Baked Donuts

Soft, Fluffy, Homemade Donuts (No Yeast Needed!)

This one’s for you resolutioners out there. Those of you who are craving a good old-fashioned deep fried homemade donut but swore off all things deep fried for the year (or at least the first few weeks of it 😉). Honestly, it’s for those of you who didn’t swear off greasy, deep-fried foods, too. Because as much as I love a classic donut, I would never say no to one of these baked donuts. They’re light, fluffy, airy and perfectly sweetened. Guaranteed to satisfy any donut craving. They’re also incredibly simple to make and can be hot and ready to eat in under 30 minutes. It’s honestly really, really easy, so let’s jump right in.

What You Need

Let’s briefly go over just a few of the key players in today’s recipe…

Buttermilk. This gives the donuts a wonderful flavor and a soft, fluffy texture. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can use my easy buttermilk substitute instead.Butter. Some of this will be drizzled into the batter while some will be used to brush over the donuts so the cinnamon/sugar topping sticks. I actually prefer to use salted butter for brushing the donuts, but if you don’t have any you can just mix a dash of salt into your melted butter.Sugar. I use a blend of regular granulated sugar and light brown sugar (I love using a balance of these two sugars, it almost always yields a better baked good!). The brown sugar adds a nice depth of flavor, but I balance it with granulated sugar so the donut isn’t too weighed down and stays fluffy rather than turning out chewy.Flour. Use all-purpose flour. Self-rising flour is not recommended with this recipe.Ground nutmeg. A pinch of this gives the donuts an authentic bakery-esque flavor. If you don’t have it, simply omit from the recipe, but I love the flavor it adds!

As usual, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Baked Donuts

Tip: The batter should be completely combined before portioning, but make sure that you don’t over-mix or your donuts will end up dense and dry. Once the donuts are baked, you have your choice of toppings…

Toppings

My personal favorite topping is the simplest: Tip: It might seem tempting to simply dunk the baked donut in the melted butter, but unfortunately this over-saturates the donut and makes it soggy! Other topping options:

A vanilla glazeA chocolate glazeA dusting of powdered sugar.

I have instructions for all of these options in the notes of the recipe card.