Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts that will make you smile

These cinnamon sugar baked donuts are full of crisp edges with a tender cinnamon buttermilk dough then dipped in cinnamon sugar. There’s big old-fashioned flavor in these without the mess or hassle of frying; shoot, you only need about 10 minutes to get these in the oven.

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In one of my favorite poems, Ogden Nash writes, “In a world of mules/There are no rules.” That pretty much sums up what baked donuts feel like to me. I wasn’t sure for forever what baked donuts were supposed to be until I started tinkering with this recipe. What I’ve learned is that a good baked donut is not that different from a proper fried donut. Better yet, you can make them much faster, and with way less hassle and mess as their fried equivalents.

I have way more donut ideas rolling around in my head, but I wanted to get started with my favorite donut: the cinnamon sugar donut. I love the rich cakey edges rolled in cinnamon sugar, and for me, this will always be the most perfect donut.

Once your family realizes how fast these are to make, these could easily replace muffins in your life and bring the fun back with less junk. Let’s bake!

Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts

Why I’ll be mostly baking my donuts from now on

It took me a long long time to get behind the idea of baked donuts. In my mind, donuts are fried, and why would you want something that’s not as good as it’s fried equivalent? Yet, I’m not a fan of store-bought donuts because no doubt they have creepy science ingredients I would never use at home, and they’re being fried in the cheapest not-good-for-you oil possible and not something awesome like fresh rendered lard.

Then I thought longer about how often I’m really willing to fry donuts. The answer is that realistically that is once a year. That’s precisely why we make the best apple fritters into a family and friends event, inviting about 30 people. In contrast, you can bake donuts any regular day with less mess, and precious little effort.

Even my friend Maggie, who is an incredible cook but a timid baker has been a long fan of the baked donut for their ease of preparation. If she’s willing to make them, I knew I had to investigate.

Clearly my brain and circumstances have been nudging me towards being less prejudiced against the baked donut. Now that I’ve made several batches, I don’t know why I didn’t start sooner.

Why you’ll love these cinnamon sugar donuts

1. So easy: This is a mix and go recipe. There’s just 2 steps beyond making muffins. As I always tell people that you can mix muffins and scoop muffins in the time it takes for your oven to preheat, you’ll get a picture of how simple these are to make.
2. Shockingly good: I never believed that it was possible to get that crisp edge you get on a good fried donut on a baked one, but man these get close. Like 90% close.
3. So much time savings: Proper fried donuts are an event to make, as I think they should be. You can’t and probably will never want to make fried donuts at home regularly, but these? They take about 10 minutes to get into the oven!
4. No creepy ingredients: no science ingredients here. We’re using proper buttermilk, organic all-purpose flour and a relatively small amount of sugar.

Equipment you’ll need to make cinnamon sugar donuts

1. Donut pan(s): I have a Norpro as well as a Nordicware donut pan. The Norpro one tends to bake a little darker, as you can see in the picture, but they’re both excellent. The only thing I dislike about either pan is that there’s only 6 wells in them, so you need to make 2 batches unless you have 2 pans. If I was buying them again, I might consider these Wilton donut pans since they come in a 2-pack for a really good price.
2. Pastry brush: A pastry brush is a good tool for prepping the pans and again for brushing the hot donuts with melted butter before dipping them in sugar. If you don’t have one, you can use a paper towel for prepping the pans and simply dip them in melted butter before the cinnamon sugar. I’ve done both, and you get good results either way.

Tips for making the best baked donuts

1. Brush your molds with butter: Brush the donut pans with butter before baking to replace some of the flavor you’d get from frying.
2. Use a cookie scoop and damp hands: Portioning out the donuts can be a little weird with that center spike in each well. I’ve found that scooping out two small scoops with a cookie scoop and then using damp hands to press the scoops into the mold works best.
3. More butter!: Dip or brush the finished donuts in butter before rolling them in cinnamon sugar. The butter adds more flavor and helps the sugar to stick to the outside better since it will be drier than a fried donut would be.

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