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Baked Gingerbread Donuts Recipe

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★★★★

4 from 21 reviews

These Baked Gingerbread Donuts are a festive and flavorful treat, perfectly spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and warm holiday spices, then coated in a cinnamon-sugar topping. They’re easy to prepare and bake up soft, moist, and delicious for a holiday breakfast or snack.

Ingredients

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Donuts

  • 2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)
  • ⅓ cup light brown sugar (packed)
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • ¼ cup applesauce
  • 3 tablespoons full fat sour cream ((full fat Greek yogurt may be substituted))
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs, (at room temp preferred)
  • 1 cup milk ((at room temp preferred, 2% or whole recommended, or a thicker plant-based milk like cashew milk may be substituted))

Cinnamon-Sugar Coating

  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat Oven: Donuts – Preheat oven to 375F and spray two 6-count donut pans with cooking spray; set aside. (Wondering if you can make mini donuts using mini donut pans? See the FAQs)
  2. Whisk Dry Ingredients: To a large bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, ginger, salt, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and whisk well to combine. Set aside. Spice Notes and Tips – If you want to make the overall flavor bolder in the finished donuts, you can increase the spices that are listed as 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp. If you don’t have ALL the spices, but you do have cinnamon and allspice, you can keep the cinnamon amount the same at 1 1/2 tsp and then simply use 1 1/2 to 2 tsp allspice rather than using all the individual spices.
  3. Whisk Wet Ingredients: To a separate large bowl, add the melted butter, sugars, molasses, applesauce, sour cream or Greek yogurt (make sure it’s Greek yogurt and not other yogurt which is too thin and runny), vanilla, and whisk well to combine.
  4. Add Eggs & Milk: Add the eggs, milk, and whisk again to combine.
  5. Combine Batter: Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir to combine. Mixing Tips – I find it easiest to actually use a soft-tipped spatula and fold-scrape, fold-scrape, the ingredients to combine them and make sure you don’t accidentally miss any dry ingredients on the bottom. In recipes like this, it’s easy to do. But if you’re using a spatula, you can really scrape and see everything so no bits are hiding and stay dry. Make sure not to overmix after everything has been combined.
  6. Fill Donut Pan: At this point, you have one of 3 choices. 1.) If you’re a neat cook and can foresee yourself using a small spoon and spooning the batter into the donut molds, that’s what you will do. 2.) Otherwise, you can transfer the batter into a gallon-sized ziptop bag OR 3.) into a piping bag fitted with a large, wide, open tip. For me, it prefer the ziptop bag method.
  7. Fill Donut Pan: Fill each cavity of the donut mold 3/4 full. Tips – Do not overfill because you’ll create quite a mess in the oven when the donuts rise. Wipe any batter blobs and messes using a paper towel that may have fallen around the edges of the pan or onto the center area.
  8. Bake: Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until donuts are set, soft and springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs. I like to rotate my pans once halfway through baking to ensure even browning. Allow the donuts to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. While they’re cooling, make the cinnamon-sugar coating.
  9. Add Topping: Cinnamon-Sugar Coating – You can do this in two ways. 1.) Add the sugar and cinnamon to a shallow bowl, use a small spoon to lightly mix to combine, and add the donuts, one by one, to the bowl. Flip and toss in the cinnamon-sugar until nicely coated, place on a cooling rack, and repeat until all donuts have been coated. You may need to mix up more cinnamon-sugar coating depending on how thick you’re coating your donuts. 2.) Alternatively, add the sugar and cinnamon to a new gallon-sized ziptop bag, drop in 3-4 donuts, seal the bag, and shake it around a bit to evenly coat the donuts. Remove the donuts, set on a cooling rack, and repeat the process until all the donuts have been coated. You may need to mix up more cinnamon-sugar coating depending on how thick you’re coating your donuts. Serve immediately.

Notes

  • If you want to make the overall flavor bolder, increase the spices listed as 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp.
  • If you don’t have all the spices, using just cinnamon and allspice with adjusted amounts works well.
  • For the sour cream substitute, use full fat Greek yogurt to avoid thin or runny batter.
  • Do not overfill the donut molds to prevent messes in the oven.
  • Rotate pans halfway through baking for even browning.
  • Use a soft-tipped spatula and fold-scrape technique to avoid missing dry ingredients and overmixing.

Keywords: gingerbread donuts, baked donuts, holiday donuts, cinnamon sugar donuts, ginger spice donuts

Find it online: https://foodarohub.com/baked-gingerbread-donuts-recipe/