Vegan Donuts (& donut balls)

These are so good, but still in early stages of development. The donut balls are pretty bang on though. So delicious, they disappear when I take them into the workplace! (I’d like to experiment with the ring donuts, filled donuts, and frosting.)

Ingredients:

• 50g vegan butter
• 120ml soy milk
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil (and extra for frying)
• 250g self raising flour
• 70g caster sugar (plus extra for coating outside)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• half a teaspoon of salt
• cinnamon (for donut balls)

Method:

1. Gently melt the butter on low-medium heat in a pan. Add milk, and 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil and mix.
2. Once combined take off heat and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a fork.
4. Make a well in the center and pour in the butter mixture. Combine gradually until a thick dough forms.
5. Using your hands, (flour them up!) roll the dough into fat balls and press to flatter slightly, piercing a hole in the center. Takes some practice to find your own easy method to shaping your donuts. Keep them relatively small as they enlarge when cooking. For the donut balls I flatten the mixture on a smooth floured surface (get out a floured baking sheet) and use a small round cutter to shape the balls. If large cracks appear across your little dough balls, roll them back up and press them out again, as the cracks misshape your balls when they are frying.)
6. Once you have all your donuts ready, heat sunflower oil into a deep pan if you have one. You can experiment with levels, but I work with no higher than 1cm. To know when oil is hot enough, fry a piece of bread in the oil. If it goes brown and floats to the top in 45-50 seconds the oil will be ready.
7. Gently lay the donuts into the oil using a spatula. Fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown. We experimented with a timer to try and find the perfect frying time for consistency (especially when making loads and loads of donut balls.)
8. Transfer donuts into a cooking rack with a tray/towel/kitchen roll below to pick up any grease.
9. For the donut balls, roll them into a caster sugar and cinnamon mixture within a minute of them coming out of the frying pan for a delicious hot treat!