You may have noticed over the last few years that our family has fallen in love with baked donuts. Literally head-over-heals, preferring them to muffins (which baked donuts actually are more like) and in the case of our kids, even over the regular fried version (yes, it’s weird).
You also may have noticed that I have spelled them both ways occasionally – donut and doughnut – because we here in the states actually use both, although Google tells me that ‘doughnut’ is the grammatically correct version, while my spell checker prefers ‘donut.’ Kinda reminds me of that tomato-potato song:
You say doughnut and I say donut…let’s call the whole thing off!
No matter – both spellings work and the most important thing is that you try one of these easy baked donut recipes and see if your family likes them as much as mine does! (You will need a special pan, though, and this mini doughnut pan makes seriously cute donuts which may (or may not!) help keep the portions under control.)
Baked donuts have become a special food tradition in our house. These French Breakfast Donuts are the new family favorite though because they come closest to resembling those delicious fried donuts that we love so much from the doughnut shops. Do you have a doughnut pan? You should put it to work with this delicious recipe.
I have heard often from people that they are disappointed in the flavor of baked donuts. I think it is important to go into baking donuts know that they will most definitely not take like a fried doughnut, but taste more like a muffin with a fun doughnut shape.
Since we have started eating baked doughnuts, my kids don’t really like the doughnuts from the doughnut shop which I find WEIRD because no kid should not love a doughnut from a doughnut shop. That being said, not to lead you astray that my kids are so healthy, I think they just like that they can consume more of these baked doughnuts than they can of the fried version.
When I say I have a doughnut for every season, I mean it!
I find doughnuts enjoyed in another room in our house are always a hit. One day over our winter break, I laid out a tablecloth and served doughnuts on a breakfast tray with mason jars of orange juice for an unexpected morning treat. The kids were thrilled to get to take over our room AND eat doughnuts. You gotta love a cheap thrill like this!
These French Breakfast Donuts are light, fluffy, and laced with nutmeg. After they are baked, they are dunked in butter and coated with cinnamon and sugar.
They are so delicious that I guarantee that you won’t be able to eat just one!
Baked donuts have become our family’s new way of celebrating all of the special occasions in our life and I couldn’t wait to share with you my snickerdoodle donut creation I made this week. These baked snickerdoodle donuts are a fun & frugal family treat that are easy to create with a simple nonstick donut pan ( we have two of these Norpro 6-count Nonstick Donut Pans) and pantry ingredients.
My husband celebrated his birthday this past weekend and I wanted to create something special for his birthday morning. Every year I try to find a snickerdoodle treat for him since it is his favorite cookie in the whole world. We have enjoyed everything from the cookies to snickerdoodle cupcakes to snickerdoodle biscotti in our house. It seems no matter what version of snickerdoodles we are creating, we love them no matter what. Who could resist that cinnamon flavor?
I will admit the first batch of these was a giant fail, although they photographed beautifully. I played with different leavening agents that yielded gummy and heavy donuts. I ended up baking a second round later in the week using cake flour and it helped to yield a much lighter donut and more the consistency I was after. It is proof that sometimes it takes a couple of tries before you get it right when baking.
Each donut was dipped in butter and then dipped in a bowl filled with sugar and cinnamon. The coating adds that crunch and more cinnamon flavor that remind me so much of our favorite snickerdoodle cookie. We all agreed, that these donuts were heavenly and there was not a single one left once I perfected the batch.
These baked cake donuts are full of cinnamon flavor with a crunchy cinnamon & sugar topping that you are sure to love!
Ingredients
2 cups cake flour (or 1¾ cup all-purpose flour + ¼ cup cornstarch)
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¾ cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon & Sugar Topping: ¼ cup of butter, melted
⅓ cup of sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Whisk together the cake flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
Pour in the milk, eggs, butter and vanilla extract.
Gently mix the ingredients together. Be careful not to over-mix the batter.
Lightly grease a doughnut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Carefully spoon the batter into the doughnut pan, filling each one halfway (you should get twelve donuts total)
Bake the doughnuts at 400 F for eight minutes. The donuts will remain light in color, but should spring back when pressed.
Allow to cool for five minutes.
Unmold each donut gently and lightly brush each with the 4 tablespoons of melted butter.
Dunk in a bowl with the sugar and cinnamon mixed in.
Shake off excess sugar and serve immediately.
2.2.1
Emily & Ethan presented their Dad with these fabulous donuts for his birthday treat. We all sang to him and Emily presented just one more gift for her dad…
Her front tooth.
It is too adorable for words.
Looking for really great baked donut recipes? I have you covered!