Do you like cinnamon buns? Brownie points if you love Cinnabon cinnamon rolls like I do? If you’re a cinnamon roll fan, you’re going to love these donuts.
Really, who doesn’t love a cinnamon roll?
Warm baked dough that’s sweet, dense, cinnamony and sugary, ooey gooey, with frosting everywhere.
Yes, please.
I worked at the mall when I was in high school and between Panda Chinese food, Mrs. Field’s Cookies, and Cinnabons, I ate more sodium, grease, and sugar than should be legal or is good for the complexion. But hey, you’re only 16 and working next to the food court once.
I have such fond memories of Cinnabons. The dense texture of them, the flavors of the cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter, the warm dough, and that cream cheese frosting.
I always ordered extra frosting and it was 50 cents for that extra cup of frosting but when you’re in high school working at a minimum wage job, you notice the price of tea in China the price of extra frosting. But best use ever of 50 cents.
My grandma made the best cinnamon rolls, but since she’s not around and I had a cinnamon roll craving come over me, I knew I needed to figure something out. Working with yeast-based doughs is a kitchen fear I still need to tackle. Truth be told, I’ve never made traditional cinnamon rolls.
However, I thought that cinnamon bun style donuts was something I could handle.
And my hunch proved successful.
These donuts are baked but they are not cake, or dry the way that most baked or cake-style donuts are.
Not in the least.
They are actually pretty heavy, dense, and very moist. The texture reminds me of an underbaked muffin-top in some ways. Gooey and thick, not light, airy or fluffy.
The flavor is what you’d expect from a cinnamon bun. There’s cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, melted butter.
And frosting. I paired the donuts with a vanilla cream cheese glaze that makes you want to dive in and bathe in it. I actually like a little donut with my frosting. A little coffee with my cream. Can you relate?
No donut pan? I’m sorry. You can buy one for $8 bucks at BB & B with a coupon or $10 without a coupon. You’ll be happy you did.
And if you really don’t want to do that, you can make these donuts as muffins in a muffin pan. I tried that with the leftover batter. The recipe yields what would be 7 donuts in my donut pan but rather than waiting for my one donut pan to come out of the oven, I made the remaining batter into two small muffins in my muffin pan. I baked the muffins for about 15 minutes and they turned out just dandy.
The whole donut recipe from start to finish, including making them, cooling, glazing, and doing the dishes is 30 minutes. That’s success.
But the fact that they remind me of Cinnabons is the best.
The recipe yields 6-7 donuts and we polished off 5 at once, right out of the oven.
Bu there was that one, lone, straggler donut. The next day, that straggler had become the perfect sponge for the cream cheese glaze.
Soaking up all that magical stuff and getting even heavier in weight and more full-bodied with flavor, which is just the way I like my baked goods: heavy, rich, dense, and intense.
Couldn’t think of a better way to Christen my new donut pan than with these.
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Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, add more if you like cinnamon or want a stronger ‘cinnamon bun’ taste
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 6 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
- ½ cup+ confectioners’ sugar
- 1 to 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon+ cinnamon
- splash Milk, Half & Half, Cream, Heavy Cream, vegan milk
Instructions
- Donuts – Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease or spray a Nonstick 6-Cavity Donut Pan with cooking spray. Or, use a muffin pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and optional salt.
- Add buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk to combine.
- Use a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off) to pipe the batter into a 6-donut pan. Or just be extra neat and do this with a spoon (my preference).
- Bake 8 to 11 minutes, or until doughnuts spring back when touched are are set. Donuts will not be golden brown, but should be springy. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan, about 5 minutes.
- Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze – While donuts are baking or cooling, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract, cinnamon, with a small splash milk. Whisk to combine, adding the milk as necessary, until desired consistency is achieved.
- Dip the donuts into the glaze. Donuts are best fresh, but will keep airtight at room temp for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Oh. My. God. I need these in my life:)
I don’t think I would have survived working in the food court. I would have been in a permanent food coma:) I am not a huge doughnut lover, but I think these sound fabulous. I will try them out in a muffin pan before I make the “8 dollar” investment.
These look delicious!! I feel more compelled now to purchase a doughnut pan ;)
By the way, is that surface below the plate from Crate & Barrel?
Go to BB&Beyond and for 8 bucks you can be in donut heaven :)
The other question, Etsy. Emailing you….
We must be related. You inspired me to buy a donut maker (did you get the trackback?) and I made cookie dough donuts. And here you are with cinnamon bun donuts. Crazy! But in really awesome donut-y way. So naturally, I have to make these, right? ;)
I didn’t get it…off to check your site now…
Seriously? Baked donuts that are like CInnabon? Heaven. And your pictures look like heaven. I know you said to someoen else that you didn’t like them, but I am in awe of you photos every time. I need a freaking donut pan!!!!
yeah, not my fave photo shoot. Frosting glares a lot and causes focusing issues. Not a horrible life problem but you know :)
I love cinnamon rolls. You have seriously combined the best of both worlds here. Now I need to get a donut pan!
I Loooove cinnabons… have not had one in years and years. But my best friend and I used to eat them every day one summer we were both day camp counsellors when we were 15. We didn’t share one.. we had one each.. Oh the chocolate ones are/were heaven! They were the BEST!! Love how you have teenaged memories of them too!! These donuts look gooey and lovely!
Oh my gosh, the cinnabon smell in our mall drives me crrrrrazy!!! So yummy!!! I love how much you’re using your new donut pan toy! :-)
Averie, these pictures are fabulous! They are seriously making me drool. I haven’t had a cinnamon roll in forever, but they are one of my favorite treats!
thanks, Alex :)
Cinnamon rolls/buns are one of my favorite things in the world. I have enjoyed my share of Cinnabons, as much as I hate to admit that. ;-) You just started a major craving, lady! I tell you, reading food blogs is dangerous when you are pregnant!
you’re preggers and reading food blogs? recipe for some major cravings indeed :)
I got my donut pan the other day! It’s washed and ready to go! I can’t wait to play with it! These look delicious Averie!
have fun baking!
i have so many memories of cinnamon buns in the airport during college. i played water polo and when our team would fly to away games, we had a tradition of getting some buns (extra frosting of course!) before we hopped on the plane. good news was that a water polo game burned off every single calorie in no time!
You pics are gorgeous! I wanted to eat the computer screen! they look delicious :)
I hated these pics…LOL
I wrote this to someone else…
Ok I actually hated my pics. Seriously. I had tons and tons to choose from and nothing was working. The frosting and the shininess, my camera was not focusing as well as I thought it was…til after I put them on my computer and the photo shoot (and donuts) were done!
Thanks for your support :)
Like everything else on your site, these look so yummy! I just posted a recipe for cinnamon rolls on my site on Monday. LOL
How is it you are in such great shape when you bake so many yummies?? I used to decorate cakes professionally, but then I realized how much cake I was eating! What do you do with all of the goodies you make?
BTW, did you know that Swedes actually have a cinnamon bun holiday? I researched it for my post. How great is that?? : )
I recently updated my FAQ page re the sweets and desserts questions.
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/popular
just checked out your cinn rolls…pretty!
Thanks! : D
we had a cinnabon in the cafeteria at my college. there was many a late night dinners at cinnabon to be had then. best 800 calories and 32 grams of fat eaten (last time i checked (about 8 years ago when i was in college) that was the calorie/fat count of a cinnabon.) gotta love the extra frosting too!!!
Katie
that math sounds about right. haha!
these look so yummy! so funny because I have been craving cinnamon rolls like crazy (hello, 6 months preggers hormones!). Have you ever had the cobblestones from Panera? Like a cinn roll but with apples and stuff… so freaking good. tons of icing of course! I have reallllly been wanting a *real* cinnamon roll but I know the gluten will hate me!
Congrats and how did I not even know you were preggers?! Congrats!!!!!!