I loved gingerbread as a kid. It turns out Kenya does too, so I love coming up with new ways to use it. Recently I brought along a few of these baked gingerbread doughnuts when I picked Kenya and his friend after school one day for a play date. Kenya was really excited about my surprise snack offering and went on and on to his friend about how delicious they are, but his buddy politely declined.
Kenya proved to me that he has all the makings of a great salesman because he worked on his sweet friend for 10 minutes before he finally broke down and agreed to try one. The best part for me was watching him take the first bite and realize with surprise how much be liked it.
Sure you can make gingerbread cookies, pancakes or a fresh gingerbread bundt cake, but these baked doughnuts are a truly special treat that are much more healthy than their fried counterparts.
With a deep molasses flavor, tender texture and the plain ol’ fun of having a hole in the middle, these Gingerbread Doughnuts are a truly special holiday treat. And as I witnessed first hand, even those of us who aren’t so sure about gingerbread will agree!
If you make these gems and post them on Instagram make sure to tag @weelicious, so I can see your creation!
Gingerbread Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon grund nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1/3 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Combine the first 8 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- In a standing mixer or bowl using a hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar.
- Add the egg, molasses and milk.
- Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
- Place the dough in a large zipper bag, seal the bag airtight and then cut off 1/2-1 inch of one corner.
- Pipe the dough into doughnuts on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.
These come out a bit more dense than the pumpkin doughnuts, but not so much that it affects the end result. I was able to easily pipe these. Maybe make a bigger hole in the piping bag?
Hi Catherine, should the end result be a denser donut or light and fluffy donut? Mine turned out quite dense but it was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and flavour was good with the perfect amount of sweetness.. Also, couldn’t do the piping via the Ziploc as the dough was too thick to slide out like your Pumpkin donuts video.
These are great! Just made them and I had a fabulous thought. Albeit a little silly. As I was piping “doughnut holes”, it occurred to me that these would make the perfect silly edible reindeer poop for Christmas morning!
Would fresh ginger work in place of ground or be too strong? Thanks!
Yummy! Love that you can make these without a doughnut pan.
Catherine, these doughnuts look absolutely delicious! There’s nothing better than a warm breakfast on Christmas Day. Thanks for sharing! – Carrie from Sam’s Club
Yum! Just made these..forgot the cinnamon but I sprinkled on top later, added some of Weelicious’ cinnamon icing. So delicious. Made these as teachers gifts, soooo hard to give them away!
Just made these and so yummy! Flatter then I expected but I got 14 doughnuts out of the batter instead of 6. Next time I will make each doughnut with more batter and they should be fuller. Thanks Catherine!
Can’t wait to try these out for Christmas brunch! They look delicious.
You could make the doughnuts ahead of time and just pop them in the oven, toaster or toaster oven to reheat them in the morning! I don’t think they batter would hold up very well without being baked.
Can the doughnuts and/or the batter be made a day a head of time. I am thinking of making them for Christmas morning but would love to just be able to pop them in the oven?
You can really make the doughnuts as big as you’d like. I make them about 3 inches in diameter with about a 1 inch hole. They rise and expand as they bake!
How big do you make the circle? And how much space do you need to leave in the center of the doughnut circle for there still to be a circle after baking?!
Thanks!
I would replace all the spices with the pumpkin pie spice!
I ran out of cinnamon but I have pumpkin pie spice. Would you recommend leaving out the cinnamon or maybe using pumpkin pie spice in place of all of the spices?
Great easy donut receipe!