Baked Vanilla Donuts with Vanilla Glaze

Baked Vanilla Glazed Donuts — Slightly dense and cake-like, these vanilla glazed donuts are baked rather than fried. Perfect for weekend brunches and special occasion breakfasts!

Easy Baked Glazed Donut Recipe

When I bought my donut pan, I didn’t know I was going to enjoy making homemade donuts as much as I have been. But boy, I’m glad I finally got around to picking up that donut pan.

These donuts remind me of the Original Krispy Kreme Glazed Donuts. These vanilla donuts are baked, not fried, so they are not exactly the same as KK’s, but they’re remarkably similar. 

Let’s face it, baked and fried, apples and oranges, but you’d be surprised how similar these are.

If you’ve never had a KK doughnut, you’re missing out! 

No Krispy Kreme? No drive-thru? No problem.

It’s probably better that way, anyway. And you can make these baked vanilla donuts.

They are dense and yes, they are a ‘cake-style’ donut, but they are very moist.  They are not cakey or dry like many cake-style donuts tend to be.  You know those donuts that taste like you’re eating dry cardboard or ground up chalk?

These are not like that at all. The texture of them is what you’d have if there was a marriage between a donut and a muffin top.  Moist and dense.

This recipe is so easy and yielded great tasting donuts. Like, you need these in your life, right now! 

I loved that they were not fried because I just don’t make fried food.  Not because of health or dietary objections.  Oh no, that’s not the reason I don’t do fried food.

It’s because the thought of standing in front of a pot of grease and having it splatter all over me, my stove top, and stink up my house with that grease smell that lingers for days is a triple whammy.

No thanks.  I’ll bake, sans grease.  In 10 minutes of baking time I can have these bad boys.

What’s in the Baked Vanilla Glazed Donuts? 

To make the baked vanilla donuts, you’ll need: 

• All-purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Baking powder
• Cinnamon 
• Salt
• Buttermilk
• Egg
• Vanilla extract
• Butter

And to make the vanilla glaze recipe, all you’ll need is: 

• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Milk or heavy cream

How to Make Baked Vanilla Glazed Donuts

From start to finish — making the batter, baking the donuts, letting them cool for 5 minutes, and then glazing them, and even doing the dishes — this recipe was a 30-minute project.

Simply whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add in the wet ingredients. 

Using a piping bag or a Ziplock bag with a tip snipped off, pipe the batter into a 6-count donut pan. 

Bake the vanilla donuts until they spring back quickly when gently poked. 

Let the donuts cool for about 5 minutes before dipping into the vanilla glaze. 

Can I Make This Recipe Without a Donut Pan? 

Yes! If you don’t have a donut and really don’t foresee yourself buying one, you can make these donuts as muffins instead.  I tried that with the leftover batter because I could have made 7 donuts but instead I made 6 donuts + 2 small muffins.

But maybe looking at these will convince you to just buy the stinkin’ donut pan. I have no idea what took me so long, either.

Can I Bake These in a Mini Donut Pan?

I’m sure you could, but I don’t have the patience for baking mini foods so I can’t advise you on the bake time. I’d fill the mini donut pan about 2/3 full and watch them like a hawk in the oven! 

Can I Add Sprinkles? 

Of course! Add the sprinkles a minute or two after you’ve glazed the vanilla donuts. 

Can Glazed Donuts Be Frozen? 

Yes! Let the vanilla glazed donuts cool completely on your counter, then seal inside a freezer bag for up to three months. When ready to eat, thaw on your counter. 

Tips for Making Baked Vanilla Donuts 

I think making the glaze with some sort of cream, rather than water or milk, is best. That’s what I did because I love a good, rich glaze. I want to try making the glaze with coconut milk next.

Interestingly enough, the baked glazed donuts got better the second day.  There were two donuts left over and 24 hours later, the glaze had really soaked into the donuts leaving them heavier, denser, and even more moist and rich.

If you like “light and airy” donuts that are really cakey and dry, don’t make this recipe. And definitely don’t let them sit with a glaze on them for 24 hours. But I actually love that really dense and heavy texture. I’ve always said I love leftovers.

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4.72 from 7 votes

Baked Vanilla Glazed Donuts

By Averie Sunshine

Slightly dense and cake-like, these vanilla glazed donuts are baked rather than fried. Perfect for weekend brunches and special occasion breakfasts!

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cooling Time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 6

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Ingredients  

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For the Donuts:

• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ 6 tablespoons white sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt, I omitted
• ▢ 6 tablespoons buttermilk
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 tablespoon butter, melted

For the Glaze:

• ▢ ½ cup powdered sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, use more if you like a stronger vanilla flavor
• ▢ 1-2 teaspoons milk or heavy cream

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Instructions 

For the Donuts:

• Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F and lightly grease or cooking-spray a donut pan (or muffin tin).
• In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon (and salt).
• Add buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk or stir 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, which is what I did.
• Bake 8 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven, until donuts spring back when touched or until dough is set. Donuts will not be golden brown, but should be springy. (I always underbake my baked goods but in my oven these took 10-11 minutes to set up)
• Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan, about 5 minutes.

For the Glaze:

• While donuts are baking or cooling, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and liquid of your choice. Add the water or milk, one teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.
• Dip the donuts into the glaze while warm (or cool).
• Add sprinkles or other extras at end, if desired.

Notes

This recipe 6-7 donuts, depending on your donut pan size. Double or triple, or halve (beat the egg and then divide in half) the recipe as desired.

For the extra bit of batter, rather than waiting for my one donut pan to come out of the oven, I made two small muffins in a muffin pan with it. It took about 15 minutes for the muffins to cook through.

To make Vegan: My suggestion would be to replace the buttermilk with almond milk or if you enjoy coconut milk, I’d use full fat coconut milk (because it’s thicker like buttermilk); increase the amount of baking powder and/or add baking soda, use melted margarine or Earth Balance, and use a flax/chia egg rather than regular egg.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 216kcal, Carbohydrates: 39g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 42mg, Sodium: 317mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 23g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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