How To Make Homemade Donuts

Homemade Donuts are easier to make than you might think! And yes, I’m talking about soft and fluffy fried yeasted donuts, dressed in your choice of vanilla or chocolate glaze. Have a hankering for more comforting fried dough? Try this Easy Beignets Recipe, or these delicious and tender Apple Fritters. You can even skip the fair and make your very own homemade Funnel Cake!

Homemade Donuts Recipe

Do you prefer baked donuts or fried donuts? I do love both but I think I love fried yeasted donuts just a little bit more. If you’re a tiny bit afraid of frying like I used to be, my biggest tip is to invest in a thermometer! Knowing the oil temperature made a huge difference in my frying confidence.

Easy Homemade Donuts Ingredients

This homemade donut dough is exactly the same as my milk bread dough. The list of ingredients is very simple and can be halved or doubled easily to make less or more donuts in just a pinch.

Heavy cream: Used for the added fat content for more tender bread dough. Whole milk: You can use 2% milk but remember more fat yields more tender bread. And we’re not adding eggs or butter in this recipe, so the fat comes directly from milk and heavy cream. Granulated sugar: For added sweetness in the dough. The majority of the sweetness will still come from the glaze. Active Dry yeast: to help the bread dough rise. Salt: For flavor. Flour: All purpose flour will do.

Note: The recipe calls for exactly half heavy cream and half milk so you can replace both the heavy cream and milk with half and half if you wish.

How to Make Homemade Donuts

Cutting Homemade Yeast Donuts

Frying the Donuts

Homemade Glazed Donuts

I included 2 options for glaze in this recipe: a vanilla glaze and a chocolate glaze. Both are very easy sugar glaze made with powdered sugar and milk. But there are endless options of glaze you can try to pair with these donuts.

Try a sweet maple glaze like in these baked apple donuts. Go fancy with a brown butter glaze like in these baked pumpkin donuts. Or embrace the holiday with an eggnog glaze like in this eggnog pound cake.

Storing Donuts

Fried homemade donuts are best the day they are made but they will stay soft up to 2 days, just keep them at room temperature in a lightly covered container.

More Sweet Breakfast Recipes

Pumpkin Muffins Coffee Cake Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Creme Brûlée French Toast

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.