Baked Donuts filled with jelly are incredibly soft, airy and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Just like our donut holes, this homemade donut recipe is easy and always gets rave reviews!
Donuts are the ultimate comfort food. The aroma from the oven and the little hint of jelly peeking out of the side make these irresistible. I am a sucker for classic home-baked treats like blueberry muffins or chocolate chip banana bread and these baked donuts do not disappoint!
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Baked Donut Recipe:
Baked donuts are cotton-candy soft and fluffy. I remember my Mother making apple piroshki (Russian fried doughnuts) after school and it is one of the food memories I will always treasure. Baked yeast donuts are even easier and is a tradition I’m continuing with my own family.
I’ll take one of these over a Krispy Kreme any day because they are way more satisfying – the perfect balance of fluffy center to sugar coated surface without the greasy mouth feel and my belly is always happier eating a homemade baked donut!
Is it Donuts or Doughnuts?
Which is the correct spelling? This is heated debate because donuts… mmm doughnuts! There’s even a National Donut Day and it’s the first Friday of June. It is the ultimate comfort food. The real question is – when were doughnuts invented? ‘Doughnut’ is the original old-school spelling but ‘donuts’ took off when Dunkin’ Donuts launched in 1950.
Most people will search for “donuts” online and it is the clear winner in popularity. The dictionary now recognizes ‘donut’ as a variant of doughnut so the word doughnut came first but both terms are technically correct.
Here’s our argument – old school doughnuts are deep fried, but these are new school baked donuts so we called them so.
Are Baked Donuts Healthy?
To put it delicately, baked donuts are the healthier option compared to traditional deep-fried donuts. They don’t leave you feeling as guilty about your choices. You only need 1 Tbsp of melted butter to coat all 12 donuts! Are donuts good for you? In the end, they are still sugar covered carbs… glorious carbs! Eat responsibly.
What is the Best Filling for Donuts?
We enjoy changing up the type of jelly in these baked donuts; strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, huckleberry,.. you name it! Whether you are using jam, preserves or jelly, pick one that is:
- Thick – a thick jelly won’t run out of the donut as easily
- Fairly Smooth – so the piping tip doesn’t get clogged
- Your favorite flavor – these are, after all, for you!
How to Make Cream Filled Donuts:
For a cream filling, you will need a stable, thick cream that won’t ooze out. The pastry cream from our eclairs is easy and excellent. Let the cream cool then fill the pastry bag fitted with a sharp tip and generously pipe into each donut.
For Cinnamon Sugar Donuts:
If you choose to omit the jam inside, you can add more flavor with a cinnamon sugar coating. In a small bowl, stir together and roll hot buttered donuts in this mixture:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Love Glazed Donuts?
We enjoy these without glaze but if you desire glazed donuts, you can skip brushing with butter and rolling in sugar. Once donuts are cool enough to handle, dip into this glaze mixture then place on racks until glaze hardens:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk or water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
More Classic Home-Baked Treats:
- Baklava – once you try homemade, there’s no going back
- Chocolate Chip Cookies – soft, moist and perfect
- Snowball Cookies are melt-in-your-mouth good
- Russian Tea Cookies – buttery and studded with walnuts
- Italian Cookies a chocolate filled sandwich cookie
How to Ensure Super Fluffy Donuts?
The correct balance of wet to dry ingredients is critical in any dough recipe. Be sure to measure the ingredients correctly. Stir your flour with a spoon then spoon it into a dry ingredient measuring cup. Pushing a measuring cup into a flour bin can result in 25% more flour than is called for which will result in dense donuts.
Also, be sure to allow your dough to proof in a warm room (never more than 110˚F) or you will deactivate the yeast and the donuts will not rise properly.
Baked Donut Video Tutorial:
Watch Natasha make this easy and super fluffy baked donut recipe. P.S. There’s a guest star in this episode!
I hope this becomes your go-to baked donut recipe! They are irresistibly soft and there is nothing like warm homemade donuts.
Baked Donuts Filled with Jelly
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided, plus more for dusting*
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast, quick acting, (1 packet = 7 grams)
- 2/3 cup warm milk, 110˚F - microwave 35 sec.
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, divided
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup jelly or jam, (no large fruit pieces)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar , to roll donuts
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) instant yeast and 1/4 tsp salt.
- Add warm milk, 3 Tbsp melted butter, 2 egg yolks and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and whisk vigorously to combine well.
- Cover with plastic wrap and rest at room temperature 10 minutes, until some bubbles form on the surface.
- Add remaining 1 1/2 cups flour, adding just enough until dough holds together and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl (Add the last 2 Tbsp of flour only if needed) and knead in the bowl 5 minutes. If dough is really sticking to your hands, dust lightly with flour then continue kneading with clean dry hands. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a 100˚F oven for 45 min or at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 375˚F with rack in the center of the oven.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface and roll the dough out to just under 1/2” thick. Cut circles using a 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter. Re-roll scraps if needed to make 12 donuts total. Place donuts on prepared baking sheet, cover with a tea towel and let rise in a 100˚F oven for 20 min or at room temperature 45 min, or until puffed. Bake uncovered in the center of a preheated oven at 375˚F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
- Right out of the oven, brush a hot bun all over with remaining 1 Tbsp melted butter and roll in a bowl of sugar to coat lightly with sugar. Cut a deep slit in the side of each donut and pipe jam with a pastry bag into each one.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Enjoy your home-baked donuts and “Do-nut Worry, be Happy!” I couldn’t resist! 😉
I tries this recipe twice!
The first time went smoothly!
The second time I made double the quantity, but the dough failed to rise to double its size.
Any advice?
Also is there anyway to keep them tasting fresh and soft (as in not dry) for a few days?
Hi Maryam, with a larger quantity of dough, it will take longer to rise so I would give it more time.
I used the base recipe for the donut but instead of jam, I filled with Holland Cream. I didn’t have regular milk on hand so I had to use evaporated milk. The donut was very tasty but definitely not soft and airy. It had some chew and was a tad dry. I weighed the flour and kneaded for 5 minutes as instructed. Could the evaporated milk have been the problem? I actually made them twice since the recipe left me with half the can of milk. The second batch I baked 1 minute less (9 min) and they were exactly the same. 24 dounuts in a house with only 2 people is not a good thing. Hope I can find some friends to take them off my hands! Thank you for such an easy to follow recipe. The video was super helpful! I’ll have to try again with regular milk 🙂
Hi Stacie, I would always recommend making a new recipe as written before making substitutions, and without tested this with evaporated milk, I can’t speak to that. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi made the donuts yesterday they tasted great but they are dry,i made them in a airfryer 5mins 180c i was hoping they would be fluffy please help ty
Hi Maxii, it should not be dry. I’m curious if that would happen using an air fryer but without testing that I cannot advise.
Hi Natasha ty for your reply i’m thinking that maybe i need to use a little less flour i will let you know how it goes.
Yes please update us with how it goes.
Hi Natasha i made some donuts today and they where light and fluffy, i used bread flour this time and it worked yay. airfryer for 10mins at 160 c ty for a great recipe
So wonderful to hear that yay! Thanks for sharing that with us.
Can I use gluten free cup for cup flour?
Hi Marie, I haven’t tested that with gluten-free flour so I can’t advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Anybody ever try with gluten free flour?
delicious
Thank you!
Can I let the dough sit overnight? How long will the donuts be good for?
Hi Whitney, I haven’t tested them as make-ahead donuts but being a yeast dough, that should technically work if you refrigerate it before baking. If I were to experiment with making them as overnight donuts, I would place the rounds onto a prepared baking sheet, cover them and refrigerate before the last rise. Let them puff/rise the next day at room temperature before baking.
I just did this lady night n it worked out great!
I just did this last night and it worked great!
Awesome. I’m glad you loved it!
I was going to ask the same question! I want to have them baked fresh in the morning,
but with so many other things to do for my breakfast guests, I was hoping I could try refrigerating before the final rise. Your recipes are ALL great! Thank you!
Could I substitute yeast for baking powder ? I’ve read that some recipes do use baking powder instead, just I can’t go to the shops right now for the yeast
Thanks X
Hi Vikki, baking powder and yeast work very differently in recipes and most of the time can’t be substituted without other modifications. I haven’t tested this through with baking powder so I won’t be able to give recommendations for that.
My husband loves lemon. Would you recommend using lemon curd?
I haven’t tried that yet to advise but I imagine that should be delicious too. Please share with us how it goes!
Can you make this with nutella filling?
Hello Summer, I haven’t personally tried that yet but I imagine that should work! If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
Yes i will try this weekend. Your recipes are AMAZING. Im addicted to your blog and make at least 1-2 things every week. Thank you!!!
Aww! That’s the best! Thank you for that great feedback!
Hi Natasha
Can these be maked with half coconut oil and half butter?
Or all coconut oil?
I have only 2 tbps butter atm and cannot go to the grocery store atm.
Hi Felicia, I have not tested that with coconut flour to advise. If. you experiment, please let me know how you like that
HI!
Please tell me what changes I need to make because I have active dry yeast. Thanks!
Hi Deed, I haven’t tested these with active dry yeast, but typically, when substituting with active dry, you would use 25% more active dry yeast and you would need to let it prove first in the warm 105˚F milk for 7 minutes or so. Mix the other dry ingredients together in step 1 (except for the yeast). Add warm milk to a bowl and sprinkle the top with yeast and let that sit for 7 minutes then add remaining wet ingredients and whisk together per the recipe. Here is an article that helps with understanding the various types of yeast and how to substitute.
Hi Natasha,
Those donuts looks yummy! I wanted to try to make it. I have a question after read your recipe. It said “Place donuts on prepared baking sheet, cover with a tea towel and let rise in a 100˚F oven for 20 min”
My question is Do you put tea towel inside the oven as well? Is it save?
Please advises
Thank so much,
Blessings,
We sure do! It is safe at 100 degrees. That is slightly warmer than your human body temperature and will not burn the cloth.
First attempt and they didn’t work out right they didn’t rise enough really gutted about that
Hi Steph, it sounds like maybe they needed more time to rise. It could also mean that the yeast could have been either expired or gotten deactivated by overheating during the rising stage. Also, consider if there could have been too much flour added – make sure you measure as we suggest in the post. I hope that helps to troubleshoot.
Can you freeze jelly baked doughnuts
Hi Jo, I haven’t tested them as make-ahead donuts but being a yeast dough, that should technically work if you refrigerate it before baking. If I were to experiment with making them as overnight donuts, I would place the rounds onto a prepared baking sheet, cover them and refrigerate before the last rise. Let them puff/rise the next day at room temperature before baking.
I haven’t baked them yet but my dough was so sticky. I was afraid of putting too much flour in but no matter what I did half of the dough was stuck to my hands … not sure how they will turn out.
Hi L, I haven’t had that experience to advise completely. But I do recommend reading up on our post of measuring.
Hi, I love this recipe!!!! If I want to make more, can I just double the ingredients?
Tried the Nutella filling and it was lit!!!
Hi Maya, doubling this recipe will work!
Hi there, This recipe looks amazing!! I’m excited to try it! I’m looking to make donuts for a wedding – how long would these stay fresh?
Hi Sherry, if stored properly in the fridge, the donuts will be kept well for about 5 days
I’ve made this recipe day of baking and cake out amazing! Is there anyway to make the dough day before?
Hi Samantha, I have always made the dough and baked the donuts right away so I can’t say for certain but I think you could make it work and then do that last rise after bringing it back to room temperature. My only concern with that is the dough drying out or forming a skin on top.
Holy grail found ! Hot jam donuts , baked not fried! completely exceeded my expectations ! xoxoxoxox
Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome DT! Sounds like you found a new favorite!
I made donuts! thank you for the recipe
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
Hey I loved the recipe, the donuts were amazingly good, thank you so much! From Canada!
So lovely to hear that. I hope all is well there in Canada! Take care.