Gluten-Free Donut Recipes (Baked & Fried)
A fresh donut is the one thing most people assume they gave up forever at diagnosis — which is exactly why this page exists. Below are twelve recipes that prove otherwise: baked cake donuts ready in half an hour, proper yeast-raised ones for a weekend project, and a couple of clever shortcuts in between.
The baked recipes are the easy wins — one bowl, a donut pan, glaze made from pantry staples. The fried ones are the bakery-style experience. They need a thermometer and a little patience, but that first warm, fresh-fried ring is worth the effort once a season.
Nobody’s method is republished here. Each entry is a quick pantry check — what you’ll need, what to swap, and where gluten hides in donut ingredients — then one click takes you to the creator’s full recipe.
Baked donuts (the easy wins)
Gluten Free Doughnuts (Krispy Kreme Copycat)
A baked take on the drive-through classic. Flaxseed meal and carefully separated eggs give the crumb structure, coconut milk keeps it tender, and a two-ingredient powdered sugar icing finishes the job. One honest note: baked means a cake-style crumb rather than the yeasty chew of the original — it’s a delicious stand-in, not a clone.
Gluten Free Donuts with Three Glazes
One vanilla-nutmeg base, three ways to finish it: a chocolate glaze built on chips and corn syrup, a classic vanilla, and a powdered sugar dunk for sprinkles. Thirty minutes from bowl to board. The creator recommends a 1:1 measure-for-measure blend, and any supermarket equivalent with xanthan already in it does the same job.
Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Donuts
Bakery-case vanilla with a brown sugar undercurrent, plus a powdered sugar glaze that sets properly instead of soaking in. The method spells out dairy-free swaps by name — almond, cashew or coconut milk, and a plant butter — which makes this the pick for mixed-diet households. There’s a note on adding xanthan only if your blend lacks it.
Baked Gluten Free Donuts
Written in grams and cups, which makes it easy to follow wherever your kitchen sits. Oil in the batter rather than butter keeps the crumb moist on day two — rare praise for a baked donut — and there’s a cocoa variation for the chocolate glaze people. A dependable all-rounder.
Gluten Free Iced Doughnuts
Self-raising gluten-free flour is the whole trick here — no blending, no xanthan maths, just seven base ingredients into a bowl. The icing is icing sugar, milk and vanilla, so the decorating table (sprinkles, colours, the whole rainy-Saturday scene) is where the fun happens. One for baking with kids.
Gluten-free Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts
Butter and oil share the fat duties, which keeps these tender without going heavy. The signature move is tossing them in cinnamon sugar while they’re still warm so it clings properly. Over a hundred comments on the method say this one gets made again and again — and there’s a clear note on when your blend needs that extra half teaspoon of xanthan.
Baked Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts (dairy-free)
Vegan bakers, this one’s yours: flax eggs and almond milk do the binding, olive oil replaces the butter, and the cinnamon-sugar finish is identical to the classic. Self-raising flour keeps the shopping list short. A good pick when one tray needs to suit everyone at the table.
Fried & yeast-raised (the bakery-style ones)
40-Minute Gluten Free Fried Cake Donuts
Forty minutes start to finish, no yeast and no rising time — sour cream does the tenderising instead. It’s a big-batch recipe (five cups of flour), so plan the freezer space or the crowd. Xanthan gum is listed explicitly, and the powdered sugar glaze takes as long to make as the coffee does to brew.
Easy Gluten-Free Yeast Donuts
The proper raised kind — pillowy, fried, and genuinely close to what you remember. Two details decide the outcome: blooming the yeast in milk that’s warm but not hot (the method gives the exact temperature), and resisting the urge to rush the rise. Non-dairy milk works too, and a short ingredient list keeps the pantry check easy.
Cream-Filled Fried Doughnuts
The recipe to attempt when you’re ready to fill them — vanilla pastry cream, jam, whatever your kitchen stands for. There’s also a cardamom-spiced variation in the Finnish Munkki tradition if you want a reason to buy a new jar of spice. One flag: it’s built around the creator’s own flour blend, so read her flour notes carefully if you’re swapping in a supermarket brand.
Six-Ingredient Fried Doughnuts (low FODMAP)
Six ingredients, no yeast, and grams on the scales — this one suits New Zealand and UK kitchens particularly well. Gluten-free plain flour and baking powder do the lifting, dairy-free milk is already in the method, and the creator developed it low FODMAP for anyone managing that alongside coeliac disease. You’ll need about a litre and a half of oil for frying.
NZ Woman’s Weekly Doughnuts with Four Toppings
A yeast-raised recipe from much closer to home, with a three-flour blend (plain gluten-free, cornflour and rice flour) for a proper light crumb. The four topping ideas — cinnamon sugar among them — turn one frying session into a full spread. Everything is measured metric, and nothing on the list needs a specialist trip.
Three things that make or break a GF donut
The flour blend decides the texture. Donuts lean on xanthan gum for structure more than muffins or cakes do. If your blend already contains it (most supermarket 1:1 blends do), skip any added xanthan in the recipe. If it doesn’t, add what the method calls for — leaving it out is how you get donut-shaped crumbs. Oil temperature is everything when frying. Aim for around 175°C with a thermometer if you own one; too cool and the donuts drink oil, too hot and they brown before the middle cooks. Fry one sacrificial donut first and adjust. Donuts are day-of food. Glaze them just before serving, keep any survivors in an airtight container, and freeze plain ones — they thaw in twenty minutes and take a glaze like they were never frozen.
One equipment note worth reading before you shop: baked donut recipes need a donut pan. They’re inexpensive, but in a pinch a muffin tin gives you “donut muffins” — same batter, different shape, still good.
Where to next
Glazes and dips have their own shelf: Gluten-Free Sweet Sauces covers the chocolate and caramel end. The weekend morning shift is covered by the pancake, crêpe and waffle collection, and Cookies & Biscuits handles the lunchbox. The Pantry Staples list covers the flour blends and sprinkles worth owning.
New to gluten-free cooking? The coeliac guides start with the newly-diagnosed checklist, and the recipes hub is where to plan the week.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.