Baked Maple Glazed Donuts

Maple glazed donuts are a classic, and now you can make them at home with this small batch baked maple donuts with maple glaze recipe!

Both my husband and I LOVE everything maple. Like, love it so much that we had maple sugar candies as our wedding favors, the first wifi password we could agree on (which has since been changed to something more secure) was maplesyrup1, and we always have a locally produced maple syrup in our fridge and a backup in the cabinet. So creating a baked maple donut recipe was a no-brainer!

This small batch baked donut recipe makes 6 donuts per batch. Perfect for smaller households, and easy to double if you have a group to feed.

These baked maple donuts with maple glaze pack a wonderful maple punch, on a delicate and cakey donut. Excellent paired with a cup of coffee.

Why you’ll love this Maple Frosted Donut Recipe

Easy to make, no frying required! Mix, pipe (or scoop) into your tins, and bake!

Awesome maple flavor! If you love maple everything, these are the donuts for you.

Great, cake-like texture. If you’ve never had baked donuts before, you may be wondering what the texture is like. These maple frosted donuts are super moist and a little cake like.

Ready in 25 minutes. Including prep and cook time, plan for about 25 minutes to make maple glazed donuts.

Maple Donut Recipe Ingredients

• Pure Maple Syrup: Real maple syrup gives your baked donuts a nice hint of maple without being overpowering. It’s also a great way to naturally add sweetness, meaning the amount of refined sugar in the cake donut recipe is reduced – yay!
• Maple Extract or Maple Flavoring: To create the perfect maple glaze for donuts, a smidge of maple flavoring is needed. This amps up the overall maple flavor in each bite, giving you that punch of maple that you’re hoping for.
• Sour Cream: Sour cream makes your baked maple donuts extra moist and delicious.

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Equipment Needed

A donut pan: Homemade baked donuts are one of those treats that do need a special piece of equipment to get that classic donut shape: a donut pan. You can either get metal donut pans or silicone donut pans, selection is based on personal preference.

• I love and use this 2-Pack of Non-Stick Metal Donut Pans
• I have friends who love and use this 2-Pack of Silicone Donut Pans

How to make Maple Glazed Donuts

Preheat oven and prep your pan: Preheat to 350°F, then spray your donut pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside

Prep your ingredients: Whisk together your dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, egg, sour cream, maple syrup, and vanilla until well combined. Gently fold the wet ingredients into your dry ingredients until just combined (note: dough will be very thick).

Pipe (or spoon) dough into donut pan: Place your dough into a piping bag (or gallon sized ziplock bag) to pipe into your donut pans. If desired, gently smooth out the tops after all of the dough has been distributed into your donut pan.

Bake: Bake approximately 12-15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool: Cool in the pan for a few minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Glaze your donuts: While the donuts finish cooling, make your maple glaze in a small bowl by whisking together all glaze ingredients. When the donuts have cooled, dip the top half of each donut into the glaze and set up-right on your cooling rack to set. Note: if I have additional glaze left, I often double-dip my donuts!

Store leftovers: Baked donuts are generally best eaten the same day, however, if you have leftovers, store remaining donuts in an air-tight container in the fridge for a day or two.

Maple Doughnuts Variations and Substitutions

• Use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. If you don’t have sour cream in your fridge, you can replace it 1-to-1 with either plain or vanilla Greek yogurt in this recipe! Doing this adds a little extra protein to your maples baked donuts too.

Expert Tips for this Maple Glazed Donut Recipe

Do not overmix your batter. Doing so can create tough baked donuts (and you don’t want that!). Gently fold your wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.

Is the dough supposed to be this thick? Yes, baked donut batter is much thicker than you think it will be! If you are having issues getting all of your dry ingredients incorporated into your wet ingredients, you could add more maple syrup, a dab of sour cream, or even a little water. Do so in 1 teaspoon increments so you don’t make your dough too moist or runny.

Don’t skip the vanilla extract in the donut batter! I’ve made these donuts with and without the vanilla extract in the donut batter, and the vanilla just does something magical to the final donut. Don’t skip it!

Maple extract or maple flavoring will give your donuts that pop of maple flavor you are expecting. While maple syrup is used in both the donut and the glaze, it does not give you that pop of maple flavor you are expecting when baking with it. Adding maple extract or maple flavor in the glaze gives you that full bodied maple flavor you’re hoping for in your baked maple donuts.

How to Store Maple Glazed Doughnuts

While baked donuts are best the day they’re baked, you can store any leftovers you may have in an airtight container for 1-2 days. Since these are not cream-filled, you can store them at room temperature if desired (just be sure to keep them out of direct sunlight to help prevent them from going stale) or store in the fridge.