These baked maple glazed donuts are spiced cakey-style donuts with a thick and rich maple icing on top. This is my go-to baked donut recipe and I love adding different flavors, spices, and glazes. Try my baked cinnamon sugar donuts next!
Have you ever considered adding a donut pan to your collection of baking pans? They’re an inexpensive, but very fun tool if you’re looking to bake something different. I have plenty of donut recipes— most of which are baked– so you’ll always have an excuse to whip that donut pan out. These maple glazed donuts are definitely a favorite. Start here!
Why You’ll Love These Baked Donuts:
- No electric mixer required
- Baked, not fried
- Soft, dense, and cakey (more like a muffin than a fried donut)
- Spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
- Sweetened with brown sugar
- Generously dunked in maple icing
- Comfort food at its finest
Two Parts to Baked Maple Glazed Donuts
- Donuts: We’re using my standard baked donut recipe as the base. It’s what I use for my baked cinnamon sugar donuts, crumb cake donuts (doubled for that recipe), chocolate frosted donuts, and lemon poppy seed donuts. It’s a very thick batter that produces tight-crumbed, cakey donuts. There’s a small handful of very basic ingredients required like flour, egg, leaveners, and milk. I like to add a little Greek yogurt to the donut batter for a moisture punch (sour cream works too) and prefer sweetening them with brown sugar. Add cinnamon as well as a little nutmeg and ground clove. After you mix this donut batter together, the aroma alone will remind you of a donut shop– it’s those spices!
- Maple Icing: We’re using the same maple icing as my maple bacon doughnuts, only slightly scaled down. It’s creamy and sweet, but thickens and sets quickly. If desired for a flavor punch, add a little maple extract. You can find maple extract in the baking aisle near the vanilla extract.
Quick Overview: How to Make Maple Glazed Donuts
Our mixers can take the morning off for this recipe– you don’t need one here!
- Make the donut batter. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Whisk to combine both. It’s that easy.
- Fill the donut cavities. Transferring donut batter into the donut pan can be tricky, so I always suggest using a zipped-top bag to pipe the batter. (You can see me doing this in my pumpkin donuts post.) Just spoon the batter into a large zipped-top bag, trim off a bottom corner, and squeeze the batter into the pan. The donut batter is thicker than you’d expect, so it pipes pretty neatly.
- Bake. They bake up VERY quickly!
- Make the icing. I usually do this as the donuts bake. Warm butter and maple syrup together, then add confectioners’ sugar, maple extract, and salt to taste.
- Dip into icing. Dip the warm donuts into the icing. Place on a cooling rack so the excess icing drips down. And don’t be afraid to do a double dip! I always double or even triple dip my strawberry donuts, too.
More Donut Recipes
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Maple Glazed Donuts
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 donuts
- Category: Donuts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These baked maple glazed donuts are spiced cakey-style donuts with a thick and rich maple glaze on top. Baked, not fried– and you don’t need a mixer!
Ingredients
Spice Donuts
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (65g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60g) yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Maple Icing
- 2 Tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup (80ml) pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (112g) sifted confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon maple extract (optional, but recommended)
- pinch of salt, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray donut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Make the donuts: Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the melted butter, egg, brown sugar, milk, yogurt, and vanilla together until completely combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into the donut cavities—I highly recommend using a large zipped-top bag for ease. Cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup, filling about halfway. (If you only have 1 donut pan that bakes less than 8 donuts, keep the remaining batter in the bowl at room temperature until you can bake the next batch.)
- Bake for 10-11 minutes or until the edges and tops are lightly browned. Gently poke a donut with your finger. If it bounces bake, the donuts are done. Allow donuts to cool for a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack set on a large piece of parchment paper. Bake the remaining donut batter and once baked, transfer to the wire rack.
- Make the icing: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and maple syrup together, whisking occasionally. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and whisk in the sifted confectioners’ sugar and maple extract. Taste. Add a pinch of salt if desired. Cool for 2-3 minutes, then dip each donut into the icing. The icing quickly thickens, so feel free to place it back over heat as you dip. Place dipped donuts back onto cooling rack as excess icing drips down. Feel free to double dip them (I usually do!).
- Donuts are best served immediately. Leftovers keep well covered tightly at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 2 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Freeze the baked donuts for up to 3 months, with or without icing. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then warm up to your liking in the microwave. Dip into icing after thawing if you froze them plain.
- Special Tool (affiliate link): Donut Pan
- No Donut Pan? Make 8-10 donut muffins in your standard 12-cup muffin pan. Line with cupcake liners or grease with nonstick spray. Fill each 2/3 full with donut batter. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Milk & Yogurt: Whole milk is best, but you can use lower fat or even nondairy milk in a pinch– the donuts won’t taste as moist or rich. I recommend Greek yogurt or full-fat sour cream. I usually use low fat Greek yogurt, which is pretty thick. Regular low fat (or full fat) yogurt works too. If you’d like to use buttermilk, substitute it for both the milk and sour cream (1/2 cup/120ml total). All cold ingredients should be brought to room temperature before using, otherwise the butter will solidify.
- Maple Syrup: For the richest flavor, pure maple syrup is best.
Keywords: maple glazed donuts
These donuts are delicious! I love the clove with cinnamon; I even left out the nutmeg so the clove would shine. I did make just half the glaze and that was plenty for all 8 donuts. Yummy, thank you!
★★★★★
Just made this for my family of 5 – I stretched the dough to make 10 smaller donuts instead of 8 to avoid fighting over the extra 3 and they turned out perfectly! So cute and delicious! Easy to make…will do again!
These donuts and icing are delicious!! My first time making baked donuts and I’m amazed at how easy and delicious they can be! Love sallysbakingaddiction recipes!!
★★★★★
Thank you for letting us know about the room temperature ingredients. I never know if baked things need to be room temperature or not. These were delicious.
Love these, I left out the cloves but that glaze is sooo good
★★★★★
Hi! Can you make the banter ahead and refrigerate? Thank you
Hi Briana, we don’t recommend it. Once the batter is mixed, the leaveners are activated and its best to bake the batter right away. See recipe notes for make ahead/freezing instructions.
We haven’t tested that – please let us know if you do!
do you have any issues with your maple glaze setting and then the next day it is runny?? if so what do you recommend??
Hi Sherri, how are you storing the donuts? If it’s being stored in a warm place, that might be contributing to the running glaze the next day. You can also use a bit more confectioners’ sugar next time to help thicken the glaze even more.
These donuts may be the best thing I have ever made! I did not have cloves or nutmeg so I substituted those for additional cinnamon and they came out great! An amazing recipe.
★★★★★
Hi Sally!
I am a huge fan of the site and your recipes. I had a client ask me for something yummy this week and since Fall is approaching, I was browsing through your site for ideas. I stumbled upon this recipe and an idea struck me.
I increased the butter 2 fold, changed the nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon, and increased the sour cream to 1/3. My client always needs gluten free, so I substituted Cup4Cup Gluten Free All Purpose Flower. I then piped them into a 3 3/4″ mini bundt pan and cooked them for 20 minutes. After they cooked and cooled, I drizzled that amazing maple icing over them. They are some of the best gluten free desserts I have ever made. They stay super moist and were a huge hit with the crowd, and that includes folks who are gluten sensitive.
Just thought I would share the recipe with you since you have shared so very many with me!
★★★★★
That was suppose to be “those who aren’t gluten sensitive.
★★★★★
Thank you for sharing your gluten free version, Jill – so glad they were a hit!
The icing was fabulous but the cloves overpowered the donuts themselves. I only used 1/4 tsp. I’ll leave out if I make them again. Also, only made six. Went over ingredients to see if I missed something but, no. Weird because the six were not too big…..
★★★
Hi! I’m curious to see if you’ve ever tried this recipe with cake flour? Most baked recipes I’ve seen and had luck with in the past have specified cake flour and I just wanted to see your thoughts on whether it helps keep the donuts a little lighter in density
Hi Jon, we haven’t tested it but fear cake flour would make these light, fluffy baked donuts too light. But let us know if you give it a try!
Your recipe looks very appealing and I plan to try it. I notice, however, that it yields 8 donuts but from what I have found most available donut pans are for six donuts. Can I do 1-1/2 recipes to do 12 donuts? If so, can I just do 1-1/2 each of the ingredients but use 2 eggs? Also, some recipes suggest placing a second donut pan over the top and clamping them together to allow the dough to rise in the shape of a donut during baking. What are your thoughts?
Hi Bruce, you can 1.5x this recipe to yield 12 (just be cautious not to over mix the batter). We’d recommend using 1.5 eggs — our general rule for halving an egg is to crack it open, beat the yolk and white together with a fork, measure the volume (should be a few Tbsp), then use half. We’ve never tried clamping the donut pans together. Using just the one seems to hold the donut shape just fine!
This recipe turned out doughnuts that were deliciously spiced and maple-y. Everyone in the family greatly enjoyed them. Piping the dough into the molds was really easy- my 10 year old did it!
★★★★★
These turned out amazing!!! Spongie and fluffy donuts with a delish and rich maple glaze. My boys loved them!!!
★★★★★
Hi Sally,
I’ve tried many of your recipes( including this one) and they all have been very good! Thank you!
I do a lot of experimenting swapping out ingredients since my family can’t have dairy and a few other things.
I wanted to let you know and others that may have a dairy allergy that I’ve been able to swap out sour cream and/ or yogurt for mayo and it has worked like a charm every time and no you can’t taste the mayo 🙂
★★★★★
The glaze was a little thick but they were pretty good! I baked them in a mini muffin pan so they were more of a glazed muffin, but still yummy nevertheless
★★★★
Hi Menam, for next time, you can try adding a bit more liquid (or less confectioners’ sugar) to your glaze to help thin it out a bit. We’re glad you enjoyed this one!
This is the best donut recipe I have found. Delicious and absolutely perfect consistency. It’s a big hit in my household – please share a recipe for blueberry cake donuts!
★★★★★
Sally,
Our family had made several of your other donut recipes and today we decided to try these per my husbands request. I would describe these donuts as maple bar meets spice cake minus the grease. They are phenomenal. This recipe will be added to our Sally recipe rotation! Thank you!
★★★★★
I just made these. First time making donuts. They are delicious! They taste like fall. Great way to start the morning. My husband loved them. I loved them. Super easy. Hardest part is getting equal amounts into the donut cups, but no biggie. I just need more practice. I highly recommend these.
★★★★★
So delicious! Made them this fall morning and they were such a treat.
★★★★★
Do you use amber or dark maple syrup? I’m buying the I ingredients to make them and cake across so many different types!
Hi Esme, Any variety of pure maple syrup is great, from golden to dark amber. We typically use grade B maple syrup for baking and as a condiment. Use what you love best!
I just finished making a batch of these and just, wow! They are absolutely delicious and came out perfect. I messed up on one step and whisked the brown sugar in with the dry ingredients, but they still came out great. I’ll definitely be making these again in the future.
★★★★★
These are so good. I added crumbled bacon on top of the glaze to balance out the sweetness.
★★★★★