Gluten-free Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts
Craving donuts since you’ve gone gluten-free? I was too, so I created this recipe for gluten-free cinnamon sugar donuts. This gluten-free donut recipe is so easy and delicious!
Doughnuts are among the top three things I’ve missed the most since having to give up gluten. Really, I only would buy doughnuts at most 3 times a year during my adult life, but still, the idea that I can no longer grab a doughnut with my kids is such a bummer.
I’ve decided that I just need start making my own homemade gluten-free doughnuts! These gluten-free cinnamon sugar doughnuts are the result of trying and tinkering with several recipes until I got them just right. They taste like the doughnut holes I remember, but honestly, I think these are even better!
I made these mini gluten-free doughnuts in my Norpro Nonstick Mini Donut Pan
. 
You know what I learned? I needed to order a 2nd one! Doing one batch of 12 doughnuts at a time took a little too long for my tastes.
Luckily the pans are affordable, so getting two isn’t a big deal. If you have a full sized doughnut pan, feel free to use that instead. The cooking time would likely be just a couple minutes longer. These would also work well in a Babycakes Nonstick Coated Donut Maker
.
Since this was my first time using my doughnut pan, I wasn’t sure what the best technique was for filling the cavities in the pan. I tried scooping it in, but that covered up the hole in the middle, and also made a mess of the pan.
I consulted with my friend Jeanine, the gluten-free doughnut queen, and she suggested placing the batter in a Ziploc bag, cutting off the corner, and squeezing it into each cavity. That worked perfectly!
I used Gluten Free Mama’s Almond Blend All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
for the flour in this recipe, with excellent results. Other good all-purpose blends would likely work well in this, such as King Arthur Flour Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour
or gfJules, but I haven’t tested them in this recipe yet. As always, I recommend avoiding gluten-free flour blends with bean flours.
Last week was teacher appreciation week. I have a teacher friend, Angie, at my son’s school that has celiac, so I like to sign up to provide treats that she can eat. I made these doughnuts to send for her and the other gluten-free folks to enjoy at the teacher appreciation breakfast.
I even packaged them up in a doughnut box. She loved them and asked for this gluten-free donut recipe, so I knew they were a hit with more than just my family.
I think you’ll enjoy them too! Be sure to try my recipe for gluten-free maple donuts too! They’re equally delicious and a favorite treat of mine. My kids love both of these doughnuts and beg me to make them more often!
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour.
I also have an entire Pinterest board full of gluten-free donut recipes you can check out! I’ve pinned so many more gluten-free donut recipes that I’m wanting to try too!
If you make these and love them, please come back and give this recipe a 5 star rating in the recipe card! Feel free to comment with tips or to share any successful substitutions you made.
Gluten-free Cinnamon Sugar Donut recipe:
Gluten-free Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
This cinnamon sugar gluten-free donut recipe is so easy and delicious! Not only are these super easy to make and delicious, but they were just as great on day 2. So feel free to bake them up the day before you need them.
Ingredients
Doughnuts:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup vegetable, corn or canola oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 11 1/4 oz. (about 2 2/3 cups) all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum*
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. to 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cup milk
Topping:
- 5 Tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
- 1/2 cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°. Spray mini doughnut pan with non-stick cooking oil spray.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream together the butter, oil, and sugars until smooth.
- Add the eggs and vanilla, beating until smooth.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix on low just until everything is thoroughly combined.
- Scoop the batter into a gallon-size Ziploc bag and seal tightly. Use scissors to snip off a bottom corner. Squeeze the batter out of the opening into the cavities of the doughnut pan, filling until almost flush with the top of the cavities.
- Bake at 425° for 7 minutes or until they are a pale, golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in a doughnut comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 2-3 minutes. Turn the pan over to turn doughnuts out onto a cooling rack.
- Repeat with remaining batter, spraying pan again with cooking spray between batches. Makes 4 dozen.
- While doughnuts are cooling, make the topping.
Topping:
- Melt the butter in a small bowl.
- In another small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon and sugar.
- Take each cooled doughnut, dunk the top half in the butter, then in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. Place on rack or tray to set. Enjoy!
- These can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Notes
*If the gluten-free flour blend you use already has xanthan gum or guar gum in it, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe.
*Tip: After you dip a dozen or so of the doughnuts into the cinnamon sugar mixture, the mixture starts to get clumpy. If you care about that, I recommend only putting a small amount of your cinnamon sugar mixture in your dipping bowl, keeping the rest reserved. Once your mixture gets clumpy, dump it out and refill from the reserved mixture. Hope that makes sense! Let me know if you have questions!
*A little note about the nutmeg in this recipe. I put a range that you can choose. The first time I made these, I used a full teaspoon, and it was perfect. However I was using an older nutmeg container. Shortly after, I bought a new container of nutmeg and used that the second time I made these. I felt the nutmeg was a little overpowering in that batch. So feel free to adapt based on how much you like nutmeg and how new your spices are.
I hope you and your family enjoy these gluten-free doughnuts too!
Please come back and rate and review these gluten-free donuts after you try them!
Thank you for the recipe, these our my family’s favorite GF donuts!
I was wondering if you have tried making these without a mixer and mixed by hand? our mixer broke and my daughter keeps asking for these!
Im feeling pretty silly. I must have missed the whole “mini” part and was wondering how it would make 48! But for anyone curious, it makes about 18-24 full size donuts. In a donut tin. I used the base and added plums and strawberries I needed to use up mixed in really well. SO GOOD.
WOW!! Amazing! I made these for my mom (she is gluten free) and she loved them so much! Now she can eat donuts and enjoy them! 🙂 thank you so much for this recipe! It’s a keeper!!!!
I was just wondering if you know how many calories per donut?
Thank you so much for the recipe, my Grand daughter and I made them, Andrea piped them into the pans, her little brothers had one while she was still putting the cinnamon and sugar, they were so excited, they said they taste real. How precious are these little darlings. I said to them what should Nana make for the birthday parties, cup cakes or doughnuts, they all yelled doughnuts. We are making them next time and they have requested passionfruit icing. Thank you again. God bless.
So, we have multiple allergies other than gluten, so I subbed out the oil for applesauce, used unsweetened almond milk for the milk, and used 2 cups of my preferred organic gluten free blend (Ancient Grain baking and pizza flour) and 2/3 cups of almond flour. I also used 1/4 cup xylitol and 1/4 cup organic sugar in place of 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar. Turned out yummy!
I made a doublle batch of these for our branding breakfast, as well as a ‘regular’ batch from a different recipe. These were delicious, soft, had a lovely donut shape, and beat the wheat donuts hands down. I cut the nutmeg and bit and added ½ – ¾ tsp. of cardamon, which definitely gives them that good old-fashioned donut taste. Next year I’ll make all 75 donuts gluten free with this recipe (and probably a few smaller batches in between). Thank-you.
Can I substitute some of the oil with applesauce?
I haven’t tried that, but feel free to give it a try!
@Robin, I read every comment to try to find that answer. I don’t use canola or vegetable oil, and thought a bit of applesauce might give it a yummy apple taste and do the same thing. Did you try it?
Love these! 5 stars! Thank you . Yummy yummy in my tummy.
do you need to add xanthin gum if it is already in the flour mix?
Is there any reason you could not freeze. I like to make things for grand daughter. so her mother can keep in freezer as treats.
I modified this recipe and cut out the milk. I made this as muffins in a muffin tin and didn’t do any toppings. They are delish! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for this recipe, the doughnuts are DELICIOUS! I used cup4cup (no xanthan) and the doughnuts are light, fluffy and so good! Huge hit with the GF and non-GF eaters alike! ???
I tried this recipe yesterday in dairy-free and I really like it as these doughnuts are not too dense like others I tried earlier. Of course, how they look is not even close to the one on the picture, but maybe the next batch 😉 Thanks!!
These cinnamon donuts were amazing!! We will definitely be making them again. I am going to try freezing some next time I make them.
Oh my goodness – these are amazing!!! They are light and fluffy and absolutely delicious. I added some cloves, allspice, nutmeg and ground ginger to the batter to give them a bit of Fall zing. I am adding these doughnuts to my ‘go to’ list of recipes.
Found this recipe and these are amazing!!! My 6 year gluten free girl LOVED them. We paired them with fresh homemade apple cider! AMAZING and adding these to my favorites collection.
Can they be frozen?
This turned out really good!! Hubby was also very impressed! Definitely adding this to my recipe library 🙂 Made a few adjustments. This is what I did differently…
1/2 cup avocado oil (instead of 1/4 oil and 1/4 butter)
1/4 cup cane sugar (instead of 1/2 cup, this reduction was still sweet enough for me!)
1/3 cup muscovado sugar (instead of regular brown sugar)
2 1/2 cup bob red mills 1-1 baking flour
1 cup water (instead of milk, ran out)
These are the best donuts I’ve had in the past 8 years (since I was diagnosed with celiac). They are the perfect cake donuts- light, fluffy, and warmly delicious. Perfect for the Fall. I added some vanilla to my butter for dipping and put extra batter in a mini muffin tin to make “donut holes,” which were especially good. Enjoyed them hot with a glass of milk!
I’m so sad! I was hoping this was healthy. It’s not with tha sugar and oil.
You should find substitutes and make the same recipe.
Everyone has a different version of what healthy means. For me, healthy means gluten-free as I have celiac disease and am in very poor health if I have any gluten.
For you, apparently healthy means using sugar substitutes. You won’t find that here on my site, but I’m sure you’ll find another blog that suits your needs! Good luck!