Old fashioned easy powdered sugar donuts are baked, fluffy and lower in calories, coated with confectioner's sugar and much healthier than coffee shop or bakery donuts. Made in one bowl, these dairy free donuts are ready within 15 minutes.
These fluffy easy powdered sugar donuts are light and cakey, and dusted with soft sugar, oil-free, egg free and dairy free. These powdered donuts are similar to Entenmann's powdered donut, only healthier with no additives and only 180 calories.
You can make this recipe as muffins, but donuts are so much more fun. I recommend you buy a donut pan. It's very inexpensive and then you can make my other donut recipes such as my mini chocolate donuts , apple cider donuts, and my chocolate frosted donuts.
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Why You'd Love This
Baked & Nutritious. These baked powdered donuts are lower in fat and calories, and don't have the processed oils that are soaked into fried donuts.
Versatile & Plant-based. These donuts don't have any oil or eggs - I used applesauce and lemon juice in milk instead. This recipe works with three different flours - all purpose, gluten free flour, and oat flour. The oat flour made them a bit less light than the AP and GF flour but higher in fiber.
Ingredients
The ingredients to make these baking powdered donuts are simple and pantry-friendly, even though these donuts are vegan and gluten-free. I bet you have them in your pantry right now.
- Flour - I used all purpose first to get the recipe right. Then I tried GF baking flour (Bob's Red Mill's blue bag), and after that oat flour. All work perfectly.
- Sugar - I used organic cane sugar but any cane sugar is fine.
- Baking powder and baking soda - vital to provide the texture a cakey lift.
- Milk, lemon juice - These liquids are vital to bring batter together.
- Applesauce - This is the egg replacer in this recipe.
- Powdered sugar - the essential topping for powdered donuts.
How to Make
Here is a quick summary of the steps, but the detailed recipe and video can be found below in the recipe card below.
Prepare by gathering ingredients, preheating oven to 350 F, greasing and dusting a 6-ring donut pan, and by adding the lemon juice to the milk to curdle it. Curdling the milk creates a buttermilk that reacts with baking soda to create a cake-like texture.
1. In a large bowl, mix up the dry ingredients, including flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
2. Add more dry ingredients, including the optional cinnamon.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, including the lemon milk, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix up the batter and add it to a frosting bag or a ziplock bag with corner snipped. Pipe the batter to fill the donut wells just under the top.
4. Bake the pan of donuts 12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Make up the powdered sugar mixture.
5. Dip donuts warm in the powdered sugar coating and it will stick without you having to brush it with butter.
6. Transfer donuts to cooling rack until cool. Dip again in sugar if any bare patches formed.
Recipe Tips
1.Don't fill donut pan too high or the donut will rise around the hole and it will disappear.
2. The recipe is written for oat flour. To use all purpose or gluten free baking flour, use only 1 cup.
3. I added cinnamon to my batter, but if you leave it out, the batter and donut will be lighter in color.
Storage
These donuts are best eaten the same day. Refrigerate them in a sealed container for a week, or freeze for a month. In both instances, add a paper towel to the inside of the container to stop donuts from getting soggy.
Variations
Chocolate glazed donuts. Melt ½ cup of chocolate chips in microwave at 30 seconds. Stir, allow to cool a minute or so, then dip donuts and allow glaze to set at room temperature.
Vanilla glazed donuts. Dip into confection sugar made into a vanilla glaze. Stir 1 teaspoon of milk into one cup of powdered sugar until you have a glaze. Dip both sides of the donut and allow to set on a rack. Add 1 teaspoon or more of vanilla to the glaze, or leave it off to keep the color white.
Make without donut pan. If you don't have a donut pan, pipe the batter into paper-lined mini muffin pans and make donut holes.
FAQS
Make sure you add a teaspoon of arrowroot or cornstarch to every ¼ cup of powdered sugar.
Yes. Baked donuts are lower in fat and calories, with only 180 calories per donut, and don't have the processed oils that are soaked into fried donuts. These donuts are also healthier because they are baked and in fact are oil free so they don't contain any of the fats that fried donuts hold.
Spoon donut batter into papers lining a regular-sized muffin pan and bake. Fill the batter about ⅔ high, just as you would when baking muffins. Bake around 10-12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
More Baked Donut Recipes
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Easy Powdered Sugar Donuts
Equipment
Ingredients
Powdered donuts
- 1 ½ cup oat flour Or 1 cup of all purpose flour or GF baking 1 to 1 flour
- ½ cup organic cane sugar
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce
- ½ cup dairy-free milk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice Add to milk and let it sit for 5 minutes
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon optional
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
powdered coating
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon optional
- 2 teaspoon arrowroot or cornstarch
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Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Add the lemon juice to the milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes to curdle.
- Grease a 6-well donut pan* or line a cupcake pan with paper liners
Make Donuts
- In a large bowl, mix up flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon and salt.1 ½ cup oat flour, ½ cup organic cane sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, pinch of salt
- Add to that the lemon milk, applesauce, and vanilla.2 tablespoon unsweetened apple sauce, ½ cup dairy-free milk, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Pipe or use a spoon to fill the wells to just under the top. Don't fill them too high or the donut will rise around the hole.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Make Powdered Coating
- While donuts are baking prepare the powdered sugar and arrowroot. I add cinnamon to mine, but that's optional.½ cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoon arrowroot or cornstarch
- While warm, straight out of the oven, dip each side of each donut, using a spoon to get all bare spots.
Store
- These donuts are best eaten the same day. Refrigerate them in a sealed container for a week, or freeze for a month. In both instances, add a paper towel to the inside of the container to stop donuts from getting soggy.
Shirley Loden
I absolutely love your recipes. My husband and I are on a strict, healthy heart diet. It’s really hard to find good recipes that are truly healthy. I will be trying more of your recipes.
These are so easy to make and very tasty. I made my own oat flour from One Degree Sprouted Oats. I did a few with the powdered sugar, a few with the sugar glaze* and a few with a maple glaze.
I personally don’t think it was necessary to oil the donut pan. I will skip that step next time and see what happens. It kinda gave the bottoms a little wet feeling and they were cooked perfectly. So I flipped them and put them on a cookie sheet and baked them for about 2 minutes.
Just a note: You called it* “vanilla glazed donuts”; so either you left out the vanilla in the glaze or you’re thinking the glaze will pick up the vanilla flavor from the donut.
I really wish there was a way to post a picture.
Dee Dine
Shirley, what a lovely message. I'm so happy you and your husband like the donuts! These are among my favorites too! If it's not too much trouble, you could email me a picture in the future and I'd post it with a reference to your comment in the post, although I understand the donuts might be gone by now! My email is hello@greensmoothiegourmet.com. I like your tips, too, and added them to the post, thank you!