lightly brown on top.
Don't overcook them
because they dry fast! Look how beautiful
they are. We now cover them in cinnamon sugar.
To do that,
mix sugar and cinnamon together on a plate,
then dip the top of the donut in
plant milk, then immediately
in the cinnamon sugar.
And this is it! Beautiful, delicious,
soft and light donuts, and most importantly
100% made out of plants!
But if you are a bit of a glutton and want to try
the deep-fried version, don't worry.
This donuts are perfect also deep fried.
The most important thing is too not overheat the oil.
Oil temperature should be
always
between 170C and 180C (340F and 356F)
or else your donuts will burn.
Let's dip them gently in the oil
then as soon as the bottom gets coloured
turn them around.
It's only gonna take about 1 minute to fry a donut.
We have to be honest,
deep-fried are even yummier!
Also, here we covered them with a
powdered sugar icing
that is out of this world. But
we promise that also the oven-baked ones
are delicious, and easier to make.
Allright,
now it's time to experiment with
wholegrain donuts to see if it's possible
to replace refined flour with wholewheat flour,
and still get soft and light donuts,
as delicious as the regular ones.
This is our recipe for
wholegrain donuts, covered in
melted dark chocolate.
The measurements are the same, but
we'll need to replace the all-purpose flour with
50% wholewheat flour, and 50% first-clear flour.
Like before, bring the milk to lukewarm temperature.
Then dissolve the yeast in it.
Add the sugar, we now use an unrefined
cane sugar because we like the
flavour and because it adds
moisture.
Then add oil, yogurt,
vanilla extract, and then replace the cinnamon
with the zest of an organic orange, because
orange and chocolate together are the best!
In this recipe as well
we add the flours little by little
while stirring with a wooden spoon,
until the dough comes together.
Then we transfer it onto a worktop
and knead it by hand,
vigorously, for 5 minutes, adding
a bit of extra flour if necessary.
In this case the dough is less elastic
than the previous recipe, because
wholewheat flours,
while containing more gluten,
make it harder for the gluten to
get activated. But don't worry,
the donuts will be still soft and airy.
Like before we let the dough
proof for about 2 hours in a warm
place. Here too, brush the top of the dough
with some water, then cover with a kitchen cloth.
Once it's proofed,
flatten it a bit with your hands,
then fold it on itself for 2, 3 times.
This is very important if you want
your donuts light, airy and puffy.
Then flatten the dough
down to 1.5 cm (0.6 inches)
with a round pastry cutter like before.
Put the scraps together and make more
donuts till you run out of dough.
Then we transfer the donuts onto
an oven rack covered with our
silicon baking mat, and we let them
proof again for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180C (356F)
then bake the donuts for
about 15 minutes.
While they cook, we make the
chocolate cover. Cut the dark
chocolate into pieces, you can also use dark
chocolate chips if you want.
Then melt the chocolate bain-marie.
That is, in a bowl, on top of a pot with hot water.
We don't melt the chocolate directly on the heat
because chocolate is quite delicate
and it can be ruined fast on direct heat.
With bain-marie we are confident to melt it right.
Look how easy it is.
Now our wholegrain donuts are ready.
They are soo puffy and beautiful :-)
Let them cool down just a minute,
then you can gently dip them in the
melted dark chocolate.
Now transfer then onto a cooling rack
and add small stripes or pieces of
candied orange peel. And if you can,
wait until the chocolate hardens up
before you eat them all in one go,
like I did.
The flavour of wholewheat flour
orange and dark chocolate is
our of this world. And these donuts
too are soft, airy, moist, and
full of flavour. Everyone will really
love them. And also, they are full of
good nutrition thanks to the wholewheat flour and
the use of only plant based ingredients.
That's it :-) if you liked our video
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But now, buon appetito,
and see you next time.
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