Glazed Baked Orange Donuts

These fluffy baked orange donuts with a sweet citrus glaze are perfect morning treats. Tender cake donuts flavored with fresh orange zest, vanilla, almond, and tangy buttermilk. Bake until lightly golden brown, then dip the donuts in a vanilla orange glaze and serve with a hot cup of coffee.

This is my favorite homemade baked donuts recipe! The mixture of cake flour, all purpose flour and oil give these donuts a moist yet light cakey texture. Plus the bright citrus pop from the orange zest and orange juice, along with the orange vanilla glaze is so tasty. Quick to make without the fuss of a traditional fried donut in hot oil, you’ll be eating donuts for breakfast in less than an hour.

Key Ingredients & Test Notes

This recipe uses simple ingredients with a mixture of both all purpose flour and cake flour to create a lovely cake-like donut texture. You’ll need fresh oranges, vanilla extract or a vanilla bean, almond extract, and buttermilk. Since we’re baking and not frying, make sure you have one or two donut baking pans.

• Fresh Orange Zest and Orange Juice: Double bright citrus taste in the form of both zest and juice in the donut batter and the vanilla orange glaze.
• Granulated Sugar: Not just for sweetness, the sugar blended with the orange zest creates a magical orange sugar to deliver extra citrus notes.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla enhances almost every baking recipe and will definitely add richness to the donuts and the orange glaze. I recommend using either 100% pure vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste or beans scraped from a whole vanilla bean for the best quality flavor.
• Almond Extract: A little goes a long way to enhancing the orange notes with a subtle taste of almond.
• Flour: All purpose flour has a higher protein percentage than cake flour, so instead of using just one, I mixed them for not too soft and not too dense donut structure. If you aren’t able to use both, I suggest using just all purpose flour instead.
• Buttermilk: The acidity in full fat buttermilk acts as a tenderiser to the donut texture making it light and soft with a slightly tangy profile.
• Unsalted Butter: Melted butter is going to enrich the donut batter.
• Sunflower Oil: To ensure a moist donut I have split the fat into both butter for flavor and sunflower oil for a tender crumb.

Helpful Tips

Don’t be intimidated if you’ve never made donuts before, baked donuts are just like making muffins and way easier than using yeast doughs. All you need to do is mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then combine them into a batter. The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for the donuts to cool so you can dip them in the glaze and eat.

• Prep your donut pan with non stick baking spray to prevent the donuts from getting stuck. I prefer to use the ones that have added flour in an addition to the nonstick cooking spray.
• Don’t skip working the orange zest into the granulated sugar. The sugar absorbs the oils and really enhances the orange flavor.
• Use a pastry piping bag is the easiest way to transfer the batter into the donut cavities.
• Dip cooled donuts into the glaze as warm donuts will cause the glaze to thin and run off the tops.
• To make thicker glaze, stir in another 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. To make thinner glaze add another teaspoon of milk at a time until you like the consistency.
• Try swapping out the orange zest and juice to make lemon donuts using lemon zest and fresh lemon juice instead.
• Substitutions that can be used in place of buttermilk are sour cream and greek yogurt for equal tanginess.

Leftovers & Storage

• Room Temp: Store glazed donuts in an airtight container for about 3 days. Line the container with paper towels to absorb any excess moisture.
• Freeze unglazed: Let them cool completely on a cooling rack, then store in a freezer-safe container or plastic freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw to room temperature before glazing the tops of the donuts.

★★★★★ Please leave a star rating and review below if you make this recipe! THANK YOU!!