Make these soft and nutty baked toasted coconut donuts for breakfast or a snack treat. they’re so good a dozen might not be enough!
The other day, I went berzerk and made three dozen oven-baked donuts. I figured it was just as easy to make a triple batch as a single, so why not. Donuts don’t last long around here, so I wanted to increased that odds that I would get one or two. I got one!
To make them extra delicious, top the donuts with a glaze and then dip them in toasted coconut. The nutty coconut flavor is addictive on these donuts. I’m happy to report they turned out better than I ever hoped they would!
These Toasted Coconut Baked Donuts are not made with yeast. They are easy batter donuts that you can whip up and have ready in about 30 minutes. No waiting for the dough to rise or kneading involved. It’s the same basic batter I use to make my Baked Valentine Cherry Donuts, so feel free to use add-ins to make them your own.
The recipe might look intimidating, but once you get started you’ll see it’s pretty easy. And if you’ve never toasted coconut before you will experience how simple that is too!
I love these baking Cooling Racks from Amazon. They are sturdy enough that I use them to cook bacon in the oven!
HOW TO MAKE BAKED TOASTED COCONUT DONUTS
These really are the simplest donuts to make …ever! Just mix up a batter like for a cake, fill the tins and bake. The fun starts with the decorating!
DIRECTIONS FOR DONUTS:
- Preheat the oven to 425°. Grease a donut pan with non-stick cooking spray. Or make your own pan using a muffin tin and foil balls.
- In a large bowl, whisk the butter, oil and brown sugar until completely smooth.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Into the mixture, stir the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and vanilla until combined.
- Stir in the flour alternately with the buttermilk. You will want to start and end with flour. To do this, stir in 1/3 of the flour, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, then 1/3 of the flour, then the remaining half of the buttermilk and end with remaining 1/3 of the flour.
- Pour dough into doughnut wells, filling 3/4 full. It’s easy to pour if your mixing bowl has a pour spout, or use a spoon. If you want to get “fancy”, pour the dough into a gallon size plastic storage bag and snip off one corner. Squeeze the dough thru the hole to easily fill the donut wells.
- The dough is a little stiff, so to get a more uniform appearance during baking, I like to take a toothpick and gently stir the dough in the wells. This helps to remove air pockets and pushes the dough to the edges of each well.
- Place pan on center rack of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. The donuts do not darken or become golden during baking. This is normal. They are done when they spring back when lightly pressed.
- Remove the donuts from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the pan. To remove, invert the pan over a flat surface and the donuts should drop out. Let them cool to just warm before glazing and and dipping in toasted coconut.
MAKING THE GLAZE:
- While the donuts are baking, make the glaze.
- In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, corn syrup. melted butter, milk, vanilla and salt. Stir with a fork to combine. If the glaze is too thick add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.
TOASTING THE COCONUT:
- Making nutty and delicious toasted coconut is really simple.
- Add desired amount of shredded coconut ( we are using sweetened shredded coconut for this recipe) to a large skillet over low-medium heat.
- Stirring continuously, allow the pan and coconut to heat up. The coconut will start to toast and turn a deep golden color. Keep stirring until most of the flakes are toasted, When done, transfer the coconut to another dish. The hot flakes will continue to cook until they cool, so make sure to not allow the coconut to get too dark or burn before removing it from the pan.
HOW TO SWEETEN UNSWEETENED COCONUT
If you have unsweetened coconut and want to sweeten it to use for toppings, you can use this method in a pinch.
Place a pound of unsweetened coconut in a plastic zipper bag and add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Shake the bag to coat the coconut with the sugar and you are good to go!
If you are toasting the coconut, I would not use this method before toasting. The powdered sugar may burn during the toasting process. Sweeten your shredded coconut after toasting for best results.
DO I NEED A DONUT PAN TO MAKE BAKED TOASTED COCONUT DONUTS?
While having a donut pan is nice if you want to make easy oven donuts that look like the traditional kind, it is not a deal breaker. Add foil balls to the center of each muffin well of a regular muffin pan and spread the dough around the ball to make the “hole” or use a mini muffin pan and make donut bites.
BAKED TOASTED COCONUT DONUTS
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup buttermilk
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp light corn syrup
- 1 tbsp melted butter
- 1 – 2 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
Toasted Coconut
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut or toasted coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°. Grease donut pan or spray pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, mix butter, oil and sugars until smooth.
- Whisk in eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and vanilla to mixture. Stir until combined.
- Stir in flour alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix only enough to combined.
- Using a spoon, fill doughnut wells 3/4 full with batter, Dough is slightly stiff. Use a toothpick to spread dough out to edges of individual donut wells.
- Bake on center rack of preheated oven for 10 minutes. Donuts are done when they spring back when lightly pressed. Donuts will be pale and do not darken with baking, this is normal.
- Remove pan from oven and allow donuts to cool slightly before inverting pan to remove.
- Make the glaze by combining confectioners sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, milk, vanilla and salt in a small bowl. Mix thoroughly. If glaze is too thick, add additional milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.
- Add the coconut to a large skillet over low-medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the flakes are mostly golden brown. Remove from heat and transfer toasted coconut to a dish to cool.
- Dip slightly warm donuts in glaze and then toasted coconut. Press on coconut to help adhere to the glaze.
- Place donuts on a cooling rack to allow glaze to set before serving.
Nutrition Facts
© Copyright Christine Mello for Must Love Home. We would love for you to share a link to this recipe but please do not copy/paste the recipe instructions to websites or social media. We are happy for you to share a photo with a link back to this website instead.
Hi Louise, I would replace part of the flour with Dutch processed cocoa powder. I would start with 1/2 cup of cocoa to replace 1/2 cup of the flour. Hope that helps?!
I’m wondering how much cocoa I could add to make these a chocolate version?