How to Make Fluffy Baked Apple Cinnamon Donuts

These delicious sugar-baked apple cinnamon donuts are soft and pillowy inside and sweet and crunchy outside. They are made with applesauce and go perfectly with your morning cup of coffee or fresh out of the oven with a warm cup of tea.

These apple donuts are easy to make, delicious, and homemade. They are soft and fluffy and coated with a crunchy glaze of cinnamon and sugar. They make a tasty treat given that they are baked rather than fried in oil.

Important tools for making baked donuts

When making these flavorful donuts, a few factors are fairly essential.  Unless you are frying them in oil, a donut baking pan is a necessity for baking these donuts.

A sizable zip-lock bag, when attempting to transfer the apple donut batter into the donut baking pan, these bags make the process simple.

How to make baked donuts

Grease a donut pan, preheat the oven, grate the apple then prepare the batter.

Fill a large ziplock bag with the apple donut batter, seal it, and let the air out before using. Cut a little piece of the bag's corner off.

Fill the donut hole pan's cavities with a light squeeze of batter and bake for 12-14 minutes.

Melt the butter in one bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon in another while the donuts bake.

Remove donuts from the pan, brush with melted butter, and coat with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Tips for making baked donuts

Make the cinnamon sugar topping ahead of time; simply combine the two ingredients in a bowl, cover, and keep at room temp until ready to use.

Wash, dry, and peel your apple ahead of time and submerge the entire apple in a bowl of water to prevent it from oxidizing/browning. When ready, pat dry the peeled apple and grate.

The dry flour mixture can be whisked together in advance then covered and stored at room temp until needed.

Do not dip donuts in the cinnamon sugar mixture until ready to serve because the fresh coating helps provide a slightly crisp outer texture when eaten right away.

Ingredients

½ cups apple - peeled, cored, and grated

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup unsweetened apple sauce

For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating

1 cup granulated sugar

1½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoon salted butter, melted

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon then set aside the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, granulated sugar, buttermilk, nutmeg, and applesauce until combined.

Using a wooden spoon, combine the egg mixture, dry ingredients, and grated apple to create the batter.

Spoon batter into a large ziplock bag then seal and snip the corner off one end.

Pour batter into the doughnut pan that has been coated with baking spray to prevent sticking. Each cavity should be 2/3 to 3/4 full with the batter.

Bake at 375 for 12 to 14 minutes, until the tops of donuts spring back slightly when touched.  Let them cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.

For the outside coating, combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.  Using a pastry brush, cover each donut with a light coating of applesauce, or alternatively, dip quickly into melted butter.

Next dip into cinnamon sugar and toss to coat.  Let cool completely before eating, if possible.  A second dip into the cinnamon sugar creates an extra crunchy coating.

Serve and enjoy. Best enjoyed when warm.

Conclusion

These cinnamon apple baked donuts are best eaten fresh, if you want the slightly warm and fresh baked texture underneath that crisp cinnamon-sugar coating.