Banana Bread Donuts (Printable Version)
Soft baked donuts with ripe banana flavor and warm cinnamon-nutmeg spices. Ready in 30 minutes.
# What You Need:
→ Wet Ingredients
01 - 3 ripe bananas, mashed
02 - 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
03 - 1/2 cup brown sugar
04 - 1/4 cup whole milk
05 - 2 large eggs
06 - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
→ Dry Ingredients
07 - 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
08 - 1 teaspoon baking powder
09 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
10 - 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
11 - 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 - 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
→ Optional Glaze
13 - 1/2 cup powdered sugar
14 - 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
15 - Pinch of ground cinnamon
# Method:
01 - Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a standard 12-cavity donut pan with butter or nonstick spray.
02 - In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, melted butter, brown sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
03 - In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until evenly distributed.
04 - Gently fold the dry ingredient mixture into the wet mixture using a spatula, stirring until just combined. Do not overmix to keep the donuts tender.
05 - Spoon the batter into a piping bag or use a spoon to fill each donut cavity about two-thirds full.
06 - Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a donut comes out clean.
07 - Let the donuts rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
08 - If using the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and a pinch of cinnamon until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled donuts and allow to set before serving.
# Expert Tricks:
01 -
- These capture everything you crave about banana bread but bake in a fraction of the time and feel a little more special on a Tuesday morning.
- The batter comes together in one bowl with no mixer required, which means less washing up and more eating.
02 -
- Overmixing the batter activates the gluten in the flour and gives you a spongy, chewy texture instead of the soft crumb you are after, so fold gently and stop early.
- If your bananas are not very ripe, you can speed things along by roasting them whole on a baking sheet at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about fifteen minutes until the skins blacken and the insides turn syrupy.
03 -
- Use a zip top bag with the corner cut off instead of a piping bag, it is faster to fill and easier to throw away, and you get the same neat results.
- Dust the tops with cinnamon sugar right before baking for a crackly, donut shop finish that needs no glaze at all.