Cooking

19 Doughnut Recipes That Are Downright Fun to Make

Bookmark for a soothing project—and the fluffiest, crackliest doughnut of your life.
Honeyglazed donuts or sfenj on a wire rack.
Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou

Many foods get better with time—think wine, Parmesan, kimchi—but doughnuts are not one of them. Whether it’s chocolate-dunked churros or jam-filled sufganiyot, honey-soaked sfenj or sugar-doused beignets, these fried treats want to be eaten as soon as humanly possible. All the more reason to make them at home. Our 19 best doughnut recipes give you plenty of options—and yes, there are baked doughnuts included, like Strawberry Doughnut Muffins and Coconut-Cardamom Cake Doughnuts. If you want to get into a debate about whether baked doughnuts are actually doughnuts, well, that’ll have to wait for another day. We wouldn’t want the doughnuts to get cold.

  • Image may contain Food Egg Bread Confectionery Sweets Bagel and Dessert
    Photo by Emma Fishman, food styling by Kat Boystova
    1/19

    Maple-Glazed Doughnuts

    These thrillingly fluffy yeast-risen doughnuts channel pancake vibes with their maple syrup glaze. Excellent with an enormous mug of coffee.

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  • This image may contain Food Bread Confectionery Sweets Pastry Dessert Bagel and Donut
    Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Pearl Jones
    2/19

    Lemony Glazed Cake Doughnuts

    Adding yogurt to these cake doughnuts makes them light, tangy, and rich. Have we all been calling them yo-nuts ever since? Yes—and we’d like it if you did too.

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  • Image may contain Food Bread Fungus and Bagel
    Alex Lau
    5/19

    BA’s Best Apple Cider Doughnuts

    Perhaps the apple orchard is closed for the season or it’s raining cats and dogs and you’re looking for something cozy to make. This apple cider doughnut recipe is the solution.

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  • Honeyglazed donuts or sfenj on a wire rack.
    Photo by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou
    6/19

    Honey-Dunked Sfenj

    Sfenj are a Hanukkah favorite for many Sephardic Jews. If you want to break up this recipe, you can make the dough up to 12 hours in advance.

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  • Four sufganyiot on a platter stuffed with strawberry jam and dusted with powdered sugar.
    Photograph by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell
    7/19

    Strawberry Sufganiyot

    This sufganiyot recipe delivers golden brown pillowy doughnuts filled with strawberry jam. Make them on Hanukkah—or anytime you want to impress your guests.

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  • Three CoconutCardamom Doughnuts
    Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne, Prop Styling by Carla Gonzalez-Hart
    8/19

    Coconut-Cardamom Doughnuts

    Inspired by coconut-based mithai, these irresistible baked cake doughnuts have a plush, lightly spiced crumb and a sweet glaze, all thanks to coconut milk.

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  • This image may contain Confectionery Food Sweets Bread Dish Meal Plant and Bun
    Ted Cavanaugh
    9/19

    Doughnuts with Grapefruit Curd and Citrus Sugar

    Wonderful for winter, when citrus shines bright, these doughnuts are piped to the brim with sweet-and-sour grapefruit curd.

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  • Fried round donuts on a silver platter atop a green background.
    Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Judy Kim, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca
    10/19

    Kalimati

    These adorable East African doughnuts are fluffy, chewy, and doused in cardamom syrup. No kneading or shaping required.

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  • Strawberry Doughnut Muffin Recipe
    Photo by Emma Fishman, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Sophie Strangio
    11/19

    Strawberry Doughnut Muffins

    Freeze-dried strawberries are our new baking obsession. You’ll understand why once you’ve made these strawberry doughnut muffins.

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  • A pile of mandazi on a platter served with karak chai.
    Photo by Heami Lee, food styling by Judy Haubert, prop styling by Rebecca Bartoshesky
    12/19

    Mandazi (Mahamri)

    This East African snack is fluffy, crispy, and mildly sweet—like the best parts of French beignets and American old-fashioned doughnuts combined into one bite.

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  • Image may contain Animal Fish Confectionery Food Sweets and Rug
    Alex Lau
    13/19

    BA’s Best Beignets

    The best beignets come from New Orleans, but the high protein content in bread flour gives this classic-style beignets recipe an authentic texture.

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  • Image may contain Food Bread Confectionery Sweets Plant and Bagel
    Ted Cavanaugh
    14/19

    Matcha Doughnuts

    Not obsessed with the earthy, nutty flavors of matcha tea yet? These doughnuts will do the trick.

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  • Small round doughnuts coated in sugar one bitten in half to reveal a center of apricot jam.
    Photo by Peden + Munk
    15/19

    Jam-Filled Challah Doughnuts

    For Hanukkah, Michael Solomonov makes these challah-dough doughnuts with fresh quince paste.

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  • Image may contain Food Seasoning Sesame Bread and Bun
    Alex Lau
    16/19

    Miso Doughnuts

    For anyone who likes their desserts a little salty, look no further than these double-miso doughnuts, with white miso in the dough and red miso sugar on top.

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  • Image may contain Food Bread Bun and Cracker
    17/19

    Maple Syrup-Soaked Doughnut Holes

    The best part of a doughnut? The fluffy bite-sized ball of dough removed from the center. Did we mention these are dipped in a sweet maple syrup glaze?

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  • Homemade Churros Recipe
    Photo by Laura Murray, Styling by Judy Mancini
    18/19

    Churros with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce

    The shape of pastry tip you use for this churros recipe is very important. If the tip isn’t closed, or rounded off, the churros may break as you’re frying them (we used size 845 tips).

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  • Donut bread pudding
    Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Pearl Jones
    19/19

    Day-Old-Doughnut Bread Pudding

    We’ll admit, some days homemade doughnuts are not in the cards. That’s when this bread pudding recipe comes in—putting stale doughnuts to great use.

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Emma leads cooking coverage across Bon Appétit and Epicurious, focusing on service-forward content for home cooks. Depending on the hour, you might find her editing a series like Fourth Trimester or Feel-Good Food Plan, trying nine types of mayonnaise, marking up layouts for the print magazine, attending a test kitchen ... Read More
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