Baked Gingerbread Donuts

A stack of three sugar-coated donuts on a wooden board, surrounded by more donuts and sprigs with red berries.

5 from 2 votes

Baked Gingerbread Donuts

🎄🍩 EASY baked donuts that remind me of my favorite gingerbread or molasses cookies, but in soft and fluffy donut form! Loaded with warming spices, molasses, and coated in cinnamon-sugar for the ultimate winning flavor and texture combo! No mixer needed, ready in 30 minutes, and perfect for holiday brunches, entertaining, or Christmas morning!

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baked donuts, baked gingerbread donuts, gingerbread donuts

Servings: servings

Calories: 288cal

Equipment

1 or 2 gallon sized ziptop plastic bags (or use a piping bag; or simply use a spoon for adding batter into molds; use 2nd bag for shaking the cinnamon-sugar coating or you can coat donuts in a bowl)
2 6-count donut pans

Ingredients

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 (mild to medium molasses recommended; I do not advise blackstrap because it's very pungent and potent for baking)
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 (optional, but highly recommended)

⅓ to ½ cup granulated sugar
½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

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)
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.
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.
Add the eggs, milk, and whisk again to combine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Storage: Donuts are always better when served warm and freshly made. They will keep airtight at room temp for up to 2-3 days, but if you're serving them for an event, the closer you can make them to before you're serving them, the better. Note that as they're stored, the cinnamon-sugar coating will tend to "disappear" or seem almost moist, which is really just the sugar liquifying a bit as time passes. You can always re-dredge or re-coat leftover donuts in additional cinnamon-sugar, if desired. I do not recommend storing donuts in the fridge (they'll dry out) or freezing them.

Nutrition