This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure for details.
Hi Bold Bakers!
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: If you’re looking for a delightful and healthier treat, our Baked Donuts Recipe is just what you need. With a quick prep time, these donuts offer a lighter, fluffier alternative to traditional fried options.
- Quick and Easy: Prep in just 30 minutes with simple steps and minimal fuss.
- Healthier Option: Enjoy a lower-fat, wholesome treat without sacrificing flavor.
- Customizable: Add your favorite fillings and glazes for a personalized touch.
- Perfect for more people and any time: Use no eggs, ideal for breakfast or a sweet snack, making them a versatile choice for any occasion.
More donut cravings? We’ve got you covered!
- No-yeast, leavened with baking powder and/or baking soda:
- Shallow-fried: No-Yeast Homemade Donuts
- Baked: Chocolate Cake Donuts, Churro Donuts
- Microwaved: Microwave Jelly Donut
- Yeasted-baked:
- Kneaded: Homemade Donuts: faster (1.5-2hr fermentation+0.5hr final proof)
- No-Knead: No-Knead Donuts(Baked Not Fried): long proof time for extra flavor and bubbly crumb (12hr, up to 3d fermentation+0.5hr final proof)
IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was improved on 9/15/2024, to include explanations of key ingredients, make-ahead and storage instructions, and Pro Chef Tips.
Table of Contents
- How Are Baked Donuts Different from Fried Donuts?
- Tools You Need
- Key Ingredients
- How to Make Baked Yeast Donuts
- How To Make Homemade Donut Holes
- How To Make Stuffed Nutella Donuts
- Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips for Baked Donut Recipe
- Make Ahead and Storage Instructions
- More Donuts Recipes
Bold Bakers Love These!
“These are soooooo good! I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t believe that they would taste as good as fried donuts!”
“Awesome! Tried and tested! Most importantly kids approved!!”
“These were amazing – I was a bit doubtful that the recipe would work but it was extremely successful. I stuck to the glazed ring doughnuts but am going to try some variations next time. “
How are Baked Donuts Different from Fried Donuts?
- Cooking Method: Baked donuts are cooked in the oven, while fried donuts are deep-fried in oil.
- Healthier Option: Baked donuts are lower in fat and calories because they don’t absorb oil during cooking.
- Texture: Baked donuts tend to be lighter, while fried donuts are denser.
- Ease of Preparation: Baked donuts are easier and less messy to make since they don’t require hot oil.
- Our baked donuts are leavened with yeast, which gives them a fluffier, more bread-like texture with more stands of gluten instead of a denser, cake-like texture of donuts leavened with baking powder or baking soda.
Tools You Need
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoon
- Measuring jugs
- Fork
- Stand mixer
- Spatula
- Cling film
- Rolling pin
- Biscuit or Doughnut cutter
- Pastry brush
- Baking trays
Ingredients
For the Donut Dough
- All-Purpose Flour: Provides the structure and foundation for the donuts, forming the base of the dough. For something tender like a donut you do not want to use bread flour with more gluten as it will just make the donuts chewier, not tender when you bite.
- Salt: Enhances flavor and regulates yeast activity, ensuring the dough rises properly without overproofing.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens the dough and feeds the yeast, helping with fermentation and contributing to the golden color when baked.
- Active Dried Yeast:
- Acts as the leavening agent, causing the dough to rise and giving the donuts a light, airy texture.
- For every teaspoon of active dry yeast in the recipe, use about ¾ teaspoon of instant yeast. Avoid direct contact with salt.
- Butter: Adds richness, flavor, and moisture to the dough, contributing to a tender crumb.
- Milk: Provides moisture, enhances flavor, and helps create a soft, tender texture by hydrating the dough. We use whole milk in our recipes.
- Water: Hydrates the dough and dissolves the yeast and sugar, promoting an even rise.
- Pure vanilla Extract: Adds a sweet, aromatic flavor to the dough, enhancing the overall taste of the donuts.
For the Glaze
- Powdered Sugar: Sweetens the glaze and creates a smooth, glossy coating for the donuts.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds flavor and aroma to the glaze, complementing the sweetness of the powdered sugar.
- Water: Provides the necessary liquid to achieve a smooth, runny consistency for the glaze, making it easy to coat the donuts.
For the Pumpkin Pie Spice Donut Holes
- Butter (melted): Adds richness and helps the sugar-spice mix adhere to the donut holes. Either salted or unsalted butter will work.
- Sugar: Sweetens the donut holes and creates a satisfying crunch when combined with the spice.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: Adds a warm, spiced flavor to the donut holes. Be sure to make our recipe for Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice for the best result!
How to Make Baked Donuts
For the Dough:
-
Prep: Line a large baking tray with parchment paper, set aside.
-
Mix dry ingredients: whisk together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt together in a standing mixer fitted with dough hook.
-
Mix wet ingredients and fat: In a measuring jug, heat together the milk, water, butter and heat until luke warm, and the butter is melted. Stir in the vanilla.
-
Knead the dough:
-
Turn the machine on low and slowly add the milk mixture. Mix for 2 minutes to wake up the yeast.
- Run a spatula under the dough to make sure everything is mixed well.
- Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is shiny and smooth, 6-8 minutes. The dough is supposed to be saggy and on the wet side.
- Rub your large mixing bowl with vegetable oil (or any flavorless oil) . Place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat lightly.
-
- Proof the dough:
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap tight and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 ½ -2 hours.
- Shape the dough
- Once it has risen, turn out the fluffydough onto a floured work surface.
- Roll out to ½” thick.
- Using a round cutter ( I used 3” but you can use smaller), cut of your donuts circles. Dust your cutter in flour so it doesn’t stick to the dough. Then cut out the donut hole with a much smaller cutter ( I used a piping nozzle , 1 ¼“ )
- vIf you want to make donuts to stuff with Jelly or nutella then cut a plain round donuts (I used 2 ½” cutter)
- TIP: You can prepare the donuts to this stage and put in the refrigerator until the next day. When needed, take out and let me come to room temp and rise a little (roughly 30 minutes) and then bake off as instructed below. Fresh donuts for breakfast.
- Final proof and bake the dough
- Cover your donuts with cling film and let them rise at room temp for 20-30 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside, pre-heat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Unwrap the donuts. Brush the very top (not the sides) with melted butter. Spray the tray with 2 tbsp of water.
- Bake for 13 minutes, set a timer. Rotate tray during baking if needed to get color all over. You want to bake these just enough. if they get too much color they can dry.
Glazing the Donuts:
-
Make the glaze: Simply whisk all the ingredients together. Use more water if needed to get a thin glaze
-
Take your donuts STRAIGHT from the oven and dunk into the glaze one by one. It makes a huge difference. They soften and soak the glaze and you get a much better end result. Dip each in the bowl of glaze with forks. Let the excess glaze drip off before and then place on a wire rack to dry. You will see the glaze set fast because the doughnuts were warm. this is just my absolute favorite part
-
Once the glaze has set, I like to double dip them one more time. I think it gives them a nice sweetness and the crust great texture and chew, it’s up to you.
-
Once the glaze dries I strongly urge you to eat them as fresh as possible because they are at their absolute best!
-
Have leftovers for the next day? Pop them in the oven and refresh them for a few minutes. the glaze might melt but they will be warm and fresh again
How To Make Homemade Donut Holes
Donut holes, or doughnut holes, are the literal definition of leftovers. While excess dough from making baked yeast donuts can be discarded, why waste a perfectly good second recipe for donut holes. Bake the spare donut holes from making donuts along with the donuts and then follow these easy steps.
- Mix sugar, pumpkin pie spice in a bowl.
- Toss your warm dough from the oven into bowl with melted butter.
- Toss the holes into sugar-spice mix and coat.
- Set aside on wire rack.
- Serve with chocolate ganache or sauce. Best eaten the day they are baked.
How To Make Stuffed Nutella Donuts
If you want to make stuffed donuts, just avoid cutting out the donut holes. Bake the donut as you would normally do and once it’s cooled follow these quick steps:
- Fill a piping bag with nutella (or jelly, cream, peanut butter, custard etc)
- Poke a hole in the bottom of the donut with a small knife.
- Fill the donuts with the nutella filling. When you see the donut grow there is enough in there.
- Do a little swirl on top so people know what’s inside and enjoy!
- Best eaten the day they are baked.
Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips
- This recipe uses active dry yeast. If you would like to use instant yeast, then reduce the amount to 1½ teaspoons and proceed with the recipe.
- Yeasted doughs need a warm place to rise or it can take a very long time. If your kitchen is very cold, you can create a warm-proofing environment in your oven: turn the oven on to 350°F (180°) for 3 minutes then turn it off and place the covered dough inside to rise. (It won’t reach temperature and should only be mildly warm.)
- Do a poke test to be sure that your dough has proofed: if you poke the dough and it springs back, let it rise a bit longer. If you poke it and your finger indent stays, the dough is ready for the next step!
- Yeasted doughs can over-proof if left too long, causing your doughnuts to collapse after frying. Keep a close eye on the dough as it nears the end of both rises.
- If you are making jam-filled doughnuts, you will need to fill jam into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Poke a small hole in the side of the doughnut and squeeze in the jam.
- You can make one of our quick Microwave Jams for these doughnuts! Be sure to strain this or any jam to remove any large chunks of fruit before attempting to pipe this.
- Roll your donuts in cinnamon sugar while still hot, or look here for recipes to make different Doughnut Glazes!
Make Ahead and Storage Instructions
Make-Ahead:
- Dough: You can prepare the donut dough up to 24 hours in advance. After mixing, let it rise as instructed, then punch it down, cover tightly, and refrigerate. Before baking, let the dough come to room temperature and rise again for about 30 minutes.
- Glaze: Make the glaze ahead of time and store it in an airtight container at room temperature. If it thickens, you can add a small amount of water to adjust the consistency.
Storage:
- Baked Donuts: Store baked donuts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. For longer storage, freeze them. Place the donuts in a single layer in a freezer-safe bag or container, and they can be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Frozen Donuts: For the best texture and taste, we do not recommend freezing donuts.
Notes:
- Glazed donuts are best enjoyed fresh. If storing, the glaze may soften, so consider adding a fresh glaze or coating before serving.
More Donut Recipes
IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was improved on 9/15/2024, to include explanations of key ingredients, make-ahead and storage instructions, and Pro Chef Tips.
Try These Recipes!
Watch The Recipe Video!
Baked Donuts Recipe
Try our fluffy, healthy Baked Donuts Recipe with 30 minutes of prep-sweet with customizable fillings and glaze, ideal for breakfast or snacks.
Servings: 15 Donuts
Try our fluffy, healthy Baked Donuts Recipe with 30 minutes of prep-sweet with customizable fillings and glaze, ideal for breakfast or snacks.
Servings: 15 Donuts
Ingredients
For the Donut Dough:
- 3 1/4 cups (460g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dried yeast
- 4 tablespoons (57g/2oz) butter
- 1 cup (225ml) milk
- 1/3 cup (80ml) water
- 1 tablespoons vanilla extract
For the Glaze
- 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 3 tablespoons water (maybe more needed. you want a runny glaze)
Pumpkin Pie Spice Donut Holes - A MUST TRY!
- 4 tablespoons (2oz/60g) butter (melted)
- Mix together in a bowl 1 cup (200g) of Sugar and 4 Tblsp of pumpkin pie spice ( If not available you can use cinnamon)
- Toss in your warm dough form the oven into the butter covering each piece.
- Using a fork toss the holes into the sugar spice mix and coat.
- Set them aside on a wire wrack and continue with the rest of the donut holes
- Serve with chocolate ganache or sauce. Best eaten the day they are baked.
Stuffed Nutella Donuts
- Fill a piping with nutella (or jelly, cream, peanut butter, custard etc)
- Poke a hole in the bottom of the donut with a small knife.
- Fill the donuts with the nutella filling. When you see the donut grow there is enough in there.
- Do a little swirl on top so people know what’s inside and enjoy! 🙂
- Best eaten the day they are baked.
Instructions
For the Dough:
- Line a large baking tray with parchment paper, set aside.
- Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt together in a standing mixer fitted with dough hook.
- In a measuring jug, heat together the milk, water, butter and heat until luke warm, and the butter is melted. Stir in the vanilla.
- Turn the machine on low and slowly add the milk mixture. Mix for 2 minutes to wake up the yeast.
- Run a spatula under the dough to make sure everything is mixed well.
- Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is shiny and smooth, 6-8 minutes. The dough is supposed to be saggy and on the wet side
- Rub your mixing bowl with vegetable oil (or any flavorless oil) . Place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat lightly.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap tight and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 ½ -2 hours.
- Once it has risen, turn out the fluffy dough onto a floured work surface.
- Roll out to ½ “ thick
- Using a round cutter ( I used 3” but you can use smaller), cut of your donuts circles. Dust your cutter in flour so it doesn’t stick to the dough. Then cut out the donut hole with a much smaller cutter ( I used a piping nozzle , 1 ¼“ )
- If you want to make donuts to stuff with Jelly or nutella then cut a plain round donuts (I used 2 ½” cutter)
- TIP: You can prepare the donuts to this stage and put in the refrigerator until the next day. When needed, take out and let me come to room temp and rise a little (roughly 30 minutes) and then bake off as instructed below. Fresh donuts for breakfast.
- Cover your donuts with cling film and let them rise at room temp for 20-30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Unwrap the donuts. Brush the very top (not the sides) with melted butter. Sprinkle the tray with 2 tblsp of water.
- Bake for 13 minutes, set a timer. Rotate tray during baking if needed to get color all over. You want to bake these just enough. if they get too much color they can dry.
- While the donuts are baking making the glaze: Simply whisk all the ingredients together. Use more water if needed to get a thin glaze.
Glazing the Donuts:
- Take you donuts STRAIGHT from the oven and dunk into the glaze one by one. It makes a huge difference. They soften and soak the glaze and you get a much better end result. Dip each in the bowl of glaze with forks. Let the excess glaze drip off before and then place on a wire rack to dry. You will see the glaze set fast because the doughnuts were warm. this is just my absolute favorite part
- Once the glaze has set, I like to double dip them one more time. I think it gives them a nice sweetness and the crust great texture and chew, it’s up to you.
- Once the glaze dries I strongly urge you to eat them as fresh as possible because they are at their absolute best!
- Have leftovers for the next day? Pop them in the oven and refresh them for a few minutes. the glaze might melt but they will be warm and fresh again
These are soooooo good! I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t believe that they would taste as good as fried donuts, because, let’s be real, fried things just taste good, and lots of alternative versions of fried food are disappointing. But these are great! If I didn’t make them I wouldn’t have thought they were baked. I’m 16 and only started baking with yeast a couple of months ago, but the recipe was easy to follow, I even cut the recipe in half and used a donut pan. I’m making these again and will force everyone I know to try them.
Hi Gemma! Thank you for such a simple recipe! I loved it! My only problem was that my dough was too sticky, so I had to add like an extra 1/2 cup of flour (maybe because it was too humid). Also, I would’ve liked a sweeter dough, because without the glaze, the donuts taste just like plain bread.
Too bready, not cake like
Hi Gemma
LOVE all your recipes and I’ve managed to get hold of your book which is fab too!
Quick question – could you leave these in the fridge to prove for longer than 1 night?
Thanks so much 😁
Awesome! Tried and tested! Most importantly kids approved!!
Hi Gemma, I would like to give this recipe a try. Can I substitute dry active yeast with instant yeast? How much instant yeast do I need? Thanks in advance.
Hey Gemma,
This is the first time I tried your recipe and the doughnuts came out really well. It was a big hit with my family. Thank you.
Also, should I add sugar into the dough to make it sweeter?
These were amazing – I was a bit doubtful that the recipe would work but it was extremely successful. I stuck to the glazed ring doughnuts but am going to try some variations next time. Thanks so much – have only just discovered your website, but it’s fantastic. I especially love the home made ingredients section.
I am unclear on when you make the dough the day/night before can you just put the whole ball in the fridge in the bowl or do you need to cut the doughnuts out and chill them on the baking sheet. Easier to just store the dough in the bowl rather than the cut out shapes. The order of the instructions makes it sound like you store the dough after you cut out the doughnuts – just wondering if you can store the dough and then cut out the doughnuts and do the final rise the morning of baking. Thanks!