These baked cinnamon sugar donuts are soft, light, fluffy, and absolutely delicious for breakfast or dessert!
Who doesn’t love cinnamon sugar donuts???
Whether served with a hot cup of coffee for breakfast or on their own as an afternoon snack, these ultra soft and fluffy baked donuts are always a fantastic choice.
Guests will think they came straight from a fancy bakery or café. And yet the recipe is so easy to make, right in your own kitchen!
You may also like this Brownie in a Mug
The best baked cinnamon sugar donuts
Forget those boxes of store bought Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts. These homemade old fashioned cake donuts are baked, not fried.
I actually prefer them over glazed donuts for breakfast, because their taste and texture remind me of muffins or coffee cake. And they pair really well with coffee or tea.
The baked cinnamon sugar donuts (or doughnuts) are naturally egg free and can also be dairy free, gluten free, and vegan.
Cinnamon sugar donut ingredients
The donut recipe calls for flour, water, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, pure vanilla extract, sweetener, and a fat source or applesauce or mashed banana for low fat.
Flours that work include white or spelt flour, oat flour, or gluten free all purpose flour. Others such as whole wheat flour, almond flour, or coconut flour may work with some modifications, but I have not tried these and therefore cannot recommend them.
Sweetener options include pure maple syrup, honey, or agave. If you’d like to use sugar, increase the amount to half a cup and increase the water to two third cup.
Also make this Almond Flour Banana Bread
How to make baked cinnamon sugar donuts
Start by greasing a donut pan or mini muffin pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together the water or apple juice, white or apple cider vinegar, vanilla, oil or nut butter (or applesauce or banana), and the sweetener in a large mixing bowl.
Once the oven is preheated, stir in the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder to form a donut batter. Do not overmix.
Place the donut pan on the oven’s center rack. Bake for eight minutes or until the baked cinnamon sugar donuts have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cinnamon donut comes out mostly clean.
Let cool before removing from the pan and dipping in cinnamon sugar. I recommend spraying the donuts with oil so the topping adheres better, but it is not required.
Note: I have not yet tried making the donuts in an air fryer. If you experiment before I do, be sure to report back with results.
Homemade cinnamon sugar
This is possibly the easiest recipe you could imagine.
To make your own cinnamon sugar, simply stir two tablespoons of ground cinnamon into half a cup of sugar. You can use regular white sugar, unrefined coconut sugar, date sugar, evaporated cane juice, or granulated erythritol for sugar free.
Need less? Use one tablespoon of cinnamon and a fourth cup of sugar. Or half a tablespoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons of sugar.
The DIY recipe is easy to scale up or down as desired.
Baked cinnamon sugar donut holes
If you do not own a donut pan or prefer to make mini donuts, the first option is to bake the donuts in a mini muffin pan. For smaller donut hole munchkins, only fill the pan halfway up.
Or you can use a Donut Hole Baking Pan – yes, these things exist!
Pouring the batter into a cake pop machine or a donut maker machine should also work, although I have not personally tried these options yet.
Recipe storage tips
Let the cinnamon sugar baked donuts cool completely.
Then take any leftover donuts and place them in a container with a layer of parchment paper in between each donut so they do not stick together.
Cover the container, leaving a small opening to allow excess moisture to escape, which will guard against soggy donuts the next day.
Once in the container, donuts can be stored at room temperature for one or two days. I recommend covering fully and refrigerating or freezing after this time for freshness.
Thaw frozen donuts in the microwave or on the counter before enjoying.
Watch the cinnamon sugar donut recipe video, above
Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup water or apple juice
- 1 tsp white or cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp oil, nut butter, or applesauce or mashed banana for fat-free
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or agave (here's a sugar free donut recipe)
- 1 cup flour, loosely packed
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Cinnamon Sugar Coating: combine 2 tbsp cinnamon with 1/2 cup granulated sweetener of choice
Instructions
- Whisk liquid ingredients in a bowl. Grease a donut pan or mini muffin pan. Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake 8 minutes or until donuts have risen and are cooked through. Let cool before removing from the pan. Dip in cinnamon sugar. I like to first spray with oil spray (or brush with oil or butter) so the cinnamon sugar adheres better.*The recipe works with white, spelt, oat, or gluten free all purpose flour. I have not tried almond or whole wheat so cannot recommend those.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Recipes With Cinnamon
Nice, They taste so good. How did you find it?
We loved these. Followed the recipe EXACTLY for the first time. Used water, oil, and apple cider vinegar as that’s what I had in my pantry. Used the maple syrup. Only change made was more cinnamon in the topping. With so few ingredients I wasn’t sure what to expect. Vinegar in a donut? But I had faith and it was rewarded. Delicious and delightful donuts!
Small problem we have a LARGER eating family. Six at a time is laborious. Can this recipe be doubled?
It definitely can! Thank you for making them 🙂
Can almond flour be used to make these gluten free?
Can I use granulated sugar and molasses instead of maple
All purpose of self rising flour?
All purpose flour works.
This were the best donuts I’ve ever had! my family keeps asking for me to make more, so will definitely be making this recipe again! Thanks for sharing. ❤️
Love these! I made them with regular AP flour the first time and they were a hit!
Second time I made them I used oat flour as mentioned in the notes. Still tasted amazing and everyone ate every last bite but the o my thing I found was that they were super crumbly with the oat flour, they would break apart when we picked them up. Any suggestions?
These were DELICIOUS!! Super easy to make and quick to bake. I used a silicone donut pan for mine. These were definitely a hit with and without the cinnamon sugar.
Hey there! I love this recipe and have made these donuts for my family of 8 (I quadruple the recipe to make plenty every single time) over a dozen times now! Everyone LOVES them and so do I! I have a question though- instead of oil, applesauce or mashed bananas, could I substitute for apple butter? Or would that not work very well?
Thanks! Xoxo
Thank you so much for making them! We honestly cannot predict how apple butter would work but be sure to report back if you experiment!
I make these with half AP and half whole wheat flour. I have experimented with different liquids and oils as well. They always come out great with the different variations. I just make them in a regular sized muffin pan and bake a little longer. They help me fix my donut craving without so much added sugars and fats! Thank you!