Baked cinnamon doughnut holes (vegan)

These delicious sweet baked cinnamon doughnuts holes are generously rolled in cinnamon sugar and taste just like snickerdoodle cookies! And to make the baked cinnamon doughnut holes all the more enjoyable, they are made with a yeast dough, leaving them with an addictive fluffy texture.

Hello my baker friends!

I hope you’re all doing well and baking your Autumn away with all your pumpkin and warm-spiced goodies. All of which I’m super excited to start making because who doesn’t love pumpkin!?

I’m always looking for new pumpkin recipes to try out so if you have one in mind (which I’m sure you all do), please share it with me in the comments! My tummy will greatly appreciate it 😛

Okay, on the note of things my tummy appreciates, there’s used this little shop that sold various doughnut bites near where I live but then they recently closed down last month!

You can only imagine the amount of disappointment I felt when I walked by only to find that I wasn’t able to order a dozen of my favorite cinnamon sugar doughnut holes ):

So upon discovering such unfortunate news, I did the only thing I could have done…I marched my (mopey) self home and experimented with doughnut hole recipes!

I mean you  know what they say, food is healing 🙂

Experimenting

At first I was debating between whether I wanted to make cake-y donuts or yeast-ed donuts but in the end I decided to go with yeast-ed ones because I’ve actually made cake-y ones before already  and pretzel versions before

And after a couple rounds of less successful bakes, I finally came up with the perfect recipe! My little cinnamon doughnut holes were perfectly risen, fluffy and absolutely addictive.

Baked cinnamon doughnut holes recipe

Ingredients (makes 24)

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour divided
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 2/3 cup warm milk 
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter melted, divided
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar, yeast, and warm milk together. Set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.
3. Add the yeast mixture into the flour along with 3 tbsp of butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix the dough until it comes away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is dry add 1 tbsp of milk. If the dough is wet, add 1 tbsp of flour at a time until it comes away from the bowl.
4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is elastic.
5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a 100˚F oven for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion out into a 1″ thick rope. Cut the rope into 6 equal pieces. Roll the 6 portions into balls. Continue with the remaining 3 portions of dough. You should have 24 dough balls in the end.
7. Place the donut holes on a lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes in a warm place.
8. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake donuts for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown.
9. Combine the ground cinnamon and 1/3 cup of sugar in a small bowl.
10. Coat the donut holes in the remaining 2 tbsps of melted butter. Then, roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

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