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Whip up a batch of baked mini donuts for non-stop fun! Decorate with glaze and toppings, or eat them plain right out of the oven.
Looking for a festive treat? Look no further than these baked Mini Donuts! These sweet little rings are moist and cinnamon scented, like a cake donut but baked up in the oven. Top them with a glaze and shower of sprinkles, and what could be more fun? It’s the perfect treat for birthdays and celebrations. We made these for our son’s donut themed birthday party, and they were a huge hit! Here’s how it’s done.
What you need for mini donuts
The easiest way to make mini donuts at home? Baked donuts! Instead of frying dough, you’ll make a quick batter and pipe it into a mini donut pan. For this recipe, you’ll need two mini donut baking pans to make a total of 24 donuts (or make a half recipe of 12). Here’s the equipment and ingredients you’ll need:
- 2 mini donut baking pans: these are widely available at Target or online
- Pastry bag: we highly recommend a pastry bag for piping the dough into the donut pan; see below
- Flour
- Granulated sugar
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder and salt
- Egg
- Butter
- Milk
- Vanilla
Tips for filling the donut pan
The batter for mini donuts is similar to cake: mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and stir to combine. You’ll find it makes a very sticky dough, so the trickiest part of this mini donut recipe is actually filling the pan. Here are a few tips for how to do so:
- Use a pastry bag. It’s easiest to use a pastry bag to pipe the batter into the donut pan cleanly. Because the holes are very small for mini donuts and the batter is sticky, we highly recommend it. (You can use a spoon, but it gets a little messy.)
- Fill the donut holes halfway. Fill the holes about halfway full, dividing the dough evenly between the 24 donuts. It will look like there’s not enough batter, but never fear! The donuts puff right up in the oven.
Mini donut toppings
These mini donuts are incredibly tasty plain: sweet and cinnamon-scented! But if you want to do it up extra like a real bakery-style donut, try these donuts with a quick glaze! It’s fast and easy to make the glaze: and it comes out rich and creamy. Here are a few options for baked donut toppings:
- Cinnamon sugar: Top with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar, or dip them in melted butter then place both sides in a plate of cinnamon sugar (for bakery style)
- Powdered sugar: Place each cooled donut one at a time into a sealed bag of powdered sugar and gently shake until coated.
- Chocolate glaze: Try this fast and easy Chocolate Glaze
- Vanilla glaze: This Vanilla Glaze is quick and tasty, and you can add food coloring for fun colors.
Storage info
Once you made your mini donuts, what’s the easiest way to store them? Here’s what to know about storing these treats:
- Donuts store best unglazed. If making in advance, consider freezing or refrigerating the unglazed donuts, then glazing or topping as close to serving as possible.
- Room temperature storage: Store glazed or unglazed donuts up to 2 days at room temperature in a sealed container with the lid cracked to prevent them from getting soggy. If they start to dry out (or if they are unglazed), you can close the lid.
- Frozen storage: Freeze un-glazed baked donuts in a sealed container for up to 2 months; defrost and bring to room temperature before glazing.
More baked treats
Love baking up festive treats? Here are a few more you might enjoy:
- Try standard sized Baked Donuts
- Make a Chewy Cookie Cake
- Whip up a fun Chocolate Lava Cake
- Go for a quick Ultimate Mug Cake
This mini donuts recipe is…
Vegetarian.
Mini Donuts
- Prep Time: 18 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 mini donuts 1x
Description
Whip up a batch of baked mini donuts for non-stop fun! Decorate with glaze and toppings, or eat them plain right out of the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons melted butter
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For topping: 1 recipe Chocolate Glaze or Vanilla Glaze, or cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
- Sprinkles, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Liberally grease 2 mini donut pans, enough for 24 mini donuts.
- In large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and kosher salt. In a medium bowl, whisk egg and then add the milk and vanilla extract, and finally the melted butter. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until just combined (resist the urge to overmix).
- Evenly divide the batter into the 24 donut holes so the holes are about half full: make sure not to overfill them! For mini donuts, we suggest using a pastry bag to fill the holes evenly (especially for mini donuts). You can also use a spoon to gently spoon in the batter, then smooth out the tops with a spoon or your finger, but it gets messy with the very small holes in the mini donut pan.
- Bake 12 to 13 minutes until toothpick comes out clean, switching the top and bottom pans halfway through. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing. Remove from the pan (using a knife to run around the edges as necessary). Transfer to a baking rack and allow to cool before glazing.
- If making glazed donuts, make the Chocolate Glaze or Vanilla Glaze in a medium bowl. Dip the donuts into the glaze, twisting each as you remove it to allow the excess glaze to drip back into the bowl. Top with sprinkles.
- Storage info: Store fully cooled donuts up to 2 days at room temperature in a sealed container with the lid cracked to prevent them from getting soggy. If they start to dry out (or if they are unglazed), you can close the lid. Freeze un-glazed baked donuts in a sealed container for up to 2 months; defrost and bring to room temperature before glazing.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Donuts
- Diet: Vegetarian
Let us know if you have any questions!