These donuts put the fun in fungi! They aren’t made from real mushrooms but are a perfect dessert for all mushroom lovers to enjoy. You can even set up a woodland display to serve it, creating a fantastical dessert that is not only memorable but delicious.
This recipe is vegan, but you can use any baked donut recipe that you love.
These are fun to bake anytime of year, a sweet dessert after mushroom hunting in the forest or a great winter dessert when sprinkled with powdered sugar. We even put them on a winter themed forest cake!
You can add the mushroom warts of a toadstool mushroom (the universal veil remnants) in a delicious way by adding shredded coconut to the top of the mushroom. It adds texture and taste to the mushrooms. You can also add white icing sugar for the spots, or powdered sugar - it is completely up to you.
Make brown mushrooms, red toadstools, white mushrooms, or any other colour that you'd like. The chocolate coverd mushrooms were a huge hit in our house but everyone could agree that the red toadstools looked the prettiest.
Vegan baked MUSHROOM DONUTS
Bake temp: 350 F
prep time: 15-20 mins
Bake time: 10 minutes
Rise time: 15 minutes
Icing or glaze set time: 10 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Makes: approximately 9-12 donuts
Double this recipe for more donuts!
Mixing the ingredient:
Combine the warm water and yeast and allow it to activate in the bowl while you mix together the other ingredients.
Mix all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir well.
Add vegan butter or the coconut oil to the wet ingredients, by melting it first (on the stove or in the microwave) to turn it into a liquid. Add it to the bowl when it is warm, don’t add it when it’s hot or it could disrupt the yeast.
Add the vanilla to the wet ingredients.
Combine both bowls together and mix well, knead with your hands but don’t over work it.
Start preheating the oven at 350 F
Form the Donuts into two different shapes:
Create two shapes, one looks like a 3D half circle and the other is a cylinder shape. For every cap shape you make, equally make a stem shape.
For the cap of the mushroom, create for a 3D half circle roughly the size of a circle you get when you touch the tip of your thumb to your index finger.
Then add a finger sized indent into the flat part (the underside) of the cap to help place the stem onto it later. Lay the flat side down onto an oven tray lined with parchment paper.
For the stem, roll it out into a cylinder shape about an inch long and a bit thicker than your thumb.
Cover with a thin, clean, breathable dish towel and allow it to rise in a warm place for about 10-15 mins. We like to put the tray near (or on) the stove while the oven is preheating.
It will rise and become a bit bigger than you made it. Adjust the size according to your own desire. We aimed for timbit sized caps.
Bake for 10 mins at 350F - they should come out golden blond in colour. Don’t over bake or they won’t be as soft in the middle. The key is to have fluffy donuts.
ICING:
Allow your donuts to cool (on a cooling rack) before you ice them, so that the icing doesn't melt.
You can ice them with melted dark chocolate or sugar icing or glaze. Allow the icing to set and then assemble the mushrooms afterwards. this is because the mushrooms don't stand up well on there own, so it's best to ice the caps and allow them to rest on the flat side down to set.
We like to dip the caps directly into the icing and pull it out. You can also ice them using a butter knife.
White Icing sugar with vegan margarine:
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup margarine (vegan)
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
White Icing glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 - 5 tablespoons plant-based milk (such as oat or soy)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Red colouring: We used red fruit juice (boil a beet or some cherries or raspberries to extract some red juices), add 1-2 tsps for the red colour to the icing sugar or glaze above. You can also use red store bought food colouring of choice.
Chocolate icing:
Option one: Melt half of a cup of chocolate of your choice, we like to use vegan chocolate chips, they melt fast, then simply ice your Mushrooms. We also added chocolate to the bottom of all of them, for the dirt.
Chocolate glaze option two: 1/2 cup of melted chocolate with two tablespoons of coconut oil or 1 cup of melted chocolate with 1/4th cup of coconut oil. This creates a soft chocolate ganache glaze.
Donut Assembly:
Since you create the stem and the cap separately, you will need to attach them together after you bake it.
1 Icing assembly: You can stick it together using melted chocolate by applying the melted chocolate to the top of the stem and sticking it into bottom of the cap, pressing it into the dough slightly where you made the indent, allow it to dry.
2 Toothpick assembly: After you iced the caps and allow it to harden, put the non-pointed end of the toothpick into the mushroom cap into the non-iced bottom part. Press it in slightly, don't let it go out the other end. Then, press the toothpick, sharp edge down into the top of the stem until it meets up with the cap. If you use toothpicks make sure that the people eating them know about it. It’s best to pull the mushrooms apart while eating it or be careful of toothpick. Always place the sharp part of the toothpick downward.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar or shredded coconut:
Eat them on a plate on their own:
Our add them as cake toppers, to you favourite cake recipes:
We also add cookies to this cake, which is easy and fun - made by kids.
We hope you have fun making and eating these mushroom donuts. If you create this recipe, or something similar and would like to share it with us, feel to tag (the image) with our instagram username @acorns.and.aprons. We love to share and see all of your wonderul creations!
