Do you like cinnamon buns? Brownie points if you love Cinnabon cinnamon rolls like I do? If you’re a cinnamon roll fan, you’re going to love these donuts.
Really, who doesn’t love a cinnamon roll?
Warm baked dough that’s sweet, dense, cinnamony and sugary, ooey gooey, with frosting everywhere.
Yes, please.
I worked at the mall when I was in high school and between Panda Chinese food, Mrs. Field’s Cookies, and Cinnabons, I ate more sodium, grease, and sugar than should be legal or is good for the complexion. But hey, you’re only 16 and working next to the food court once.
I have such fond memories of Cinnabons. The dense texture of them, the flavors of the cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter, the warm dough, and that cream cheese frosting.
I always ordered extra frosting and it was 50 cents for that extra cup of frosting but when you’re in high school working at a minimum wage job, you notice the price of tea in China the price of extra frosting. But best use ever of 50 cents.
My grandma made the best cinnamon rolls, but since she’s not around and I had a cinnamon roll craving come over me, I knew I needed to figure something out. Working with yeast-based doughs is a kitchen fear I still need to tackle. Truth be told, I’ve never made traditional cinnamon rolls.
However, I thought that cinnamon bun style donuts was something I could handle.
And my hunch proved successful.
These donuts are baked but they are not cake, or dry the way that most baked or cake-style donuts are.
Not in the least.
They are actually pretty heavy, dense, and very moist. The texture reminds me of an underbaked muffin-top in some ways. Gooey and thick, not light, airy or fluffy.
The flavor is what you’d expect from a cinnamon bun. There’s cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, melted butter.
And frosting. I paired the donuts with a vanilla cream cheese glaze that makes you want to dive in and bathe in it. I actually like a little donut with my frosting. A little coffee with my cream. Can you relate?
No donut pan? I’m sorry. You can buy one for $8 bucks at BB & B with a coupon or $10 without a coupon. You’ll be happy you did.
And if you really don’t want to do that, you can make these donuts as muffins in a muffin pan. I tried that with the leftover batter. The recipe yields what would be 7 donuts in my donut pan but rather than waiting for my one donut pan to come out of the oven, I made the remaining batter into two small muffins in my muffin pan. I baked the muffins for about 15 minutes and they turned out just dandy.
The whole donut recipe from start to finish, including making them, cooling, glazing, and doing the dishes is 30 minutes. That’s success.
But the fact that they remind me of Cinnabons is the best.
The recipe yields 6-7 donuts and we polished off 5 at once, right out of the oven.
Bu there was that one, lone, straggler donut. The next day, that straggler had become the perfect sponge for the cream cheese glaze.
Soaking up all that magical stuff and getting even heavier in weight and more full-bodied with flavor, which is just the way I like my baked goods: heavy, rich, dense, and intense.
Couldn’t think of a better way to Christen my new donut pan than with these.
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Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, add more if you like cinnamon or want a stronger ‘cinnamon bun’ taste
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 6 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
- ½ cup+ confectioners’ sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon+ cinnamon
- splash Milk, Half & Half, Cream, Heavy Cream, vegan milk
Instructions
- Donuts – Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease or spray a Nonstick 6-Cavity Donut Pan with cooking spray. Or, use a muffin pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and optional salt.
- Add buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk to combine.
- Use a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off) to pipe the batter into a 6-donut pan. Or just be extra neat and do this with a spoon (my preference).
- Bake 8 to 11 minutes, or until doughnuts spring back when touched are are set. Donuts will not be golden brown, but should be springy. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan, about 5 minutes.
- Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze – While donuts are baking or cooling, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract, cinnamon, with a small splash milk. Whisk to combine, adding the milk as necessary, until desired consistency is achieved.
- Dip the donuts into the glaze. Donuts are best fresh, but will keep airtight at room temp for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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this looks so good. my stomach is growling. like, i don`t even know what to do, except to make these.
Averie! I made these this morning. I modified the recipe a bit b/c I was missing some ingredients… I used 2 tbsp buttermilk + 4 tbsp apple sauce in place of the 6 tbsp buttermilk (i only had a smidge left in the bottle!) They came out SO moist. I also used 1 less tbsp white sugar and *almost* a full tsp of cinnamon (i LOVE cinnamon!!!). And I used your vanilla glaze recipe from your vanilla donuts. I didn’t have cream cheese on hand! For the vanilla glaze, I followed your recipe exactly and used almond milk as the liquid. These were SO good and tasted like a cinnabon! I’ll post them later this week. Love all your donut recipes. :)
Sounds like a success and glad you liked them! I haven’t made any donuts in awhile; I need to get back on the kick. I went through a phase right around the time I made these and need to get back into it :)
I just found you. I’m beyond excited to try some of your recipes. I’m adding you to my blog roll!
Thanks for finding me and saying hi. Keep me posted if you make anything!
I tried making these tonight and I replaced the flour with GF Bisquick mix, and although they turned out kind of cakey (thanks to gritty GF Bisquick), they were delicious!! My husband hates all my GF stuff and he actually liked these and said he couldn’t tell they were GF! :) You also inspired me to purchase the donut pan…I LOVE IT. And then I also had to buy a super cute set of mixing bowls that look like confetti, since I had to mix donut batter. It’s a good thing I’m saving money on pre-made GF food by making things in your blog, because I’ve made up that price difference in baking gadgets. ;) Thanks for all the delicious recipes!!!!
Thanks for the feedback that GF Bisquick Mix worked in place of the flour. That’s great info. I bet if you were to reduce the 1 tsp of baking powder, they may turn less cakey. There is probably already baking powder in the bisquick mix and adding it will make things more cakey. You want some so they rise nicely but too much and things get too cakey…LMK if you play around with it more and what you do and what results you have. I love finding out the at-home experiments and results that people get.
And you got a set of confetti bowls. CUTE! Enjoy :)
I will be trying that tomorrow! They got better after I left them overnight in the fridge, but still cakey. Will let you know after I make another batch tomorrow or Tuesday!! :) Thanks for the tips!!!
Ok I LOVE the feedback. Please keep me posted about how things pan out and the results and what you end up doing! :)
SO…tonight I tried to make the donuts again. They were MUCH better without the baking powder!! So much more dense!!! They were FANTASTIC!!! I also replaced a quarter of the GF Bisquick with coconut flour (I ran out…). I made a double batch and made the other half into mini muffins, which turned out even better than my donut shaped ones! FYI, I did have to increase the baking times both times I made these GF. If I remember your recipe says 8-12 and it took me 15 for the donuts and 11 for mini muffins. :) I really appreciate the tips!!
Love the field report and what you did and what worked well and what your baking times were…so helpful and I’m sure that someone reading this one day will find it useful, too. I bet the reason the muffins were better than the donut is b/c of the shape…the center will stay softer, denser, a touch more “raw” if you will..than donuts, just because of their shape and baking times. And in GF baking, where things have a tendency to dry out and get cakey in a hurry, the muffin shape is probably a winner.
Keep me posted on any of your baking adventures. I love to hear this stuff. It’s super helpful and I could geek out with Alton Brown and baking factoids…all day long :)
Just got my doughnut pan (best valentine’s day gift ever) and these are going to be my first doughnut recipe! Thank you! :D
Well LMK how things pan out for you. Pun intended :)
They turned out awesome! I made your vanilla doughnuts too and topped them with cinnamon and sugar. :D
Glad to hear they were a hit!
And vanilla donuts w/ cinn & sugar sounds great! You could also do a PB drizzle right after they come out of the oven and it gets all melty :) I love PB though!
I have a challenge for you! I really really want to get a donut pan, but would prefer using almond flour. Can you muster up a yummy version using almond flour? Or maybe even coconut flour!
You could sub almond flour into these and try them..I’d use a little more baking powder and/or baking soda, and maybe reduce flour to 3/4 c. You have nothing to lose but a cup of flour and an egg by trying…go for it!
Ha! Totally forgot I picked up some Bob’s GF all purpose flour! Made them with that and a little xanthan gum. So yummy! I totally flaked and grabbed the chocolate almond milk instead of the regular….made choc cinnamon glaze. YYYYYUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!
Oh they sound awesome! Thanks for LMK they worked for you as GF
If I used regular (2%) milk instead of buttermilk would that make a difference. I’m living on a college budget and I can’t justify buying the buttermilk and not using the whole thing.
It will *probably* be fine but being that I did not make the recipe that way, I can’t guarantee it. Tips: 1. Trader Joe’s buttermilk is like $1.29 or $1.79 for a container so pretty reasonable 2. adding 1 tbsp or so to regular milk produces buttermilk-like effects. Google it for the specifics. LMK if you make them and what you end up doing.
This is perfect!! Simple cinnamon donuts with vanilla cream cheese glaze sounds incredible