Cinnamon Sugar Dairy Free Donuts

Ready for the ultimate sweet treat? Whip up a batch of these cinnamon sugar dairy free donuts! These donuts are made with just six simple ingredients, and are perfect for a special breakfast on holiday mornings. They’re rich, they’re sweet, and when you eat them warm out of the oven?  Straight up heavenly.

Note: This post was first published in 2019 and has been updated with additional context and photos in 2023. The recipe remains the same.

Ingredients

I’m telling you, these couldn’t be any easier to make!  You only need 6 ingredients, and I’m betting you probably have most in your kitchen already.

Here’s what you’ll need for the donut base:

Flour, almond milk, cinnamon, dairy-free butter, baking powder, and sugar.

And then here’s what you’ll need for the donut topping. Note that there’s nothing new in this photo; all the same ingredients are used in the base:

Granulated sugar, dairy-free butter, and cinnamon.

Here are some selected ingredient notes:

  • Dairy-free butter – I’ve made these with both Earth Balance (the red tub is soy-free as well as dairy-free at the time of publish) and Country Crock plant butter sticks with avocado oil (note these now contain soy). Both those options work quite well. Note that there are many products entering the market these days, and some do not translate as well for baking, so I recommend sticking with one of these options if you’re not confident about the properties of the other products.
  • Vanilla almond milk – You can use another milk alternative if you prefer. If it’s a plain version, I recommend adding a quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract to the recipe as well.

Instructions

You’ll find the full recipe amounts and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but here’s a helpful overview with process photos. Luckily, this recipe is super simple to make!

Start by combining the flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon in a bowl. *Important* – be sure to spoon and level your flour! If you pack the flour into the cup, the batter can come out too dry.

Flour, baking powder, sugar, and cinnamon combined together in a glass mixing bowl.

Pour in the melted butter and almond milk.

Donut batter in a glass mixing bowl.

The batter will be thick but should be easy to spoon in the donut pan. If the batter looks too thick or dry, add another splash or two of almond milk.

Pour the batter in a greased donut pan.

Donut batter in a donut pan

Then pop it in the oven for about 12 minutes or so at 375 degrees F. 

Once they’re done, you’ll melt some additional Earth Balance spread in one bowl, and mix cinnamon sugar in another.  Dip the donuts in the melted dairy-free butter…

Dipping dairy free donuts in earth balance spread

…Then dip the donuts into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Dipping dairy free donuts in cinnamon sugar mixture

Helpful Hints for Making These Donuts

A few things that may be helpful for you to know:

  • You can make these in a normal donut pan or in a mini donut pan.  I prefer regular size ones.  If you’re baking them in a mini donut pan, you may need to adjust the cooking time.
  • These donuts can be a bit crumbly.  I don’t think it’s a bad thing, because they taste insanely good, haha. 😉 If it bothers you, one way to avoid this is to use just slightly less donut batter in your pan.  When the batter is too full, the donut is pretty large when cooked – and it can make it harder for the donut to hold it’s weight when you pick it up to eat it.  I generally just hold mine in a paper towel while eating it so if it breaks, no big deal.
  • It’s normal for the donut to be a bit lighter on the top compared to the side that was in the pan.  I put mine towards the top of my oven which seems to help a bit with browning.  But “donut stress” (bad-dum-dum) if they’re a little different color on the top and bottom.
  • Spoon and level your flour! I can’t stress this enough. If you pack the flour into the cup, it ends up being too much flour and the batter can become dry. That said, this is fixable by adding an extra splash or two of almond milk if it happens.
A woman's hand holding a dairy free donut.

Allergens in This Recipe

As written, these donuts are dairy free and egg free.

These donuts may contain soy depending on your choice of dairy-free butter. You can make them soy free free by using a soy-free variety of Earth Balance.

These donuts do contain wheat/gluten (in the all purpose flour) and tree nuts (in the vanilla almond milk).  I haven’t tried making these with a gluten-free all purpose blend, but it’d certainly be worth a try if you need to watch out for that.

If you can’t have tree nuts, the almond milk would be easy to substitute – you can use whatever other milk alternative fits your needs, like oat milk or rice milk.

A stack of dairy free donuts on a white plate.

More Dairy Free Treats

If you’re looking for more tasty dairy free treats, try one of these recipes:

I hope you love these cinnamon sugar dairy free donuts as much as I do!  If you try ‘em, be sure to leave a recipe rating and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

A stack of three dairy free donuts with cinnamon sugar topping.
4.96 from 21 votes
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Cinnamon Sugar Dairy Free Donuts

Try these rich baked dairy free donuts, coated in sweet cinnamon sugar! It’s the ultimate dairy free donut that your family will love – made with just six ingredients.

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cinnamon sugar donuts, dairy free donuts
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 27 minutes
Servings 6 donuts
Calories 305 kcal
Author Dairy Free for Baby

Ingredients

Donuts:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled – important!)
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ cup dairy-free butter, melted (Earth Balance tub/sticks or Country Crock plant butter sticks)
  • ½ cup vanilla almond milk

Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

  • ¼ cup dairy-free butter, melted (Earth Balance tub/sticks or Country Crock plant butter sticks)
  • cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and grease a donut pan.

  2. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon.

  3. Pour the melted butter and almond milk into the dry ingredients. (Batter will be slightly thick).

  4. Pour donut batter into the greased pan, and place in the oven. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-13 minutes, or until a knife pulls out clean.

  5. When donuts are done, let cool for a few minutes in the pan until you can comfortably handle them. Meanwhile, prepare the cinnamon sugar topping. Melt the dairy-free butter in one bowl, and in a second separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar.

  6. Take each donut and dip it in the melted dairy-free butter, then dip in the cinnamon sugar. Enjoy while still slightly warm!

Recipe Notes

  • *Remember to spoon and level your flour, otherwise the batter may be too dry. The batter for this recipe is slightly thick, but should not be lumpy or dry. If it is not the correct texture, add another splash or two of almond milk until it reaches the correct texture.
  • The choice of dairy-free butter can affect the outcome of baked goods. For this recipe, I have tested it with both Earth Balance (tub and sticks) and Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks with Avocado Oil. I do not recommend using a nut-based butter or another margarine for this recipe, as these contain different water ratios.
  • Butter must be melted for this recipe, not softened.

 

Nutrition analysis (approximate per donut; accounts for the fact that some cinnamon/sugar mixture will be discarded): 305 calories, 15 g fat, 4 g sat fat, 221 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 23 g sugar, 2 g protein, Vitamin A: 1%, Vitamin C: 0%, Calcium: 10%, Iron: 6%

Share with me:  What’s your favorite kind of donut?  Did you try these dairy free donuts – and if so, what’d ya think?

Feel free to pin this post to save for later!

Three cinnamon sugar dairy free donuts on a white plate, with a text overlay with the name of the recipe.

59 thoughts on “Cinnamon Sugar Dairy Free Donuts”

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  4. 5 stars
    These are SO delicious!!! My 5year olds first donut ever!! So exciting to watch him eat one (anaphylactic to dairy), he loved it and I thought they were amazing too! We used Nuttelex for the dairy free spread and soy milk (in Australia)

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      I’m SO happy to hear you enjoyed them!! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂 And if there are any other treats you’re looking to make for your kiddo, don’t hesitate to let me know – always love recipe testing and developing new treats!

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  6. 5 stars
    I have never had a sweet tooth, until I had my baby. After I gave birth, I wanted ANYTHING sweet. Then I found out my baby had MSPI, and the sweet things I could eat became super limited. I just made these tonight and my husband has already eaten two of them. They are SO delicious and SO easy to make! Thanks for this recipe!

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      I’m so glad you enjoyed them Bridgette! And I’m convinced it’s a postpartum thing that just has us moms CRAVING the sweets, am I right?! 😉

  7. 5 stars
    These are soooo yummy. Just learned that both my son’s suffer from an egg allergy and my youngest has a dairy allergy as well. My 3 yr was just diagnosed and has missed being able to enjoy donuts. He was so excited to help and even more excited to enjoy them. We used vanilla almond milk.

    1. I can’t believe I missed this comment last week – this makes me soooo happy! I’m really glad you and your kiddos enjoyed them 🙂

  8. 5 stars
    These are amazing! I can not have dairy, egg, wheat, or gluten so this was perfect. I used Flaxmilk as that is what I had in the house, and used Namaste Gluten Free Flour.

  9. 5 stars
    These donuts are scrumptious (the first word that popped out of my 7 year old daughter’s mouth just now, lol, and I totally agree)!!!! I just had a baby boy a couple months ago and found out he is allergic to cow’s milk proteins so I am now on a very strict dairy-free diet for him. We were so happy to find this recipe! My daughter and I love to bake together, and our whole family has a giant sweet tooth, so this is perfect for us. The recipe is so easy to follow and the donuts come out perfectly every time. We would know as we have now made them three times in the last week and a half 🙂 I’m sure we will be making them several more times while we are staying at home during this Coronavirus pandemic. We shared a picture of the finished product with my daughter’s teachers and classmates the other day and we were asked right away for the recipe. Thanks again!

    By the way, do you have other dairy-free recipes posted anywhere? If so, I’d love to try some of them out.

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      Aw, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed these donuts!! They are definitely a favorite with my kiddo too 🙂 There’s lots more dairy free recipes here – you can find them at the “recipes” tab up top or by clicking here – https://dairyfreeforbaby.com/category/recipes/ Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!!

  10. 5 stars
    Seems like a good recipe. Ill try it out during the quarantine. The reviews seem good. Thank you for the recipe!

  11. Oh! My! Gosh! These are AMAZING!!! I made them for me because because I can’t have dairy but my daughter loved them and my husband was shoving them into his mouth! I used a mini donut pan, super easy and quick desert! Thank you!!!

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      I’m so glad you enjoyed them! 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to let us know they worked well for you.

    1. Hi there! Ay, it’s tough because here in the US everything is done in cup measurements rather than grams. 🙂 However, according to King Arthur Flour, a cup of all-purpose flour should be equal to about 120 grams. Hope that helps!

      1. 5 stars
        Thank you Chrissy!!

        Can I ask 2 more things?

        What is all purpose flour for the uk? Is it self raising flour? Because I used this and they rise up quite high without the need for any baking powder.
        Is there a healthier alternative for the flour?

        Also – what should the consistency of the batter be? Mine has come out quite sticky on 2 occasions. Should it be more like a dropping consistency? What should I do?

        Thanks again! Your recipe is absolutely amazing! I’m just trying to get better! 🙂

        1. Hi there – Great questions! 🙂

          1. All purpose flour would just be plain flour. It’s not self rising flour; that type already has baking powder and salt added to it (hence why they rise without any additional baking powder).
          2. So there are donut recipes out there that use alternatives like almond flour, but it wouldn’t work for this recipe. If you’re looking for a healthy donut recipe, I’d look for one specifically designed that way rather than trying to modify this one. Maybe I’ll add a healthy donut to the website here soon!
          3. It should be sticky. Since these are baked donuts, it’s more like a sticky batter than a drop consistency that you’d use in fried donuts.

          I hope that helps!! Glad you’re enjoying the recipes and definitely ask more questions if you have ’em.

          1. 5 stars
            Thank you so much- that’s so helpful! 🙂
            Will keep my eye out for any other healthy recipes you do!

    1. Great question! This batter is too thin to fry; it needs to be baked. If you’re looking to make fried donuts, my favorite easy recipe for that is to find dairy-free canned biscuit dough, poke a hole in each, fry those, and dip in cinnamon/sugar.

  12. Hi! I’m going to try these this weekend for my son’s 3rd birthday. He just went dairy free and misses donuts like crazy. I was just wondering if you used sweetened or unsweetened vanilla milk? Does it make a huge difference? Thanks!!

    1. I use sweetened because that’s what we always have on hand, but honestly it doesn’t matter either way. There’s enough sugar in the batter to account for unsweetened.

      Let me know how he likes them! 🙂

  13. These are great! My baby is dairy & soy intolerant & I’ve been having such a hard time finding any treats to eat. The whole family loved these!

  14. 5 stars
    Delicious! My little boy has egg, dairy, nut allergy and this was his first donut! We will definitely make it again. We used plain soy milk and I added a dash of vanilla and a little bit less cinnamon because he doesn’t like that as much. It was simple and easy to whip up quickly.

    1. Hi Kara! I’m so glad you and your kiddo enjoyed the donuts. Thanks for taking the time to leave a rating and comment!

  15. 5 stars
    This is my first time ever leaving a review for a recipe. These are AMAZING!! I could cry 😭 it’s been difficult at times avoiding allergens while breastfeeding! Thank you so much for this recipe so mama doesn’t feel left out. My husband thought these were amazing too!

    1. Aw, thank you so much Sarah – and I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review! I can totally empathize with having to eliminate allergens when breastfeeding – it is tough but you’re doing such a great job mama!

  16. 5 stars
    The batter tastes great so far. I don’t have a donut pan so I’m trying a si glen in in a mini bundt pan and the rest is in a mini muffin tin in hopes for some yummy donut holes 😂😍

      1. That’s what I aimed for ! They came out in the shape of mini muffins and I wasn’t mad about it! Some of them I covered the whole thing in country crock plant butter and the sugar cinnamon mixture. Others I did just the muffin tips. And the edges were crispy on some of them. So delicious!! I shared in my dairy free fb group I’m a member of and it’s a hit!!

  17. 5 stars
    Taste is delicious but no rise at all and couldn’t get them out of my silicone tin without them crumbling and only the top styled solid and nice and crunchy. Maybe that’s the problem? The silicon tin?
    I’m baked them on 230C in my steam plus oven (didn’t dare to raise the temperature since I don’t know the oven very well)

    So maybe you can tell, I’m not a very natural baker so some tips would be so welcome! Thank so much

    1. Hi Patty! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment – let’s troubleshoot!

      I’m sorry to hear they crumbled. I will say these are more cake-like donuts, so it’s expected that they’ll be soft and not crisp. The crispness that usually occurs with store-bought donuts is when they’re fried, which we don’t do in this recipe, so the texture will be different. Of course, they shouldn’t completely crumble, and I’m wondering if that could be the result of the silicone tin. Silicone transmits heat differently than a metal pan, and I’m wondering if using the metal pan helps them cook more evenly throughout the prevent crumbling.

      I’m also not familiar with a steam oven. Was the steam function on during cooking? This could affect the final product. Also, if I’m doing my math correctly (lol) 230 C = 445 F, which would be a pretty big difference than the original temperature in this recipe (375 F). Maybe that impacted the final product?

      I hope these are some good initial things to troubleshoot! If you make them again and they come out better, would love to hear the modifications you made!

  18. 5 stars
    So yummy! My son’s class is having end of year donut party tomorrow and thank goodness these turned out wonderful! Since they are Dairy & Egg free, he can enjoy his own donuts alongside his classmates! My other son and I even enjoyed snacking on a couple of these tonight. 🙂
    P.S. My son wanted a chocolate donut, so I added some Hershey’s powder to the last 2 donuts worth of batter and they turned out great too!

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      I’m so glad these will help your kiddo have a donut of his own at his school party! And I LOVE your idea about adding some cocoa powder to make a chocolate version 🙂

  19. Hi Chrissy,
    Looks like a fab recipe!
    I’m having a party for my daughters 8th and she’s having 2 dairy free friends coming. We wanted to decorate plain donuts with icing during the party rather than use the cinnamon sugar. So my first question is can these be made the day before and secondly, without dipping in melted spread will these be ok or will they end up dry? Thirdly, do you have any other suggestions for dairy free party cookies/cakes/party food in general?
    Thanks!

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      Hi Jina – sorry for the delay; it’s been a crazy two weeks! Hopefully the party hasn’t already passed and these answers are useful 😉
      1. Yes, they can be made the day before.
      2. The donuts are very moist and cake-like, so they shouldn’t be dry. (Just keep in mind it’s not like a fluffy fried donut texture).
      3. These dairy free sugar cookie bars are one of my FAV recipes for parties – https://dairyfreeforbaby.com/dairy-free-sugar-cookie-bars/

  20. 5 stars
    These are absolutely perfect and delicious! I substituted coconut oil for the dairy-free butter, and added a sprinkle of baking soda. I used my Wilton donut pan and they came out amazing. Thank you for such an easy, healthy, and tasty recipe. 🙂

  21. 5 stars
    These were delicious! We used each of your tips and they turned out very well. To give them a bit more body, so they were not as fragile, I added about 1/3 cup non dairy yogurt. Mmmmmmmmmmm. One question, what do you recommend for storage? I placed in airtight container and left on the counter. I doubled the recipe, otherwise, there would not have been any left over to store:)

    1. Hi Tammy! Typically we only do one batch and they don’t hang around very long to store, haha. Storing in an airtight container for 1-2 days is a good option for extras. (Keep in mind they may get softer in the air tight container, so they may become a little more fragile.)

      If you end up having extras after another batch, you can always freeze the donuts and reheat in the oven/toaster oven until warm.

  22. 4 stars
    I haven’t tried these yet
    My issue with these is you say you can make up to six donuts, when making these I was only able to make four donuts.
    Another issue is you said 12 to 13 minutes, mine were not done during that time. It took longer

    1. Chrissy Carroll

      Hi CJ! So strange – let’s see if we can troubleshoot. 🙂 Any chance you substituted different ingredients? Sometimes that can affect the yield. Or maybe you have a larger sized donut tin that would have led to 4 vs 6? Or maybe slightly overfilled each of the donut spaces? (We usually fill about 3/4 of the way full).

      As far as cook time – have you confirmed your oven is running at the proper temperature? Sometimes ovens aren’t calibrated properly, so confirming it’s running at the right temp with an oven thermometer might be helpful. Also, if this was cooked in a silicone mold instead of a standard tin, it requires longer cooking time (you don’t get the same heat transfer through the bottom of silicone like you do with a metal pan).

      Anyway, just a few ideas that may (or may not, haha) be helpful. Either way, hope you enjoy the donuts!

    1. Hi Ellen! The dairy-free butter really gives a bit of flavor to the recipe, particularly when dipping it in the butter and cinnamon/sugar afterwards. I’m not sure oil would taste as good, but I imagine they would still bake correctly. I hope that helps.

  23. 5 stars
    These were sooooo good!!!! Me and my family devoured them! I have a dairy intolerance and i had just gotten a donut mold, so i was so happy when i found this recipe. It was so amazing 10/10!!!

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