If a slow weekend morning, cozied up on the couch with a warm cup of coffee and a delicious donut that perfectly complements your coffee sounds like an ideal start to your day, then this coffee cake donuts recipe is for you!
These donuts have it all:
- A perfect crumble that is not too sweet
- A moist, buttery, and tender cake donut
- A sweet vanilla glaze
They will make you wish every day was the weekend, but donut take my word for it.
Baked Donuts Vs. Fried Donuts?
That is the question. So here’s my answer:
- I love fried donuts as much as anyone else, but for this particular recipe, I went with a baked donut because traditional coffee cake is made with, well...cake. It’s typically a tender, buttery cake that isn’t too sweet with a slight tanginess from the sour cream.
- Baked donuts are super easy to make. Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together, pipe into the pans, bake, and boom! You’ll be enjoying delicious donuts before you even know it.
- And lastly, some real talk! I don’t always love to fry donuts in my house, because the scent of fried dough and oil will linger in the house (for like a week) and I am not a fan. Anyone with me on this one?!
How to Make Coffee Cake Donuts
To make the process as smooth as possible while making your coffee cake donuts:
- Measure out all your dry ingredients
- Bring the eggs and sour cream to room temperature
- Once your wet ingredients are at room temperature, preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Crumble:
Start with the crumble first, because we want to give it time to chill before placing in the oven. By chilling it beforehand, you allow the butter to firm so that it melts slower and the crumble stays crunchier while it bakes. It also allows you to not scramble all over the place trying to make it after your donuts are perfectly piped in the pan (nooo… I’ve never done this before!)
Donuts:
Once you've prepared your batter. Pipe the batter into your already greased donut pans. If you have a pastry piping bag on hand, woohoo, go you!! If not, a Ziplock is your friend. Pour batter into the Ziplock bag, cut off a small section of one of the bottom corners, and push the batter towards the opening, and BOOM! You have a piping bag. It makes things a lot less messier than scooping the batter into the pans...let me tell you!
Now go grab that delicious crumble that you definitely weren’t eating when you were crumbling it all together with your fingers, and place it generously over all of the donuts.
Bake:
Bake those bad boys for 10-12 minutes (checking for doneness). While you are waiting and drooling because the smell of cinnamon is filling up your whole house, mix together all the ingredients for the glaze and set aside. Once the donuts are done, give them about 10 minutes to cool in the pans. By doing this you're giving the donuts some time to rest and cool down slightly, making it much easier to remove them from the pan. I know this requires patience (which I have very little of), but it will be worth the wait. I promise.
Glaze:
Finally, if you are ready to eat them right away, drizzle the vanilla glaze on top, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!
If you are not quite ready to eat them (because you’re making everyone wait until there's good lighting so you can take pictures #foodbloggerproblems), then hold off putting the drizzle on them to avoid losing any of the crumble’s beautiful crunch.
You May Also Like
- Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon-Sugar
- The Best Meyer Lemon Bars
- The Best Homemade Fudgy Brownies
- Funfetti Cookies From Scratch
If you end up making and enjoy these baked coffee cake donuts, please consider tagging me @nightowlsbakingco on Instagram and leaving a review below.
Brew up some coffee, grab a donut, and enjoy! Happy Baking!
Print
Baked Coffee Cake Donuts with vanilla glaze
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 12 donuts 1x
Description
Buttery, tangy, slightly sweet, baked coffee cake donuts from scratch
Ingredients
Crumble
- ½ c All-Purpose Flour
- ½ c Light brown Sugar
- ¼ c Steel-cut oatmeal*
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ c Butter, cold & cut into cubes
Donut
- 1 ¾ c All-Purpose Flour
- ¾ c Light Brown Sugar
- 1 ¾ tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 Eggs, room temperature
- ¾ c Sour Cream - Full Fat
- ½ c Butter, melted
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Vanilla Glaze
- 1 c Powdered Sugar
- 2 tbsp Milk
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Crumble
- Cut your cold butter into small cubes
- In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, steel-cut oats, and cinnamon
- Add the cold cubed butter to the dry ingredients. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter work together the butter and dry ingredients until it starts to clump together
- Place your crumb mixture in the refrigerator while you prepare the donut batter
Donut
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your donut pans and set them aside
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt
- In another bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla until combined
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined
- Pipe the batter into donut pans using a pastry bag or ziplock bag
- Evenly and generously top each of the donuts with the already prepared crumble
- Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, using a toothpick to check for doneness
- Once done, let them rest in the pan and cool for 10 minutes
- Remove from pan and place on a cooling rack
Vanilla Glaze
- While your donuts are in the oven prepare the glaze
- Whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until fully combined and there are no clumps
- Once your donuts are on the cooling rack you can drizzle the glaze over each of the donuts**
Notes
*The steel-cut just gives the crumb a nice crunchy texture. If you don’t have them on hand feel free to use rolled oats or any oats you have.
**If you don’t plan on eating right away, you can hold off on adding the glaze until you are ready as you don’t want the crumble to become soggy.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: baked coffee cake donut, baked donut recipe, coffee cake donuts, crumb donut, vanilla glaze
Thank you to my Significant Other, roommates, and co-workers for being the taste testers…your sacrifice does not go unnoticed.
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