These banana donuts with brown butter glaze are quick, easy and super delicious. They taste just like banana bread and are topped with a wonderfully delicious and easy brown butter glaze. Make these banana bread donuts for your next breakfast or afternoon snack.
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Why Should You Make This Recipe
I recently fell in love with baked donuts and have been working on donut recipe after doughnut recipe ever since. My Chocolate Donuts, Maple Donuts and Cinnamon Sugar Donuts are the perfect donuts for cozy fall and winter breakfasts. These baked banana donuts are another wonderful addition to my growing collection of donut recipes. I know you’ll love this sweet, banana filled donut because:
- It has the perfect moist, dense and tender texture. These banana donuts with brown butter icing stay wonderfully moist for days. They bake up with a gorgeous gold brown color and smell just like a cozy loaf of banana bread.
- Easy to make with simple ingredients. These easy homemade banana donuts are made using the same ingredients as banana bread, but bake up so much faster . This baked donut recipe comes together with two bowls and a whisk.
Need another cozy breakfast recipe idea? Make sure to check out my Brioche French Toast Casserole or Mini Pancakes.
Ingredients
This recipe for baked banana donuts and brown butter glaze requires a handful of ingredients to make and you probably already have them in your house!
For the Banana Donuts
Dry Ingredients: Gather all purpose flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt.
Wet Ingredients: Gather brown sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, melted butter and vanilla extract.
For the Brown Butter Glaze for Donuts
Gather unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and milk. As an optional topping, gather banana chips.
Substitutions
These banana donuts are made to be quick and easy. So quick and easy, you can make it as a special breakfast to enjoy any day of the week. Here are my recommended substitutions to make these homemade baked maple donuts if you need them.
- Ground Cinnamon: Feel free to use any blend of ground spices. Pumpkin spice, chai spice or apple pie spice would all be wonderful in this donut recipe. The total amount of spices for these banana doughnuts is about 2 teaspoons.
- Unsalted Butter: Use salted butter if needed. Just make sure to omit the added teaspoon of salt listed in the recipe. Vegan or dairy free butter can also be used if needed.
- Brown Sugar: Make these banana donuts refined sugar free with maple sugar.
- Eggs: This recipe hasn’t been tested without eggs.
Alternatives
- Cinnamon Sugar Banana Donuts: Top these baked banana donuts with cinnamon sugar. Melt ½ cup (113 g) butter. Mix 1 cup (200 g) sugar with 2 teaspoons (6 g) ground cinnamon together. Quickly dip the entire banana donut in the melted butter. Roll the banana donut in the cinnamon sugar.
- Chocolate Glazed Banana Donuts: Melt ½ cup (70 g) chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons (28 g) in 30 second increments. Stir until well combined. Dip the tops of the cooled banana donuts in the chocolate glaze.
How To Make
This recipe for brown butter glazed banana donuts is as easy to make as whipping up a batch of banana bread, but so much faster. Grab your ingredients and let’s bake them!
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Grease a 6 ct. donut pan or muffin pan (see expert tips). In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt together until well combined.
- In another large bowl, pour the light brown sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Whisk well to fully combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Whisk well until smooth and fully combined with no lumps.
- Spoon or pipe about three heaping tablespoons of banana donut batter into each of the prepared donut cavities in the donut pan. This should fill about ¾ of each cavity of the donut pan.
- Bake the donuts for about 10-12 minutes. The donuts are done when the tops bounce back quickly when lightly pressed. Cool the donuts in the pan for 10 minutes before gently taking them out to cool on a cooling rack.
- While the banana doughnuts cool, make the brown butter glaze. Make the brown butter by melting the butter in a medium sized pot on low heat. Once it starts to foam whisk or stir the liquid butter frequently. The butter will begin to smell nutty and very fragrant. Once the foam has subsided, the butter should have some brown, lightly toasted bits floating at the bottom. Pour the brown butter into a bowl, leaving as much of the brown bits in the pan as possible. Whisk in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and teaspoon of room temperature milk until smooth and combined. Add more milk as needed until the brown butter icing is to your liking.
- Dip cooled banana cake donut into the brown butter glaze for donuts. Gently shake off any excess icing. Place each iced banana donut on the cooling rack. After setting for about 1-2 minutes, top with banana chips if desired. Allow the donuts to set for about an hour before eating. Enjoy!
How To Store, Freeze and Thaw
Like doughnuts you get from a donut shop, these baked banana donuts taste best the day they are made. However, if needed they can be stored and enjoyed later.
- To store leftover banana donuts without glaze: Place the unglazed donuts in an airtight container at room temperature or a day or in the fridge for 2 days. Place a piece of wax or parchment paper between the layers of donuts if stacking them in the container.
- To store glazed banana donuts: These are truly best when enjoyed the same day they are made. If needed, place them in a single layer in an airtight container in the fridge for a day, maybe two. After that the donuts begin to dry out.
- To freeze and thaw unglazed banana donuts: Place the unglazed banana donuts in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for a few hours. Glaze, set and enjoy!
M’s Expert Tips
- Bring cold ingredients to room temperature: This allows the ingredients to mix together more evenly.
- Make sure the bananas are very ripe with lots of brown spots.
- Measure the flour properly: I highly recommend using a food scale to get perfectly measured dry ingredients every time.
- Mash the banana well: Make sure to get the mashed bananas as smooth as possible. It’s also a good idea to measure the mashed bananas before using them in the recipe. 1 cup of mashed banana is about 3 medium bananas.
- Don’t overmix the banana donut batter: Always use the lowest speed on your electric mixer or mix in the dry ingredients by hand. Make sure to mix the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
- Cool the donuts in the pan for no longer than 10 minutes.
- Fully cool the banana filled donuts before dipping in the brown butter glaze. This usually takes about 30 minutes after the donuts have finished baking.
FAQ's
Don’t have ripen bananas but still want to make banana bread or banana donuts? Just bake them in the oven! Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place unpeeled bananas on the baking sheet and bake in a 300 F (150 C) for about 15 minutes or until the peels are completely black. Cool long enough to touch the banana. Scoop out the banana pulp to use in the recipe.
Fried donuts are yeast based and rely on cooking in oil. Baked donuts have a denser, more cake like texture and rely on leaveners such as baking powder to provide some lift. Baked donuts can be called “healthier” because they are baked rather than fried.
Yes! If you don’t have a donut pan and still want to make this banana donuts recipe, use a muffin pan instead! Fill each cavity of a 12 ct. muffin pan ¾ full. Bake at 350 F (177 C) for 18 - 20 minutes or until the tops of the muffins bounce back when gently pressed. Glaze the muffins once they have cooled to room temperature.
More Banana Recipes to Try
- Banana Zucchini Bread
- Almond Flour Banana Muffins
- Banana Mini Muffins
- Banana Coffee Cake Muffins
- Banana Bread Snack Cake
- Roasted Banana Cake
If you try this Banana Donuts Recipe please rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Doing so helps other readers decide if this is a great recipe to bake. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using @olivesnthyme so I can see what you’re baking! Happy Baking! - M
Banana Donuts Recipe
Equipment
- 1 6 ct. donut pan
- 1 whisk or spoon for mixing
Ingredients
Banana Donuts
- 1¾ cups (210 g) all purpose flour
- 2 tsp (6 g) ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed banana about 3 medium bananas
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs (US), room temperature
- 4 tbsp (57 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
Brown Butter Glaze for Donuts
- 6 tbsp (85 g) unsalted butter
- 1½ cups (180 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1-3 tsp (5-15 ml) milk, room temperature
- banana chips for topping optional
Instructions
Banana Donuts
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Grease a 6 ct. donut pan or muffin pan (see expert tips).
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt together until well combined.
- In another large bowl, pour the light brown sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Whisk well to fully combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Whisk well until smooth and fully combined with no lumps.
- Spoon or pipe about three heaping tablespoons of banana donut batter into each of the prepared donut cavities in the donut pan. This should fill about ¾ of each cavity of the donut pan.
- Bake the donuts for about 10-12 minutes. The donuts are done when the tops bounce back quickly when lightly pressed. Cool the donuts in the pan for 10 minutes before gently taking them out to cool on a cooling rack. While the banana doughnuts cool, make the brown butter glaze.
- Make the brown butter by melting the butter in a medium sized pot on low heat. Allow the melted butter to begin to foam. Once it starts to foam whisk or stir the liquid butter frequently. The butter will begin to smell nutty and very fragrant. Once the foam has subsided, the butter should have some brown, lightly toasted bits floating at the bottom. Pour the brown butter into a bowl, leaving as much of the brown bits in the pan as possible. Whisk in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and teaspoon of room temperature milk. Whisk well until smooth and combined. Add more milk as needed until the brown butter icing is to your liking.
- Dip the cooled banana cake donut into the brown butter glaze for donuts. Gently shake off any excess icing. Place each iced banana donut on the cooling rack. After setting for about 1-2 minutes, top with banana chips if desired. Allow the donuts to set for about an hour before eating. Enjoy!
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