baked vegan wholewheat parsley & mint donuts w blood orange/plum brandy glaze

another one from 'the "who kidnapped Rob?" cookbook.'

Adapted from Sarah Owens. I changed the recipe to whole wheat (basically because I wanted to use up some of what I have in my cabinet.) I subbed in violife faux-butter, soy milk, and a flax seed faux-egg for the animal equivalents.

Results:

a fun experiment, but -- 

• with, essentially, an entire bunch of parsley and an entire bunch of mint in the mix, I expected these to almost blow the roof of my mouth off. But, oddly, the flavor is muted mixed veggie, as if I had used old kale instead of knock-your-socks-off herbs. Could it be the 'looks fresh but really isn't' produce from Whole Foods? Or does it need a ton more mint, or some other more aromatic herbs?
• the vegan substitutions worked fine, texturally, but, honestly, they lack the expected umami. I'd like not to use animal fats & proteins, but I still need to understand how to make up for the 'mmmmmm-deficit.'
• they would have been so so so much better fried instead of baked -- the crispy (and, yes, oily) exterior would have brought a texture/flavor contrast that would have helped make these more irresistible. As someone said to me this morning: everything's bad for you, it's bad to breathe the air in New York, so why not fry?
• the glaze could have leaned a bit more into the flavors. Perhaps I should have reduced it on the stove or used a slightly more intense variety of citrus -- meyer lemon, maybe -- and a jolt more brandy.

Rob