18 Delightful Doughnut Recipes (2024)

The secret to doughnuts at home is in the dough: Retarding the shaped doughnuts allows a more complex, yeasty flavor to develop. These delicious doughnut recipes range from fluffy yeast doughnuts to spiced cake doughnuts, featuring irresistible Italian bomboloni and Moroccan sfinj with a sweet syrup.

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Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Doughnuts

The first bite of one of these buttermilk doughnuts takes you from a super crunchy, craggy crust to a deliciously tender cake interior, all draped in a glorious lemonade-like glaze. A touch of nutmeg adds a touch of old-fashioned flavor.

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Cinnamon-Cardamom Sufganiyot

Chef Eitan Bernath’s fluffy, spiced sufganiyot are fried to golden brown, rolled in cinnamon-sugar, and filled with cardamom-spiced pastry cream.

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Pon de Ring (Mochi-Tofu Doughnuts)

Silken tofu gives these strawberry-flavored mochi-tofu doughnuts (inspired by pon de ring doughnuts popularized in Japan) a chewy, springy texture, while mochiko (sweet glutinous rice flour) helps the doughnuts get an airy, crispy crust.

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Maple-Meringue Doughnuts

This meringue filling is marshmallowy in texture; use an intense, robust, high-quality maple syrup to ensure lots of maple flavor.

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Chocolate French Crullers with Dried Raspberries and Fudge Glaze

Made with a classic choux dough, these French crullers are full of personality, featuring a crunchy crust, an airy center, and a colorful topping of dried raspberries and fudge. Dip the chocolate crullers in the warmed fudge glaze so the dried raspberries stick for a sweet-tart topping that's as tasty as it is beautiful.

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Beignets

We know to seek out beignets when visiting New Orleans, but there’s no reason not to fry up a batch at home when you want an irresistibly puffy fried treat. Butter and evaporated milk make the dough extra tender, which is a lovely contrast when these fry up to a crisp. Be sure to let the dough rise fully before cutting it into pieces and frying.

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Old Fashioned Doughnut Croquembouche

Pastry chef Paola Velez's twist on a traditional croquembouche features homemade cinnamon doughnuts instead of cream puffs. The dessert can be assembled up to 10 hours ahead of time and placed on a table to make an impressive edible centerpiece.

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Banana Challah Fritters With Sweet Tahini Sauce

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, these Banana Challah Fritters are like fried banana pudding, but even better. As is the case with most banana desserts, starting with overripe bananas will give you the best banana flavor; this is a great way to use those bananas that are just about to be tossed out.

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Pączki Doughnuts

Pączki doughnuts are traditionally made just before Lent as a delicious way to use up ingredients in the pantry that would normally be given up as a Lenten sacrifice — such as butter, sugar, and jam. Freeze-dried strawberries add a terrific flavor to the jelly doughnut's sugar dusting. If you enjoy floral flavors, try filling the doughnuts with rose petal jam.

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Dunked Dulce de Leche Doughnuts

Dulce de leche, a sweet, caramelized milk, flavors both these gluten-free doughnuts and their glaze.

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Doughnuts in Cardamom Syrup

Dipping these doughnuts in cardamom-rose water syrup and sliced almonds gives them an extra layer of flavor and a nutty, crunchy texture.

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Baked Sweet Potato Doughnuts

Bake these doughnuts and toss them with a little butter, cinnamon, and sugar. The sweet potato in the dough adds a lovely, earthy flavor.

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Doughnut Holes with Raspberry Jam

Chef Ginevra Iverson serves her light, crisp, sugared doughnut holes with sweet-tart raspberry jam.

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Vanilla Raised Doughnuts

Two Seattle bakers with a cult following inspire DIY devotees at home with this delicious homemade doughnut recipe.

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Spiced Cake Doughnuts

Cooking teacher Lauren Groveman often shakes the warm doughnuts in a plastic bag filled with cinnamon sugar or a combination of unsweetened cocoa powder and granulated sugar.

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Raspberry Jam Bomboloni

Kate Neumann reports that whenever she offers bomboloni (Italian doughnut holes) on the dessert menu at her restaurant, they inevitably sell out. She sometimes makes them at home, too: "They are easy to prepare in advance and then fry at the last moment," she explains, "and they are also quite easy to dress up."

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Sfinj (Moroccan Doughnuts)

These luscious doughnuts are crispy on the outside and very fluffy and airy on the inside. They're usually served dipped in sugar or honey, but Leetal and Ron Arazi love to serve them with a saffron and cardamom syrup.

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Hanukkah Doughnuts

Hebrew for doughnuts, sufganiyot are the most popular Hanukkah food in Israel. These fried treats are simply made from balls of yeast dough and filled with chocolate, creams, curd, or as here, jam. With TV chef Andrew Zimmern's recipe, you can prepare them year-round.

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