For our Christmas Eve breakfast this year, I made these incredibly delicious high altitude baked gingerbread doughnuts. With molasses and a blend of warm spices, they have all the flavors of gingerbread cookies in a soft, fluffy baked doughnut. While the doughnuts were warm from the oven, I brushed them lightly with butter, and then coated them in sparkling cinnamon sugar for a crunchy finish. You’ll love this easy baked gingerbread doughnuts recipe for a special holiday breakfast! And since they’re so quick to make, you’ll be spending less time in the kitchen, and more time with your loved ones.
Looking for more high altitude gingerbread recipes? Don’t miss this gingerbread sheet cake with powdered sugar snowflakes, decorated gingerbread cookies, and gingerbread maple crumb coffee cake.
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Ingredients and Tools
- Doughnut Pan/s. Standard doughnut pans have six molds or cavities for spooning in the batter. My recipe today makes 12 doughnuts. So if you only have one pan, you can either halve the recipe for a small batch of six doughnuts, or just bake half the batter at a time.
- Sour Cream. The sour cream makes up the majority of the “liquid” in the doughnut batter, and provides moisture, fat and richness. The acidity in the sour cream creates a fluffy, tender texture to the baked doughnuts.
- Eggs. Add structure and richness.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Dark Brown Sugar. Sweetens and moistens the doughnuts.
- Molasses. The molasses, as well as the spices, gives these doughnuts a classic gingerbread flavor. Be sure to use “original” molasses, and not Blackstrap, as Blackstrap molasses are too dark and bitter.
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure, and binds the batter together.
- Baking Soda. Adds lift to leaven the doughnuts.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Spices. A blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger is just delicious in these baked gingerbread doughnuts.
- Unsalted Butter. To get the cinnamon sugar coating to stick, you’ll need to brush the baked doughnuts lightly with melted butter.
- Cinnamon-Sugar. Adds a sweet and spicy crunchy finish.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and spray 2 standard doughnut pans (6 doughnuts each) with non-stick spray. Even if your doughnut pans say they’re non-stick, you have to use non-stick spray or your doughnuts will stick to the pans.
- In a bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, and molasses. Separately, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until combined.
- Spoon the batter into the doughnut pans, dividing it evenly between all 12 molds. Bake the doughnuts for 12 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool the doughnuts for 2 minutes in the pan, and then gently remove them and place them on a cooling rack.
- While the doughnuts are baking, melt the butter and mix up the cinnamon sugar mixture in a bowl for dipping.
- When the doughnuts are cool enough to handle, but still warm, use a pastry brush to lightly brush the doughnuts with the melted butter, then immediately coat them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Set on the cooling rack while you finish coating the rest of the doughnuts.
- Serve warm, or at room temperature. These baked gingerbread doughnuts are best eaten the day they’re made, although they’re still tasty for several days after.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
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High Altitude Baked Gingerbread Doughnuts
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Doughnut Pans
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, loosely packed
- ¼ cup original molasses (not Blackstrap)
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup cinnamon-sugar (1/2 cup granulated sugar + 2 tsp ground cinnamon)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and spray 2 standard doughnut pans (6 doughnuts each) with non-stick spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, and molasses.
- Separately, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until combined.
- Spoon the batter into the doughnut pans, dividing it evenly between all 12 molds. Bake the doughnuts for 12 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool the doughnuts for 2 minutes in the pan, and then gently remove them and place them on a cooling rack.
- While the doughnuts are baking, melt the butter and mix up the cinnamon sugar mixture in a bowl for dipping.
- When the doughnuts are cool enough to handle, but still warm, use a pastry brush to lightly brush the doughnuts with the melted butter, then immediately coat them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Set on the cooling rack while you finish coating the rest of the doughnuts.
- Serve warm, or at room temperature.
Delicious! Thank you for the wonderful recipe. Light and flavorful.
I’m obsessed!!!! And now I’m in the middle of Spring, about to be in a complete and total baking binge because of the hopes and excitement for all of the other recipes. Your page is wonderfully dangerous! Forever thankful for your recipes! I’d like to sub and try new things as well. And play with texture on this one. I’m new at baking and it helps to have a recipe that matches the desired outcome so I can learn how to get different outcomes for different recipes!
Hi, what adjustments would we make for low altitude please? We want to make these delicious donuts!
Thank you.
Please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for various altitudes: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
The flavor is great, I made two mistakes and will definitely try again! 1) I needed to spray more non-stick spray, especially along the top edge and center spot. Most got stuck and that was a bummer, and 2) my pan may be small, it would make 12 plus maybe two muffins?
Will be trying again this week as I want to take to a party so this was a trial run. They do taste wonderful m!
Even “standard” doughnut pans can vary in size – I have two pans that are different brands, and one is smaller than the other, but between the two of them, I do always get 12 doughnuts. Yes, be sure to spray the pans thoroughly!