These easy baked sourdough donuts are a delicious cake donut with vanilla icing, the perfect special treat for a birthday or just a fun weekend. While this recipe is easy and quick, you can long-ferment the batter for more health benefits.
We love homemade donuts. Whether we make sourdough donuts with vanilla glaze, baked apple cider donuts, brioche donuts with vanilla custard filling, or these baked sourdough donuts, they are always an extra special treat that the whole family looks forward to.
These delicious donuts have the softest texture, are baked in the oven for a no-mess experience, and are drizzled with a simple glaze. Serve warm donuts alongside ground beef sausage and cottage cheese scrambled eggs for the most decadent weekend breakfast.
Key Takeaways: Baked Sourdough Donuts
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Bake Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Servings: 12 donuts
- Cook Method: Baked in a donut pan in the oven.
- Flavor & Texture: These feature a soft, tender crumb with a lovely vanilla flavor.
- Difficulty: Easy. Whip these up in under an hour for a simple breakfast or treat.
- Why this Recipe? This recipe is simple to make and leaves you with the most craveable homemade treat.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Super fast – This recipe takes just a few minutes to mix and bake since we are using sourdough starter discard to make these donuts.
Delicious – These cake-like donuts are soft and chewy with a sweet vanilla glaze.
Special treat – My kids love these for birthdays, even over a sourdough vanilla cake.
Ingredients
Butter – You could also substitute butter with a neutral oil (coconut or avocado oil) for a dairy-free version.
Vanilla extract – Homemade vanilla extract is the perfect way to elevate any baked good.
Sourdough discard – This recipe is a great way to use up extra sourdough discard. If you only have an active sourdough starter, that will work as well. Learn how to make your own sourdough starter here.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Topping Ideas
- Use the easy vanilla glaze in the recipe card, or add some cocoa powder for a chocolate version.
- Add a pop of flavor with my simple orange icing glaze.
- Coat in a cinnamon-sugar mix – I recommend tossing them in the sugar when they are still warm so it sticks.
- A dusting of powdered sugar.
- For fall, use my caramel glaze from my apple cake with caramel glaze recipe.
- Plain – They do have a lovely sweetness about them without any extra frosting.
How To Make Sourdough Baked Donuts
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, grease your donut pan. Melt the butter and set aside. Stir together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. In a separate medium bowl, mix melted butter, egg, sourdough starter, and water.
Step 2: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Make sure you are scraping the sides of the bowl as you mix. Be careful not to overmix; you don’t want tough donuts.
Step 3: Scoop the batter into a piping bag or zip-lock bag and clip the corner about 1/4-1/2 inch wide. Squeeze the batter into each donut well. This should make 12 regular sized donuts.
Step 4: Place filled pans in the preheated oven and bake for 15-17 minutes. The top of the donuts will not get very golden, making you question if they are truly done, but they should be. If you gently press the donut, it should spring back a bit, and the bottoms will be golden. Be careful not to overbake.
Step 5: Pop donuts out of the pan and place on a wire rack to cool. Start creating the glaze once the donuts have pretty much cooled. Otherwise, the glaze may start to harden and dunking will be challenging.
Step 6: In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk or cream.
Step 7: Gently place the donuts in the glaze on one side, pick up and place the unglazed side down on a cooling rack.
Step 8: Sprinkle some sprinkles on top if desired. Enjoy!
Long-Fermented Sourdough Baked Donuts
For sourdough discard recipes, I like to long-ferment the batter for more health benefits.
To long-ferment the sourdough donut batter, stir together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together melted butter, sourdough starter, and water. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
Cover with a tight lid or plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm place for 8-24 hours.
After fermentation, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer, then add baking powder and eggs. Mix on medium speed until completely combined.
Continue with steps 3 through 8.
Lisa’s Expert Tips
- To prevent dense donuts and get a nice and light texture, I suggest pouring the flour (or using a spoon to scoop) into the measuring cup and then leveling it off, rather than scooping the flour right out of the bag.
- Place the batter in a pastry bag or zip-lock bag to easily squeeze into a donut pan.
- Don’t have a donut pan? You can also use a muffin tin and add a small ball of aluminum foil in the middle.
- The tops of the donuts will not get very golden brown, making you question if they are truly done, but they probably are. If you gently press the donut, it should spring back a bit, and the bottoms will be golden. Be careful not to overbake.
- Don’t overfill the pan. There should be enough batter to perfectly fill a 12-donut pan.
Baked Sourdough Donuts FAQs
Yes! This baked version of my fried sourdough donuts cooks up in a donut pan. Baked donuts are much quicker, easier, and less messy than fried. For a fall version, try my baked apple cider donuts.
They are a naturally leavened (sourdough) donut that typically contains a cream or jelly filling.
Place in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 days. They can also be kept at room temperature for 1-2 days.
More Sweet Recipes from the Farmhouse
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Baked Sourdough Donuts
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, 280 grams
- ¾ cup sugar, 144 grams
- ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 gram
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ cup butter, melted, 57 grams
- 1 ½ teaspoons homemade vanilla extract, or storebought, 8 grams
- ½ cup sourdough discard, 125 grams
- ¾ cup water or milk, 177 grams
- 1 large egg
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ½ tablespoons Milk or cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, grease your donut pan.
- Melt the butter and set aside.
- Stir together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
- In a separate medium bowl, mix melted butter, egg, sourdough starter, and water.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
- Scoop the batter into a piping bag or zip-lock bag and clip the corner about 1/4-1/2 inch wide.
- Squeeze the batter into each donut well.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for 15-17 minutes.
- Pop donuts out of the pan and place on a wire rack to cool.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk or cream.
- Gently place the donuts in the glaze on one side, pick up and place the unglazed side down on a cooling rack.
- Sprinkle some sprinkles on top if desired.
Notes
- To prevent dense donuts and get a nice and light texture, I suggest pouring the flour (or using a spoon to scoop) into the measuring cup and then leveling it off. Rather than scooping the flour right out of the bag.
- Place the batter in a pastry bag or zip-lock bag to easily pour into a donut pan.
- Don’t have a donut pan? You can also use a muffin tin and add a small ball of aluminum foil in the middle.
- The tops of the donuts will not get very golden, making you question if they are truly done, but they probably are. If you gently press the donut it should spring back a bit and the bottoms will be golden.
- Be careful not to over bake.
- Don’t overfill the pan. There should be enough batter to perfectly fill 12 donuts.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These donuts are delicious! I will definitely be making them again! I used milk in mine.
How much would you ferment longer, and I assume it would thicken the dough?
Ferment longer in the fridge! Up to 3 days.
Just wondering if you use milk or water and which one would produce the best donut? I have tried many of your recipes with excellent results. Thank you
YUM!
So easy and makes delicious donuts!!!!
Hi I love all your recipes!! Can I air fry these?
I’ve not personally tried it, but I am sure you could!
I made them now and they went delicious. I did not have the donuts tray and cooked them in the muffins tray. So fluffy, wow! Thank you.
Can I ferment these for 24-48 hours? I am gluten intolerant and need to ferment the dough to be sure the gluten is gone.
Oh my goodness! I just baked a dozen of these amazing sourdough donuts! I followed your tips and they came out perfect! I’ll take them for the staff tomorrow. Thank you so much!
How do I tweak to add fruit or pumpkin, Ide like to make pumpkin doughnuts for halloween.
These donuts are absolutely amazing. The recipe is so easy to follow and make adaptations to. It’s what of my best selling items. I have to make 2 dozen at a time for my family and they won’t even make it to the next day!