Baked Doughnuts
Imagine the fluffiest, chewiest morsel of homemade doughnut goodness you have ever had, and you have these baked doughnuts.
I can’t go another minute without telling you that these baked doughnuts…well, they will probably change your life just like they did mine.
Imagine the fluffiest, chewiest morsel of doughnut goodness, warm from the oven and coated in a glorious butter, cinnamon-sugar mixture. And the doughnut holes? Utterly unreal.
Baked not Fried
The astounding thing is that they are baked. BAKED! Baked and not fried.
I’m not arguing that these baked doughnuts are healthy, by any means, but compared to their fried cousins – well, I’ll take these soft, tender baked doughnuts any day.
Baked Doughnut FAQs
Yes! You can freeze the dough prebaked (shaped into doughnuts) or after they are baked.
Probably 3/4 inch to 1 inch.
I grate nutmeg on a rasp grater, the same tool I zest a lemon/orange with. If you absolutely can’t find whole nutmeg (it should be fairly widely available at grocery stores) go ahead with your ground nutmeg.
One Year Ago: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Two Years Ago: Strawberry Cream Puff Cake
Three Years Ago: Creamy Chicken Fettuccine
Homemade Baked Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnuts:
- 1 ⅓ cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 5 cups (710 g) all-purpose flour
- A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
- 1 teaspoon salt
Topping:
- ½ cup (113 g) butter, melted
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Place the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and sugar. Add the butter. Mix the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt.
- Beat the dough with the dough hook attachment (or with a wooden spoon and eventually your hands) for 2-3 minutes at medium speed. Adjust the dough texture by adding flour a few tablespoons at a time or more milk. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl and be very soft and smooth but still slightly sticky – don't overflour! Knead the dough for a few minutes (again, by mixer or by hand) and then transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl.
- Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size (the exact time will depend on the temperature of your kitchen).
- Punch down the dough and roll it out to about 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured counter. Using a doughnut cutter or a 2-3 inch circle cookie cutter, cut out circles in the dough.
- Carefully transfer the circles to a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. Be sure to make the holes large enough that as the doughnuts rise again and bake, they don't fill in the doughnut hole with the puffiness of the dough.
- Cover the tray with lightly greased plastic wrap. (At this point, you can refrigerate the doughnuts overnight or proceed with the recipe.) Let the doughnuts rise for about another 45 minutes, until they are puffed and nearly doubled.
- Bake in a 375 degree F oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Start checking the doughnuts around minute 8. They should still be pale on top, not golden and browned, and just barely baked through.
- Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Dip each one in the melted butter and toss or sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar. Serve immediately.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Tartlette who snagged it from 101 Cookbooks
Hi – I just made these and they are going into the frig for the night. I had issues cutting them out. I had a doughnut cutter, so I thought it would be simple. Sadly, every time I cut the dough it would attach back to itself before I could pick it up. The same with the doughnut hole. Hopefully they will taste a lot better then they look 🙂 Is this the way it is with this type of dough, or is there something I could have done differently?
Sounds like maybe your dough needed a touch more flour. Was it overly sticky?
These were so awesome, Mel! I think I rolled it too thin, because I used a 2 1/2 inch circle but it didn’t rise much. They tasted so awesome, though! I did the cinnamon sugar but also make pastry cream for the ones I didn’t put a hole in. We had some friends over…a total of 8 kids arms they gobbled them up! Thanks for recipe; I can always count on your recipes!
I just made these and they are nothing like donuts. They’re more like a strange bagel/roll hybrid.
Mine came out like this too. They weren’t bad but also weren’t particularly good either. ♀️
Hi Mel,
I just tried making your recipe last night. However, my dough didn’t look nice; the shape of doughnut distroted. Today I will start baking and follow your suggestion that “take the dough out of the refrigerator 1-2 hours before you want to bake them”. So, my question is can I reshape my dough again before I bake? or like a ball one? If, so when can I reshape them again, right after take them out from the fridge or wait for how long?
Thank you
I’m not sure I completely understand your question, but yes, you can definitely reshape the dough!
We have been looking for a household baked donut recipe that we love and these are AWESOME! I made them with my daughter during my son’s nap and we had a great time! I am glad I found your website, it looks like I will be back to make pretzels soon…
How many calories are these? They are very delicious by the way!
Lena – I am not sure. There are a lot of online calculators for that info though. Sorry!
Oh, and I have a doughnut pan and made them in the pan, same baking times, perfect!
These are perfect, I loved them, my husband loved them, our 19 months old loved, loved, loved them (I iced them and put heart-shaped sprinkles on top), my parents loved them (minus the sprinkles, guess who got all the grandparents’ little sugar hearts?)…
I have made them three times in the last two weeks.
I just make the dough, bake it as per the recipe, put icing, chocolate, green tea glaze… on top; everybody is happy!
Thanks (once more) for such a great recipe!!
i tried this recipe the other day and i ended up with a bagel like texture. I used marg instead of butter, and i dont think the dough rose enough. after a retry with unsalted butter instead they are definetly less bread like. I think the salt in the marg stopped the yeast from working properly though i didnt add any additional salt like the recipe said to counteract the marg’s saltiness. maybe more sugar as well would help that problem? anyway just wanted to say its a great recipe, thank you. kate
Hi Mel! I would love to try these – but any chance of getting a tutorial on the cutting out the doughnut holes part? 🙂
Hey Melissa – probably not anytime soon (thanks to all the other tutorials I’m trying to put together). Could I talk you through it? What part seems daunting?
These were great. I made all donut holes, filled them with vanilla pastry cream, dipped in chocolate ganache t hen bbc indulged.. My boyfriend loved them! Like small Boston cream pies in donut
form. Yummy
I want to make this recipe using only donut holes…what size cutter would you suggest? I read your response about baking them for 6-8 minutes…thx…Hoping to inject the holes with raspberry jam…can’t wait to try this out!
Probably 3/4-inch to 1-inch.
Okay so I bought the ingredients for this doughnut recipe (http://www.imperialsugar.com/recipes/category/breads/Baked-Pistachio-Doughnuts) and read the instructions AFTER I got home, the night before I wanted to make them! Sadly, I don’t have a doughnut pan, so I was wondering… Do you think throwing in the pistachio instant pudding and pistachio pieces in with your doughnut recipe would totally ruin it? I’m desperate for some advice!
Honestly, I have no idea. the pudding would change the consistency of the dough but it’s certainly worth a try. Good luck if you experiment!
I must get on the baked doughnut bandwagon, quickly!
I am a tried and true follower of Mel’s recipes. My sister and I throw her name around casually like she’s our cousin or neighbor. The first time I made these night before last, it was a disaster BUT that is because I am a novice at working with yeast. I killed the yeast with scalding milk and I under kneaded it to boot. I called my sister who’s shared some tips on baking with yeast. So I gave it another go last night, because I promised my kids homemade doughnuts. My dough rose perfectly last night, I did the overnight fridge recommendation so I could bake them this morning. I woke up early and set them on the oven with the oven turned on warm and the door slightly cracked as my kitchen tends to be cold in the morning and I wanted them to have the warmth they needed. I was so stoked when I came out an hour later and they were super puffy!!! I used the butter/cinnamon/sugar as well as a chocolate glaze and sprinkles!! Thanks Mel for my happy doughnut loving children this morning!
Hi Shanna – I’m so happy that after the first doughnut mishap that the second batch turned out much better! Kudos to your sister for helping you out…I hope your kids appreciated all that work. 🙂
Just made these doughnuts using my bread maker and they baked up really well. Added all ingredients to to bread maker (plus an extra tablespoon of milk, drop of orange oil and teaspoon of orange zest) on Dough cycle which lasted 45 minutes and then left the dough in the bread maker for an hour until doubled in size. Followed the rest of the recipe as directed. When cooked rolled in melted butter and then loads of icing sugar. Really great and almost identical to some I had tried at a local Italian bakery. Also, did notice that the left over dough from the cut outs that I kneaded, rolled out and cut again rose higher than the first batch. Thanks for the recipe!
These look amazing, but with just two of us in the house, we definitely don’t need 1 1/2 dozen! Can the recipe be cut in half or adjusted in another way? Maybe the extras could be frozen?
Jan – I haven’t frozen the extras (although I think you certainly could) but halving the recipe should work just fine.
These were amazing!!! I made all doughnut holes using a tablespoon for shape because I didn’t have any cookie cutters. I ended up only using the cinnamon/sugar for half and leaving the other half plain because the dough was sweet enough to be a treat on its own. This is an amazing recipe. Thank you so much for posting it!
I’ve been making bread for over 12 years, but never donuts. they turned out just like sweet bread! They rose perfectly, baked beautifully but turned out like sweet French bread with a typical, perfectly chewy French bread crust to it and a gorgeous crumb. It was REALLY good and we devoured them all for breakfast with butter and homemade jam…but definitely not donuts. Do you suppose I kneaded it too much? Baked too long? Should have added more milk? Any thoughts? I want to try again but would love some hints.
Hi BlissfulBaker – thanks for checking in on this recipe. I think it might boil down to texture preferences. Other commenters have also suggested they thought these were more bready than doughnuty, if that makes sense. They have a very different texture than fried doughnuts, although I still find this version light and delightful for a baked doughnut. The dough might be slightly too bread-like if you really love the ethereal lightness of fried doughnuts. Does that make sense?
Nothing like keeping an older site alive, especially when the recipe actually works!
Made these last week, and glazed them all over with Krispy Kreme glaze recipe, sorry did not use yours, but was looking for a particular thing, you understand. Anyway, followed the recipe to a T otherwise, folk, these are fantastic when glazed all over, they were just as good at the end of the day and even the next morning, left in a basket in open air. They keep very well when used with any kind of regular sugar glaze, all over, top, bottom, you get the idea. Wonderful recipe Mel, have been searching and searching for a recipe that does not use donut pans, and is baked. The nutmeg is definitely a key ingredient, you nailed this one. About to experiment with adding some clementine juice and rind to the dough as they are in season right now, and adding some to the glaze as well. People, this is super easy, requires very little actual hands on time, and is very adaptable to add your own variations. Just sayin’, glazing them all over, they keep for a couple of days. Thank you again Mel, will have to look at your other ideas when I can drag myself away from this one.
Most excellent, and still searching for my Hungarian gram’s donuts that were fried, but were super light and filled with air. Can remember cutting them out as a child, but the recipe is lost, she took it with her of course 40 years ago, as all Grams do, they never wrote anything down, but these were super light and remember warm milk in there, maybe even sour milk, we could fillf them with anything we wanted and loved the fluffy cream filling the best. Anyone have something like this…Mel???
Hi Jill – first of all, I’m thrilled you loved these doughnuts! Second, I don’t have a tried-and-true recipe like your sweet gram’s donuts but they sound amazing! Good luck on your search.
I have a recipe for Hungarian donuts! It’s a very egg rich dough.
These were amazing! Made them today and out of all the doughnut recipes I have tried these are the very best. Not to mention they actually come out looking like the picture. Thanks for the great doughnut recipe.
My thermometer says for the dissolving method, the liquid should be between 105 and 115 degrees F (40 and 46 degrees C). For the non-dissolving method the liquid should be between 120 and 130 degrees F (49 and 55 degrees C). The dissolving method is the “proofing” method and the non-dissolving method would be the one where the dry yeast is mixed with the flour before adding the liquid. With an instant read thermometer it is easy to make sure your liquid is the right temperature before adding to the yeast.
Yumm!! Do you think I could add foodcolor to make colored holes for easter?
Katja – definitely worth a try!
This is too, too amazingly delicious!!! Thanks guys.
Found this recipe pinned on Pinterest. My daughter has an egg allergy so she’s never been able to eat a doughnut. I used your recipe and only changed it by adding egg replacer by Ener-G instead of the eggs. They turned out PERFECT!!! We all loved them! I am definitely going to be making these again. (Much to the dismay of my waistline!) Hey at least they’re baked though, right? 😉
Hi Natalie,
Did you use egg replacer to substitute both eggs?
Thanks!
Rachel
I find myself thinking about these again and again… Already I have made them several times, but they are just SO divine it almost hurts and I can’t seem to stop thinking about them. They have cursed me, these doughnuts!
ok Mel…help me out on this one….I baked the doughnuts anyway (see above comment) and they rose while in the oven and came out tasting amazing!!! not as puffy as they should have been but nonetheless delicious!! my boys each ate 4 and then I had to tell them no more….do breads sometimes take on their final rise while in the baking stage??
Failure on round 2….again Mel…:(. once again they didn’t rise. especially on the second rise.
Pls. help me how to mix and bake or dip fry the donuts and also the measurement of the engredients and how many menutes to bake and fry the donuts for 12 donuts thank you very much if you can e-mail me.
hi mel……..just gave your recipe a shot after drooling over your pics! They were super soft . thank u! check them out on my page!
http://amumsjournal.blogspot.com/2012/11/baked-doughnuts.html
ummmm, YUM! These are amazing. The only downside was that I rolled a few of mine too thin…. I really like the big puffy ones!! These were very simple and taste great! Yay!
I made these doughnuts last night…. To say the least they were absolutely fantastic. The dough was fabulous to work with and they turned out so pretty! So so pretty! And fluffy and delicious and now I want to make them again, but it’s really too early for that because I made them last night :C But I wANNAaahh boooh boooohh hoooh!!
I baked half of the dough as a loaf and I’m going to make french toast out of it. Yep. I said it. Doughnut french toast. YEP.
I used palm sugar instead of refined sugar in the dough – just melted it into the milk. If anyone cares to try it I know that it works. Thank you SO much Mel. Thank you thank you, oh and my significant other says thank you, and my brother and his girlfriend and probably the entire world.
LOVED THEM. Like, I loved them too much. I am kind of sick I ate so many! Yay for you! AGAIN!
Samantha – well, first of all, I promise that I don’t doctor up my pictures to be anything other than they are. 🙂 Second, the patches and lines you see in the donuts are simply where the cinnamon and sugar didn’t stick to the butter. So yep, they are the baked donuts – not fried (I’ve actually never fried donuts before…).
Mel, I love so many of your recipes and I’m not trying to sound like a smart aleck but are those pictures really of your baked donuts? The lighter color running across the middle your donuts and donut holes are the distinct lines of frying donuts and not oven baked donuts. Just wondering why those pictures are of fried donuts?
prea – try googling the conversion of grams for the butter. I don’t want to tell you incorrectly! I’ve never subbed margarine…I think butter is the best option.
I’m sitting here so tempted and so scared. I feel like If it does not come out right when I attempt it that I’ll be letting you dowm.lol. Please tell me how many grams is a stick of butter, and can I use margarine instead of butter. Crossing my fingers before I do it. Only prob is if it does come out right then peoople are going to ask me to make them all the time
my little guy just had a tonsillectomy last week and while looking for soft foods on your blog I found these—-he LOVED them!!! I only made 1/2 a batch, and I made them all into the holes. Also-has anyone just tried the doughnut after baking but before the butter and sugar–it reminds me of the rolls from the chick n minis at chikfila. I’m thinking I’m going to just make sweet hot rolls from this dough–so yummy!
Jocelyn, don’t be rude! Mel is sharing things she likes as a friend. Respond like a friend! That is to say, not at all if you don’t like them! Think Thumper… I proofed my yeast in a separate cup and when I went to wash it out I realized it had sugar and clumps of yeast left in it. Oops! Think they are fantastic anyway!
Lanikazi – these doughnuts do not have the same texture as a fried doughnut. They are definitely more roll-like but they should still be tender, especially if they aren’t baked too long. And the dip in butter and cinnamon and sugar is definitely what makes them more doughnut-like and sweet.
Hi, I made this today but they have the texture of a soft pretzel or a light bagel. Is that what I should expect? They are also not sweet at all until I added a vanilla glaze ( which didn’t come close to a fried glaze) or a dip in butter/cinnamon/sugar.
These taste like dinner rolls. Added the lemon filling to it anyways and it didn’t taste anything like a donut. Won’t be making these again unless I want dinner rolls (put them in the freezer for when I do need dinner rolls!).
Kat – I’m sorry these didn’t work out very well for you. Do you think you might have overfloured the dough? That could be another reason why they may not have risen very well and would also contribute to the density. Good luck if you try them again!
So I made these … and failed. Everything was mixing up fine, but I noticed that when I went to check my dough for softness/stickiness, it was very soft and slightly sticky, but it was also cold (not just “not warm,” but cold). My dough did rise, though not very well and it took almost 2 hours for the first rise and over an hour for the second (and in a very warm kitchen). In the end, they were really heavy and dense, and tasted more like french bread rolls with sugar on top. I think I might have over-heated my milk at first; it had to cool down a lot before I could add my yeast. Maybe that effected it? But it was weird to me that my dough wasn’t even room temperature by the time it finished mixing. I’d love to have these the way they were meant to be though, so I might have to try again. Maybe the second time will be a charm.
These look great!!
I would actually like to put them in a doughnut pan as I have one and love it! Do you think that would work? Anyone tried it?
Also, I´d like to try these gluten free with an all purpose gluten free flour blend. Anyone have any thoughts on that? If I do it, I´ll let you all know anyway.
Liz – I’ve never used a doughnut pan so I can’t help you out there, I’m afraid. Good luck with the variations, especially making them gluten free!
Oh Mel, I broke down and made these today. Probably because we FINALLY are having fall-ish weather down here in AZ, and something about it makes me wanna cook, bake and eat constantly. These babies are deadly! You weren’t kidding. I don’t want to admit how many I hate as we were buttering and sugaring them. I figured I’d pawn them off on my friend who I swap dinners with every week. Turns out she had the same idea. She made and brought us 1/2 a pan of your caramel brownies. Oh dear. I was done for. I’m gonna have to run an extra mile or 2 tomorrow! SO GOOD! Thanks for the tasty treats, even if I have to work them off. 🙂
Just wondering if the butter should be melted? Or just softened? Thank you!!
Nicole – I use it softened but someone commented they melted it and it worked great, too, so it sounds like either way is fine!
Freshly grated nutmeg?
I’ve never grated nutmeg. Do you grate it on a cheese grater? I checked Target and my grocery store today and didn’t see whole nutmeg. Should I hunt further for it? Or just use the ground nutmeg in my cupboard?
Catherine – I grate nutmeg on a rasp grater, the same tool I zest a lemon/orange with. If you absolutely can’t find whole nutmeg (it should be fairly widely available at grocery stores) go ahead with your ground nutmeg. It won’t make a noticeable difference in this recipe, most likely.
made these tonight and i was the hero of the partay! and didnt totally blow my weight-watchers point limit. thanks mel.
Making these tonight for a yummy treat after trick or treating 🙂 with apple cider of course. I think I will add a maple glaze on some of them….my husband is addicted to maple bars 🙂 Thanks for another great recipe!