Baked sourdough donuts with cinnamon sugar

These are fluffy, cake-style baked sourdough donuts generously dipped in a cinnamon-sugar coating.

This recipe is for baked sourdough donuts, not fried sourdough donuts. The two are very different but delicious in their own way!

Thisthrow away our dough Donuts are super quick to mix together because the dough doesn’t need to rise. You can bake them straight away or let the dough rise first.

Bird's eye view of baked sourdough donuts

Baked vs Fried Donuts

Baked cinnamon donuts & fried cinnamon donuts share their shape and cinnamon topping, but that’s it.

A fried donut is usually made with yeast bread dough while baked donuts are made with cake batter. Fried donut batter can be cut into shapes, while these baked donuts require a donut pan.

If you don’t have a donut pan, you can use a standard 12-inch muffin pan and use 8 of the muffin cups.

Discard starter

These baked sourdough use donuts Discard the sourdough starter. The starter is there for two reasons.

First, the acid in the starter helps tenderize a donut. Second, the sourdough can allow the dough to ferment for a few hours or overnight first, which can benefit digestibility.

Discard sourdough starter is any starter that you no longer need. It could be a bubbly room temperature appetizer or an unlined appetizer from the fridge.

The type of starter used can play a role in the flavor of the donuts when they are first fermented. A bubbly discarded sourdough can give off a slight yeast flavor if the dough is left to ferment overnight.

A sour and unfed starter from the fridge will not have a very active yeast colony and therefore will not give off that flavor.

Ingredients

For ingredient amounts, see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. For these Baked Sourdough Donuts you will need –

all purpose flour
baking powder
baking powder
Salt
egg
granulated sugar
Vanilla
nutmeg
milk
Discard the sourdough starter.
butter
Cinnamon + granulated sugar for topping

Step by step instructions

The sourdough donut dough

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, sourdough starter, sugar, egg, butter, and vanilla and milk until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold until combined, but don’t over mix.

You can now bake the donuts directly or ferment the batter first.

Fermenting Donut Batter

Leave the dough to ferment in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight before baking. This gives the bacteria in the starter time to start breaking down the starch in the flour and can improve digestibility.

Leaving the batter in the fridge overnight will still result in light and fluffy donuts with a good rise.

bake donuts

Grease a donut mold. Spoon the batter into the mold or fill a piping bag with a large nozzle and pipe the batter into the indentations.

Bake the donuts until they are puffy and just lightly golden on the edges. They don’t take long to bake. Let them cool in the shell for 5 minutes before removing them to avoid breaking them. Use a silicone or rubber spatula to run around the edges of the donuts for easier removal.

coating

While the donuts are still warm, brush all over with melted butter, then dip into a bowl of cinnamon sugar and generously coat all sides of the donut.

You can also dip them in the melted butter, but the donuts will soak up a lot of butter in the process.

storage

The donuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, although they will get a bit sticky after day 1 as the cinnamon sugar melts inside the donut.

They can also be frozen without a coating for up to three months. Once thawed, they can be slightly reheated in the microwave and then coated.

If you prefer a different coating, try this one Sourdough with chocolate icing Donuts.

More sourdough recipes