Perfect Copycat Entenmann’s Donuts (Baked, Vegan, and Gluten Free & Sugar Free options)

Copycat Entenmann’s Donuts – the ideal way to get the satisfaction of this classic reat, but baked, vegan, and gluten free!  It tastes just like the original, but extra satisfying because you did it yourself!  

Entenmann’s Donuts, a staple in the sweets arsenal for so many households.  As Seinfeld astutely pointed out years ago, Entenmann’s treats have a “display case at the end of the aisle” in every grocery store, and so I’m sure I’m not the only person who grew up with their donuts and coffee cakes as my ideal dessert goals.  I mostly attribute this to my dad, who ALWAYS had a box of these exact donuts in the freezer, and would sneak one per night after dinner. 

These Copycat Entenmann’s Donuts were an early entry onto my to-do list when I started vegan and gluten free baking.  After many rounds with my taste testers, I have confirmed that these taste exactly like the original, the only difference is they are baked not fried, which to me is just a beautiful excuse to eat more than one.

Also – if you want basically these but with a chocolate filling, head over to my Vegan Thin Mint Donut recipe and you can make them with or without the peppermint flavor!

How To Make Them:

If you have not made baked donuts before, you are in for a treat.  They are SO EASY.  Nothing fancy, nothing that needs prep time. Even including the time it takes for the chocolate coating to set you can make a full batch of these in less than 45 minutes (I know this to be true since while I was taking photos of them for this blog entry, I messed up the first batch, had about an hour of natural light left before the sun was going to go down, and managed to still get in the shoot.) 

So let’s get going! You’re less than an hour away from eating your Copycat Entenmann’s Donuts.

First thing’s first – get yourself a donut pan!!  In fact, get this set of two so you can make a dozen at a time.  Now that you’ve marveled at how adorable these pans are and you’ve wondered just how many things you can bake into donut shapes, let’s get started!

Step one is mixing together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar (see the Ingredients Needed section to learn how to make these sugar free!).  I use 1/3 cup of sugar and find it to be perfect, but if you want an extra sweet donut you can do 6 tablespoons of sugar.  Add into the dry ingredients milk, oil, vanilla extra, and soda water. 

Fun tip..

If this is your first time reading one of my recipes that uses soda water, welcome to what I find to be a game-changing ingredient.  I don’t use it a ton, but it is an option for replacing eggs in vegan baking, and one I find works very well for items you want to be lighter and fluffier like certain cakes, the occasional cookie, and baked donuts!  If you don’t have any carbonated water around, you can just use regular water instead and the donut will still bake correctly, it will just be a bit denser than the soda water version.

Time to bake!

Once your batter is fully mixed, it will seem a bit thin. Trust me, this will keep the donuts extra fluffy and moist. I like to pour it into a large measuring cup so it’s easier to transfer to the tin, then pour it evenly into the 6 (well-greased) donut molds and bake for 15 minutes. 

Let the donuts sit in the pan for about 5-10 minutes, then carefully move them onto a cooling rack.  I like to take a small cooling rack (see the photo for reference) and place it over the pan, then flip the whole thing upside-down so the donuts come out smoothly.  While they are cooling, let’s make our chocolate coating!  I have found the best mixture of chocolate to get that exact Entenmann’s chocolate coating flavor is 2/3 semi-sweet chocolate, and 1/3 dark chocolate.  You can use whatever exact chocolate you prefer, but to keep it vegan when I make these I use either these mini-chips or these chunks for the semi-sweet portion, and these chips for the dark portion.  

Chocolate coating:

Melt together your chocolate mixture either on a double boiler or in the microwave, then mix in about a teaspoon of neutral oil to make it a little thinner and smoother to coat the donuts with.  Coat each one generously, you can either use two forks to dunk the donut under the chocolate and flip it around then remove it, or just use your hands if you want to get messy and lick chocolate off your fingers after.  Move each coated donut onto a parchment paper lined pan, and once you’ve coated them all move them to the freezer for 10-15 minutes until the chocolate has hardened into a shell.

And that’s it!  You’ve made the best boxed donut out there BY YOURSELF and baked, vegan, and (optionally) gluten free!! Go eat your Copycat Entenmann’s Donuts and celebrate!!

Nutritional info can be found in the Notes section below the recipe instructions.

Storage:

After the Copycat Entenmann’s Donuts have cooled, seal in an air-tight container and store at room temperature or in the fridge.  At room temperature they will last 3-5 days, fridge will be a few extra days.

Pro Tips & Tools:

• Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method.  Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
• Make sure you measure your liquid ingredients using liquid measuring cups.  This will ensure accuracy!  I love this set.
• If you need a donut pan, these are the ones I use, and they are perfect and worth every penny.

Ingredients Needed:

• Flour – Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method.  Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
• Baking powder – I recommend using baking powder that has no added aluminum. This one is my go-to.
• Salt
• Granulated sugar – I use 1/3 cup here, if you want a sweeter donut you can use 6 tablespoons. If you want to make these sugar free, I love using this Monkfruit Sweetener in place of granulated sugar.
• Non-dairy milk – any type will work here, I tend to use soy or almond.
• Neutral oil – any type will work here, I use grapeseed.  I have not tried these oil-free, but have tried other vegan donut recipes that use applesauce.  I imagine that would work here, though it will impact the flavor and not be as authentic tasting.
• Soda water – I talk more about this in detail above, but this works as an egg replacer and keeps the donut extra light and airy.  You can replace with milk if you don’t have any soda water, it will just produce a more dense donut.
• Vanilla extract
• Semi-sweet chocolate + dark chocolate – the mixture of 2/3 semi-sweet chocolate melted with 1/3 dark chocolate will taste like the authentic donut you are trying to replicate.

What To Bake Next:

• Want more copycats of old favorites? Try these Vegan Copycat Levain Cookies, or these Vegan Copycat Thin Mint Cookies.
• Want more chocolatey breakfast foods? Try these Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Muffins, or these Vegan Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cookies (yes I think these can be breakfast cookies)
• Want more use from your donut tin? Try these Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Donuts, or these Vegan Coconut Donuts, or these Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Donuts.