High Altitude Baked Maple Glazed Donuts

A quick and easy high altitude recipe for baked maple glazed donuts. The donuts are fluffy, cakey and full of maple flavor. For a sweet finish, dip them in brown butter maple glaze, or just give them a simple coating of sugar. These are perfect for a weekend breakfast on a cool fall morning!

You might also love these high altitude recipes for baked vanilla cake doughnuts, baked gingerbread doughnuts, baked pumpkin doughnuts and baked apple cider doughnuts.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Easier than Fried Doughnuts. If you’ve ever fried yeast doughnuts, then you know that it can be a bit of a process with making and rising the dough, rolling and cutting doughnuts, and finally frying them in boiling hot oil. But with baked doughnuts, you only need to mix up a simple cake batter, fill a doughnut pan, and put them in the oven to bake.

Standard Pantry Ingredients. Today’s recipe for baked maple glazed donuts uses basic ingredients from your refrigerator and pantry that you likely have on hand.

Quick and Easy to Make. The cake batter comes together so fast, and the doughnuts bake in just a few minutes. Then just make a simple icing to dip the doughnuts in, and breakfast is served!

Perfect For Fall. On a cool, crisp fall day with crunchy leaves falling and hot coffee brewing, what could be better for breakfast than easy baked doughnuts with maple icing?

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Donuts

• Maple Syrup. For the best flavor and texture in these baked maple donuts, use a good quality pure maple syrup, not “pancake syrup”, which is just artificially flavored high fructose corn syrup.
• Light Brown Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture.
• Egg. Gives the cake batter structure.
• Sour Cream + Milk + Butter. These ingredients contain fat, moisture and acidity, to make a more tender, moist, flavorful donut.
• Flour. All-purpose flour adds structure and strength.
• Baking Powder. Leavening agent, so the donuts rise as they bake.
• Spices. A pinch of cardamom enhances all the flavors, and salt balances the sweetness. Vanilla extract makes everything nicer, and a little maple extract deepens the maple flavor.

Glaze

• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the icing.
• Meringue Powder. Stabilizes the icing, and also helps it to “set” so that it doesn’t get runny and sticky on the leftover donuts.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Butter. The butter adds richness and a creamy texture, and by browning it first, you get a richer, deeper, nuttier flavor that’s just delicious.
• Maple Syrup. More maple flavor.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.

Instructions

Donuts

• Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Thoroughly spray your donut pans with non stick baking spray.
• In a bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, brown sugar, egg, sour cream, milk, melted butter, vanilla and maple extracts, until well combined.

• Separately, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until combined.

TIP: The batter thickens a little as it sits, and can be difficult to use a spoon to spread it into the pans. Piping it in is much quicker and easier.

• To easily fill the doughnut pans, spoon the batter into a piping bag, snip off the end, and pipe the batter into the pans, filling them no more than half full.
• Bake the doughnuts until risen and the tops spring back when gently touched. This will take about 8 minutes using the featured doughnut pan, which is a little smaller than a standard size. With a mini doughnut pan, the donuts may need just 6-8 minutes to bake. With a standard sized doughnut pan, they’ll need about 10-12 minutes to bake.

• Cool the donuts in the pan for 2 minutes, then gently turn the pan over onto a cooling rack, letting the donuts fall out onto the rack.
• Spray the pan again with non stick baking spray, refill with the remaining batter, and bake the rest of the donuts. Cool the donuts completely before dipping in the glaze.

TIP: If you don’t want to make the glaze, simply dip the cooled donuts in granulated sugar until covered in sugar. This looks especially pretty on the fluted donuts.

Glaze

• In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt. Set aside.
• In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for several minutes, until a layer of foam forms on top and nutty golden brown milk solids form at the bottom of the pan. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and use a spatula to scrape up the golden bits.

• Pour the hot browned butter into the powdered sugar mixture, and add the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until thick and smooth. Note: If the icing seems too thick, you can add a little milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if you prefer a thinner glaze. I did not add any milk to mine, though.

• Take the cooled donuts and dip them into the icing, or just use a spoon to spread it on top. Since the icing is thick, I spread it out just a little with a small icing spatula after dipping the donuts.
• Set the donuts back on the cooling rack and let them sit until the icing is set, which will just take a few minutes.

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!

Frequently Asked Questions

What donut pan did you use?

I used this donut pan, which features three different molded designs. This pan makes fairly small donuts, so I was able to get 2 dozen baked maple glazed donuts. They’re not quite “mini” size, though, and not as big as a standard sized donut. How many donuts you get will totally depend on the size of the molds in your pans.

Can I make the icing without the meringue powder?

Yes, you can, but the icing might be stickier and not set as well. I recommend using the meringue powder. It has many uses in icings, glazes and buttercreams, and has a long shelf life.

Where can I find maple extract, and can I leave it out?

Many grocery stores will carry maple extract, but you can leave it out. The maple flavor won’t be quite as strong, though, as the extract has a more concentrated flavor than maple syrup, and just gives the donuts an extra boost of maple flavor.

How long do these donuts stay fresh?

Donuts are always best the day they’re made, but they will stay soft for up to 3 days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

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