We get a number of requests for vegan doughnuts each week. I was always disappointed in myself because we did not have a doughnut to make these people happy. It took me way too long to wrap my head around creating an excellent vegan doughnut. Finally, I made the time to work on it. I wanted a doughnut that was as good as all of our others. I started with our base doughnut recipe, removing the dairy and substituting oil and bananas. The first attempt was a hot mess. So were the second and third. I was chewing through bananas and time. Our original doughnuts depend on eggs to hold the delicate balance of butter, flour, and liquid dairy together. My straight formulaic substitutions were not the answer. But I was learning. I was seeing the results of what the ingredients were doing to our dough. I stripped the dough down to a leaner version of its original self. In the fourth version, I found what I was looking for. It was perfumed with banana and vanilla. It had a lightness and slight chew. The exterior had a delicate crispness and the inside was moist. With the new model in place, now I can really get in and tinker with the details.
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