These ultra-soft and fluffy baked doughnuts make a great afternoon snack or breakfast.
The guests will think they are straight from an expensive bakery or café. The recipe is easy to prepare in your kitchen.
Best cinnamon sugar baked donuts
Don’t buy Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts in the store. These old-fashioned homemade cake donuts have been baked and not fried.
They are my favorite breakfast treat, as their texture and taste remind me of coffee cake or muffins. They go well with tea or coffee.
These baked cinnamon sugar doughnuts are egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan.
Cinnamon sugar donut ingredients
Donuts are made with flour, water, and cinnamon. They also contain baking powder, vanilla extract, sugar, applesauce, or mashed banana if you want to make them low-fat.
White or spelled, oat, or gluten-free all-purpose flour is among the flours that can be used. Other flours, such as almond, coconut, or whole wheat flour, may also work, but I’ve never tried them and can’t recommend them.
You can use pure maple syrup or honey. Agave is also a good option. You can use half a cup of sugar and two-thirds cup of water.
How to bake cinnamon sugar donuts
Grease a mini muffin or donut pan. Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, whisk together the apple juice or water, the white vinegar or apple cider, the vanilla, the oil or nut butter (applesauce, banana, or almond butter), and the sweetener.
After preheating the oven, add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to the batter. Do not overmix.
Place the donut pan in the center of the oven. Bake the cinnamon sugar donuts for 8 minutes or until they have risen. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the cinnamon donut should be clean.
Allow to cool completely before removing the donuts from the pan. Then, dip them in cinnamon sugar. It would be best to spray the donuts in oil to help the topping stick better. However, it is not necessary.
Note: I’ve not yet made the donuts using an air fryer. Report back on your results if you try it before me.
Cinnamon sugar homemade
It’s the most straightforward recipe you can imagine.
Make your cinnamon sugar by stirring two tablespoons of cinnamon powder into a half cup of sugar. You can make sugar-free cinnamon sugar using regular white or unrefined sugar.
Need less? One tablespoon of cinnamon with a quarter cup of sugar will do. Use half a teaspoon of cinnamon with two tablespoons of sugar.
Baked cinnamon sugar donut holes
If you don’t have a donut maker or want to make mini-doughnuts, your first option is baking the donuts using a mini muffin tin. Fill the pan only halfway for smaller donut holes munchkins.
Storage tips for recipes
Allow the donuts to cool completely.
Place any donuts left in a container with parchment paper between them to prevent them from sticking together.
Cover the container with a lid, but leave a small hole to let excess moisture escape. This will prevent soggy donuts on the following day.
Donuts can be kept at room temperature for up to two days. For freshness, I recommend covering the container entirely and then refrigerating/freezing after this period.
Ingredients
Water or apple juice, 1/3 cup
White or cider vinegar, 1 tsp
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Fat-free: 3 tablespoons oil, nut butter, applesauce, or mashed banana
Here’s a recipe for sugar-free donuts.
1 cup of flour, loosely packaged
1 tsp of baking powder
Half a teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon sugar coating: Combine 2 tbsp of cinnamon with 1/2 cup of granulated sweetener.
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk the liquid ingredients. Grease the surface. Donut pan or mini muffin pan. Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake for 8 minutes or until the donuts are cooked and have risen. Remove from pan once cooled. Dip in cinnamon sugar. Spray with oil spray or brush with butter (or oil spray) to ensure the cinnamon sugar sticks better. The recipe can be made with all-purpose white, spelled, or gluten-free flour. I haven’t tried whole wheat or almonds, so I can’t recommend them.