I’m lucky to live in a city that has a huge and vibrant vegan scene.
Toronto is full of restaurants that cater to vegan and vegetarian lifestyles, and we have many vegan-only or extremely vegan-friendly grocery stores, which makes it really easy to maintain a plant-based diet.
We are also very lucky to be home to the Toronto Vegetarian Association, a group dedicated to encouraging people to lead a more compassionate and healthy lifestyle by adopting a plant-based diet.
The TVA does so much for the veg community here in Toronto, but perhaps what they are most known for is the Veg Food Festival, which is a three-day event held on the second weekend of September every year at our beautiful Toronto Harbourfront. It’s the largest vegan/vegetarian festival in North America and when times are better, and we can all travel again, I highly encourage you to come check it out.
In recent years, the TVA has also added a Spring and Holiday Veg Market to their roster, and I’ve had the pleasure of participating at all three events as both a vendor and a cooking instructor. This year, because of COVID-19, all of these events went virtual, and I turned my kitchen into a virtual cooking school to showcase some easy, delicious plant-based recipes.
The 2020 Virtual Veg Holiday Market ran from Dec 12-20 and it included a host of cooking demos and talks, including one from me with a very special holiday treat I created just for that event:
Baked Gingerbread Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze.
These light, fluffy, baked donuts are absolutely bursting with Christmas flavor and are so super-easy to make. And the glaze on top is the perfect finish to this winter-wonderland treat.
Because these donuts are baked instead of fried, they’re healthier (read: you can eat more than one), and require less time and equipment. In fact, you don’t even have to make these into donuts – they make amazing muffins too, so don’t fret if you don’t have a donut pan handy. For regular size muffins, double your baking time. For mini muffins, keep the same bake time as the donuts.
Baked Gingerbread Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 tbsp ground flax
- 3/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup neutral oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp molasses
Cinnamon Glaze
- 1 1/4 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 5-6 tbsp non-dairy milk or cream
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine ground flax with 2 tablespoons hot water and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.
- In a measuring glass, combine ½ cup non-dairy milk with lemon juice and let stand for 5 minutes
- Preheat oven to 375F. Grease 2 donut pans with oil, butter or cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and brown sugar. Make a well in the center and add the flax egg, milk, oil, vanilla and molasses. Stir until just combined and no flour streaks are visible. Spoon mixture into donut pan until just below the fill line (alternately, you could use a piping bag to pipe the batter into the tray).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a doughnut comes out clean. Gently turn the pan over on to a wire cooling rack and tap out the donuts. Let cool completely.
- Make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla and 4 tablespoons of non-dairy milk or cream until well-combined. Add 1 tablespoon more at a time until the glaze reaches the desired consistency for dipping. Dip each donut into the glaze until the top is completely coated, or spoon the glaze directly on to the donut and set back on a wire rack for the glaze to set.
