You can whip up these gluten-free vanilla donuts in 30 minutes with one bowl—no mixer required! With a light, tender crumb and delicious vanilla flavor, these donuts are one of our all-time favorite treats.
I especially love making these gluten-free donuts for birthday mornings! They’re delicious anytime! Keep reading for all the tips and tricks you need to make perfect and versatile gluten-free donuts.
Did you know you can bake delicious homemade, gluten-free donuts any day of the week? It’s true!
This GF baked donut recipe is one you’ll turn to again and again. It’s quick, easy, made from simple ingredients, and comes together in one bowl. You don’t need a mixer, and the whole recipe can be made in about 30 minutes.
(PS – you also might like these fried gluten-free donuts, gluten-free pumpkin donuts with brown sugar glaze or these gluten-free apple cider donuts!)
I love making this gluten-free baked donut recipe for my kids’ birthdays, parties, days off of school, and holidays. It’s an ideal gluten-free recipe when you need to accommodate food allergies or kids with Celiac’s disease.
Best of all, you can customize the frosting/icing and toppings any way you’d like. If you want to be a super fun parent, you can even create a “donut bar” and let kids add their own toppings, like a rich chocolate glaze, coconut sugar, etc.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- Light and tender crumb
- Easy recipe (takes about 30 mins!)
- Can be customized
- Great for birthdays, weekends, or holidays
- Easily made dairy-free!
For more breakfast favorites, you also might like these recipes for gluten-free pancakes, gluten-free waffles and gluten-free scones.
You also might like these recipes for gluten-free banana bread, gluten-free muffins, and gluten-free pound cake.
Want coffee with your donuts? You also might like these articles on is coffee gluten-free and Starbucks gluten-free.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this gluten free donuts recipe:
- Gluten-free flour: I like to use a high quality gluten-free 1:1 baking flour like King Arthur Flour in my baked goods. It’s important to use a high-quality gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum for best results.
- Milk of choice: Any milk will work in this recipe, including whole milk, skim milk, oat milk, or soy milk. I like to use unsweetened almond milk!
- Sugar: Granulated white sugar is essential to any donut batter! I use and recommend Domino sugar.
- Oil: Any kind of oil will work for this recipe. I usually use vegetable oil or coconut oil.
- Apple cider vinegar: Apple cider vinegar helps the donuts to rise and lightens the crumb.
- Baking powder: Baking powder helps the batter rise and produce a light crumb.
- Nutmeg: I love the unique spice a bit of nutmeg adds to this recipe. Everyone will be wondering what makes them extra delicious!
- Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar is mixed with milk and vanilla to make a delicious icing.
- Vanilla: Vanilla adds flavor to the donut icing. You could also use almond extract, coconut extract, etc.
How to Make Gluten-Free Baked Donuts
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Lightly grease two 6-cavity donut pans with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until well combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk until evenly combined.
- Pour the thick donut batter into a large Ziplock bag or piping bag. Cut a 1-inch hole in the corner of the bag and pipe the donut batter into the prepared doughnut pan.
- Bake the gluten-free doughnuts for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a cooling rack. Let the homemade donuts cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before glazing.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. You want the glaze to be thick enough that it coats the donut without running off the top/sides too quickly. Adjust the glaze with more powdered sugar to thicken it or more milk to thin as desired.
- Dip the gluten free doughnuts in the vanilla glaze or sugar coating and top with sprinkles (if using.) Enjoy your homemade gluten free donuts!
Baked Donut Variations
Feel free to get creative with the donut frosting/icing and toppings with this gluten-free baked donut recipe. You could make a variety of vanilla donuts, chocolate donuts, strawberry donuts, etc!
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Almond Joy donuts: Chocolate glaze flavored with almond extract, coconut shreds, and sliced almonds.
- Coconut donuts: Icing flavored with coconut extract and coconut shreds.
- Lemon donuts: Icing flavored with lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Orange donuts: Icing flavored with orange juice and orange zest.
- Strawberry donuts: Glaze flavored with strawberry jam.
- Apple cider donuts: Dip the donuts in apple cider when hot, then roll in cinnamon sugar.
- Cinnamon sugar donuts: Roll donuts in cinnamon sugar mixture when hot.
- Chocolate donuts: Chocolate glaze or frosting.
- Maple donuts: Frosting flavored with maple extract.
- Powdered sugar donuts: Roll donuts in powdered sugar when hot.
- Colored donuts: Add your favorite food coloring to the glaze, then add sprinkles.
- Raspberry donuts: Icing flavored with raspberry jam.
Storage Instructions
These donuts taste best the day they are made. (And they will probably disappear quickly, anyway!) But if you’d like to save the leftovers, be sure to store them in an airtight container.
Expert Tips & Tricks
- I highly recommend these Wilton non-stick donut pans—they work amazingly well!
- I find it easiest to use a large Ziplock bag to pipe the batter into the donut pan.
- Preheating the oven to 425 degrees is key. The hot oven helps the donuts to rise and create an extra-light, fluffy crumb.
More Gluten-Free Recipes
I hope you love this recipe as much as we do! If you try these gluten-free baked donuts, be sure to leave me a comment/rating below. I’d love to hear from you!
Gluten-Free Baked Cake Donuts
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups gluten-free 1:1 baking flour 240 grams
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar 133 grams
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Wet Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk or milk of choice
- ½ cup oil
For the Glaze:
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar 195 grams
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- sprinkles for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Lightly grease two 6-cavity donut pans with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until well combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk until evenly combined.
- Pour the donut batter into a large ziploc bag. Cut a 1-inch hole in the corner of the bag and pipe the donut batter into the prepared pans.
- Bake the donuts for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a cooling rack. Let the donuts cool for 15 minutes before glazing.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. You want the glaze to be thick enough that it coats the donut without running off the top/sides too quickly. Adjust the glaze with more powdered sugar to thicken it or more milk to thin as desired.
- Dip the donuts in the glaze and top with sprinkles if using. Enjoy!
Notes
- Gluten-free flour: I like to use a high quality gluten-free 1:1 baking flour like King Arthur Flour in my baked goods. It’s important to use a high-quality gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum for best results.
- Milk of choice: Any milk will work in this recipe, including whole milk, skim milk, oat milk, or soy milk. I like to use unsweetened almond milk!
- Oil: Any kind of oil will work for this recipe. I usually use vegetable oil or coconut oil.
- I highly recommend these Wilton non-stick donut pans—they work amazingly well!
- I find it easiest to use a large Ziplock bag to pipe the batter into the donut pan.
- Preheating the oven to 425 degrees is key. The hot oven helps the donuts to rise and create an extra-light, fluffy crumb.
Quick and easy, I was able to make these on my lunch break while working from home! They came out so fluffy and moist, and with endless icing variations, I’ll never be tempted by Dunkin again! I used the vanilla base icing recipe and drizzled half with dark chocolate ganache, then added some raspberry jam to the icing for the second half.
These are amazing! We’ve also tried the pumpkin donuts which were also amazing! Do you have a recipe for chocolate donuts?
Hi Irene, we’re so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe and the pumpkin donuts too! We currently don’t have a chocolate donut recipe, but we’ll keep that in mind! This recipe can be covered in a chocolate glaze or topped with chocolate frosting for a chocolate-twist on the classic donut flavor. Happy baking!
Perfect!
We’re so glad you loved the recipe, Brian! Thank you for your positive review!
So soo good. Will definitely make again. I had two little helpers (ages 4 and 5) and the recipe was easy to follow and tastes amazing.
We’re so glad you and your little helpers love it, Gleendy! Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Happy baking!
This is a great recipe! Has anyone tried to substitute the eggs in this recipe? I was wondering if xanthan gum or a flax egg could work. Thanks!
Hi Madison, we haven’t tried any egg replacers with this recipe. If you decide to give it a try, we would recommend trying flax eggs over xanthan gum as the egg replacer. The 1:1 flour should already have some xanthan gum in it to help with the binding, but additional xanthan gum in place of the eggs won’t help the texture as much as some other egg replacers, like flax. If you decide to try it out, we’d love to hear how it goes!
Easy recipe with ingredients I already had available. We used oat milk and they turned out very fluffy and delicious. Definitely saving this one!
Yay! We’re so happy to hear you enjoyed the donut recipe, Amy! We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us!
This is my go to treat recipe! I make these in my mini muffin pans and get 18 timbits (donut holes if you are not Canadian), baked for 8-10 minutes. My daughter is 5 so being able to give her a smaller version is wonderful. Plus making them in the mini muffin tray also makes them like little cupcakes. We are often having to just bring our own treats places – so no matter what other treat the other kids have we are covered. Even without the icing, they are delightful!
Trying a double batch today to hope some make it to the freezer
Hi Victoria, thank you for such a kind review! We’re so glad you are enjoying the recipe!
Hi, do you think I could add protein to this recipe?
Hi Catherine, we haven’t tried this recipe with protein to say for sure. Protein powder would add to your dry content so the flour/wet ingredients would have to be adjusted to balance it all out. If you decide to give it a try, we’d love to hear how it goes!
Although they look great mine came out horrible. So disappointed. I haven’t had a donut in so long. Terrible after taste (tart/sour). Any ideas what could have happened?
That’s a bummer, Cindy! We’re sorry you had that experience. As long as the ingredients were not expired, the tart aftertaste would most likely come from over-measuring leavening agents, like the baking powder. Also, if you used a different blend of gf flour, sometimes the various blends have different flavor notes that could impact taste. We hope these ideas help!
Cindy, sounds like you may have used baking soda instead of baking powder?
No frosting needed!!!
My family just LOVED these donuts. There was a light crunch on the outside and they got nice and fluffy. I used regular milk and cinnamon instead of almond milk and nutmeg. This is by far my favorite gf donut recipe to date. Thank you!
Super easy and taste delicious!!! Will be making again!
Double recipe for 12?
Hello, this recipe makes 12 donuts. We hope you enjoy the donuts!
Wow – I just made these and they are wonderful! So glad to make something celiac safe and yummy! We used coconut cream for the milk (the thick kind of coconut milk in a can) in the donut and the icing and they turned out great!
Kids thought they were a win too – which is saying something 😉
Yay! We’re so glad all loved the donuts! Thank you for sharing your experience and tips with us.
So easy, recipe is light and delicious. The donuts rise very nicely. Simple recipe so can make on a whim as all the ingredients are staples. A new favourite!
I know have silicone doughnut trays is that fine? Also Everytime I have made doughnuts in the oven they have come out dense I hope these will forever change that also I’m new to gluten free baking. I’ve made a few things for my sister she can’t have gluten they turned out amazing but I now have bob red mill gluten free baking flour. It don’t have the xantham but I have it to add I’m just confused on how much would I add to this recipe could you be so kind and help me out ?
Hi Jackie, we haven’t tried silicone pans, but they should work. If you are using a 1:1 gf flour blend like Bob’s Red Mill, it already has xanthan gum in it and you don’t need to add more. We hope this helps!
Very good recipe! Made them with unsweetened cashew milk.
Everyone likes them.
I made these with my 4 year old and 3 year old sons. These were delicious despite my 4 year old son having a heavy hand with the apple cider vinegar :-D. We used regular cake frosting because they were anxious to add sprinkles and eat!
Plan to make these soon but I have a 12-ct mini donut pan. How long would you recommend baking them?
You can reduce the baking time to 8-10 minutes for mini donuts!