Frugal but Delicious Homemade Donuts: Make a Healthier, Organic Versions of These Easy-To-Make Treats

For an offbeat Groundhog Day treat, try making your own donuts. If you happen to be one to cuddle up to comfort foods on a day that the groundhog has handed you bad news, you could always celebrate with a plate of fresh donuts.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, try making your own batches with a personalized message in the icing – a gesture sure to win your lover’s heart. If it’s a baked donut, it will be better for their heart, too!

Advantages to Homemade Donuts

By making your own vegan and/ or organic donuts, you have control over the ingredients. When they are fresh, there is no comparison to the store-bought version or even donuts that are fresh from a donut shop.

Baked donuts have less fat, as they are not deep fried in oil; however donut purists prefer oil for a crisper exterior and softer bite. However, baked donuts will not leave your home smelling like an oil refinery after you’re done baking.

Organic and Vegan Donut Considerations

Select a good quality organic cake flour, and hormone free milk if your version is organic. By buying organic means that no pesticides were used while growing the wheat, and that ensures a better quality of donut, overall. Try to see if you can get all the ingredients to be certified organic, for a really special donut.

If you are aiming for organic vegan donuts, it’s best to use water instead of soymilk or almond milk; while both are usually good for drinking or use in some recipes, it has been known to produce very dense dough.

For baking the donuts, it’s generally recommended to use a medium to high heat, around the 375F mark; any higher and one side will bake unevenly. If you are using a deep fryer, or just a pot of oil, use an oil thermometer to gauge when the oil is hot enough, and keep turning the donuts over. A frequent complaint against DIY donut-makers is how fast the dough browns. Keep turning them over as they bob to the top of the pot.

Resources to Make Your Own Donuts

101cookbooks.com features a recipe for baked donuts; they are a treat as well as a good way to hide vegetables, like zucchini – particularly in cake-style donuts. For vegans who are looking for a baked donut, a charming blog called Vegan Yumyum features a recipe for mini donuts, complete with a video for those who learn by watching.

For those who prefer a far simpler method, a buying a tube of ready-made biscuits and boiling them in oil might be one solution. Remember to separate the disks of dough from each other, and poke a hole in the center with your thumb. Gently place them in the pot of oil when it has reached about 375F, and keep the hole open by rotating a bamboo skewer around the hole; this will keep the hole wider, and the dough will not get too dense.

There are various easy and frugal versions out there; try Googling “homemade donuts made easy” or “vegan donut recipes” and you’ll be amazed at the variety you’ll find. One thing everyone agrees on – fresh and homemade donuts taste far better than anything you could buy.