Homemade baked apple cinnamon donuts made gluten free! These donuts are light and fluffy while baked in the oven for a healthier treat.

Free from: wheat, gluten, fish, shellfish, soy, sesame, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, corn, celery, and more

stack of 3 apple cinnamon donuts on white parchment paper with more donuts and apple cider in the background

These apple cinnamon donuts are a perfect addition to any fall and winter holiday menu, or enjoy them anytime you feel like a cozy comforting dessert! They would pair nicely with my apple cider dressing or minestrone soup for the ultimate in comfort food.

I love these donuts so much. They taste just like you got them fresh from an apple orchard. Lighter and fluffier than my smore’s donuts or chocolate donuts, these donuts are perfect with a mug of apple cider or hot chocolate.

Ingredients

You only need a few simple ingredients to make these apple donuts!

First, you need a good apple juice or apple cider. Either will work for this recipe. Apple cider will produce a stronger flavor than apple juice. However, there is no difference in making them if you use one or the other.

A note about cinnamon. I LOVE using Saigon cinnamon in all of my baking and cooking. The flavor is more intense in every way imaginable! Just keep in mind if you are not using Saigon cinnamon, you may need to add a little more cinnamon to the batter to get a good flavor to make up for the less intense flavor.

Next, you want to make sure you have a good gluten free flour. I recommend King Arthur Measure for Measure as I think it is the best all around gluten free flour out there. Use my own homemade gluten free flour for a nightshade free flour blend!

While this recipe should work with other gluten free flour blends, I have not tried them so other ingredients like liquids or baking powder may need to be adjusted to get similar results.

Instructions

First, combine the butter and sugar in your stand mixer or a large bowl with a hand mixer. Mix these up until they are light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes on medium-high speed.

Next, add the eggs one at a time to the batter. You want to make sure they are room temperature eggs and slowly incorporate them so the batter doesn’t curdle. If it does curdle, don’t worry. Just keep going and when you add the flour things will sort themselves out.

After the eggs are incorporated, add the vanilla extract.

mixing butter and sugar together in silver bowl

mixing eggs into the donut batter in a silver bowl

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Now add the apple cider or apple juice (whichever you are using!) to the batter. If the juice is too cold, again the batter may curdle here. Don’t worry and just keep going.

Next add the flour mixture. Here is where things will work out if they have gotten curdled. Give this a good mix on medium-high speed for 30 seconds and you’re done!

Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl!

finished batter for donuts in the silver bowl

using a piping bag to transfer donut batter to donut pan

Transfer batter to a piping bag and cut a hole in the end. Fill your donut pans ¾ of the way with batter. If you don’t have a piping bag, either a plastic bag or 2 spoons will also work.

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the donuts are puffed up and golden brown in color.

Coating the Donuts

When they are done, remove them from the oven and while they are still hot, coat them in cinnamon sugar! This needs to be done right away while they are still hot.

If you don’t want to handle hot donuts, another technique is to let them cool for a few minutes. Then dip the donuts in melted butter before coating them in cinnamon sugar.

coating the baked donuts in cinnamon sugar

While the butter results in a little more fat, that’s okay because they are baked donuts! Plus, it gives them an almost identical flavor to fried donuts. That’s the best of both worlds!

Allergy Substitutions

To make these dairy free, replace the butter with the plant-based butter of your choice. My favorite is the soy free baking butter sticks from Earth Balance. I like the flavor of it, plus it is dairy, nut, and soy free!

Equipment

To make these donuts, you will need a good donut baking pan. These donuts can’t be rolled out and cut since the batter is more cakelike. Make sure your pan has a raised center that reaches as tall as the sides of the pan. This way your donuts won’t close over as they bake up.

The donut pan that I use is no longer available, but a great dupe is this one from Wilton.

I think a darker pan will help bake up gluten free donuts better than a lighter colored one so don’t worry about the darkness of the pan.

dozen apple cinnamon donuts coated in sugar on a white parchment paper

How to Store

Store these donuts on the countertop if you did not coat them in butter and in the fridge if you did coat them in butter. Either way, they will keep for about 5 days.

Other recipes you’ll love

Apple cupcakes, apple dressing, apple pie, vanilla scones

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