Gluten Free Yeast Donuts were originally posted in May 2020 and have been updated with new pictures, a new updated video, and new tips and information.
Are you missing Krispy Kreme style donuts in your gluten free life? Have I got a treat for you! You're gonna FLIP over these incredible gluten free yeast donuts that are so much like the original, you'll think you're cheating on your gluten free self!!
We no longer have to sit and salivate when gluten-eating people around us bite into a soft, fluffy Krispy Kreme donut because we can have our very own!!
I don’t know about you, but back in my before celiac days, I rarely ate donuts. But like I’ve said before (especially with my cinnamon rolls), when we’re told we can’t have something, we want it even more (or at least I do). And since developing this recipe, I haven’t made donuts every single weekend. Not even every six months. But I definitely like having the option to make them whenever I want.
why you should make this donut recipe
- It is the BEST gluten free yeast donut recipe you'll find on the internet (see the comments if you don't believe me).
- It will fool even the toughest gluten-eating critics into thinking they're eating a real gluten-filled donut.
- The donuts are actually quite easy to make.
- You can not only deep fry these, but there's also an air fry option for those who don't like deep frying (and they're very tasty, too!).
- Make as many flavors as you'd like. Pretend you're in line at Krispy Kreme ordering a dozen mixed donuts. Or just make a dozen glazed if that's what you're feeling. It's up to you!
Ingredients needed to make GF yeast donuts
- Kim's gluten free bread flour blend -- I know it's a pain to make your own flour (believe me, I do it more times than I'd like), but if you want the best outcome, you gotta put in the effort. I'm still working on selling my flours, but until then, I offer the recipe to make them in your own home.
- Baking powder -- this might seem unusual for a yeast recipe, but gluten-free recipes need all the help they can get. Baking powder offers a little extra lift.
- Sugar -- all donuts need some sugar and you might balk at the amount in this recipe. But sugar is hygroscopic and plays an important role in not only the sweetness of dough, but more importantly the texture. Texture is EVERYTHING when it comes to gluten free baking.
- Butter -- With enriched dough, you need a form of fat and butter takes that role in this recipe. Dairy-free butter can be substituted with great results.
Time to Make the Donuts
- Make the dough. Add wet ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer, followed by dry ingredients, and knead for 5 minutes. Scrape dough into the center of the bowl and cover. Place in the fridge to cold proof overnight.
- Prepare toppings and fillings. While dough is proofing (or at the end of proofing), prepare any toppings and/or fillings you may want for your donuts. Easy and quick recipes can be found in the recipe card below, but BYOC (be your own chef) and make any of your favorites.
- Knead dough on a well-floured surface until smooth.
- Roll out to ½-inch thick.
- Cut with donut cutter (affiliate link) or round cutters in different sizes to create the inner hole. For filled donuts, either cut out with cookie cutter or shape into round, smooth balls and flatten with your hand.
- Fry at 320 F until golden brown and cooked through.
- Drain on cooling rack and top with choice of toppings.
Making the Glaze
What makes this glaze unique is that it includes melted butter. This makes it a little richer. It helps keep the glaze slightly soft instead of drying to a hard covering on a soft donut. It cracks only slightly, exactly what I remember from a Krispy Kreme donut!
Combine all the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to incorporate. Drop warm donuts into the glaze and let dry on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet to catch drips. I will sometimes double dip the donuts if I want an extra dose of glazy goodness 🙂
Topping and Filling Ideas
You can leave these donuts as big, beautiful glazed donuts and call it a day. And they'll still be so good, you won't care about a thing in the world. But if you have the time and want to delve a little further into the donut making world, go crazy with some different fillings and toppings like these:
- Jelly or jam--to thicken up store bought jelly or jam, put it in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until reduced by about ⅓. Let it cool completely.
- Creme--I don't mean whipped cream (that would just melt into a puddle when added to the center of a warm donut). I mean stable vanilla creme filling, like the one I use in my Hostess style cupcakes. This is basically the same filling used in donut shops.
- Pie filling--crack open a can of gluten free pie filling and spoon it into a decorating bag (or plastic baggie with the corner cut off).
- Maple glaze--make a maple glaze by adding maple extract or maple syrup to the vanilla glaze recipe.
- Candied bacon--dredge bacon slices in brown sugar and bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes, or until caramelized. Cut or break into small pieces and top maple glazed donuts with candied bacon.
- Chocolate donuts--add a little bit of unsweetened cocoa powder and corn syrup to my glaze recipe to produce a perfect chocolate glaze for topping the donuts.
- Granulated sugar--simple granulated sugar surrounding a jelly donut is SO GOOD!!
- Cinnamon sugar--fill a donut with apple pie filling and roll it in cinnamon sugar. YUM!!
Gluten Free Yeast Donuts Frequently Asked Questions
I find that solid vegetable shortening works best for producing the best Krispy Kreme copycat donuts (that is what they use) to produce a softer crust. You can also use vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, or any neutral-flavored oil.
Most recipes call for an oil temperature of 350-360, but I feel like this is way too high as it will produce a dark, crispy donut. I prefer frying donuts at a temperature of between 320-330 degrees F. Cooking the donuts at a lower temp will assure even browning and super soft donuts.
The answer you want to hear is...YES!!!! These donuts "fry" beautifully in an air fryer! "Fry" in a preheated 350 degree F air fryer for 4 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, dunk them in donut glaze or melted butter for dry toppings (they will need something to help the dry toppings stick to the donuts).
Gluten-free donuts, just like regular donuts, are best when fresh. However, kept well wrapped, they will last a few days beyond that.
more recipes using gluten free sweet dough
- Ultimate overnight monkey bread
- German stollen
- Cinnamon knots
- Beignets
- Bakery style apple fritters
- Ultimate cinnamon rolls
- Orange rolls
- Mexican conchas
What are you waiting for? Get a batch of my special dough going and make up these donuts pronto. You won't believe how easy they are to make, but you REALLY won't believe they're gluten free 🙂
Incredible Gluten Free Yeast Donuts
Ingredients
- 1 recipe gluten free sweet dough (recipe follows)
- oil for deep frying (canola, vegetable, or melted shortening)
Sweet Dough
- 3½ cups (490g) Kim's gluten free bread flour blend
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tbsp plus 1½ teaspoon (24g) instant yeast
- 2 tbsp (10g) whole psyllium husks (or 1½ tablespoon psyllium husk powder), optional (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups (360ml) whole milk (or dairy-free alternative)
- ¾ cup (169g) butter, very soft or melted (or dairy-free butter)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
Vanilla Glaze
- 2 cups (250 g) powdered sugar
- 4 tbsp (½ stick or 56 g) butter
- 4 tbsp (60 ml) whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Glaze
- ¼ recipe vanilla glaze (above) (you can just eyeball it)
- ¼ cup (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- hot tap water by the tablespoon or more powdered sugar as needed to achieve the right thickness
Maple Glaze
- ¼ recipe vanilla glaze (above) (eyeball it)
- 2 tablespoon real maple syrup
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon maple extract (more or less to taste)
Strawberry Glaze
- ¼ recipe vanilla glaze (above) (eyeball it)
- 3-4 small strawberries, quartered
- 3-4 tablespoon freeze dried strawberries (just eyeball it--no need to get absolutely precise)
- hot water or powdered sugar as necessary for achieving desired thickness
Cream Filling
- ½ recipe Fluffy Filling
Instructions
For the Dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk first, followed by all the other ingredients. Using the dough hook, knead dough for 5 minutes on medium speed. Dough will be very sticky. Scrape dough into center of bowl and cover bowl. Refrigerate overnight for a cold proof (bulk fermentation).
- Remove dough from the refrigerator and knead it on a well floured surface until smooth. Roll out to about ½-inch thick. Cut the dough with donut cutter dipped in flour, or biscuit/cookie cutter to make fillable donuts. Reroll scraps. Place donuts and holes on parchment squares on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free area until a little less than doubled in size.
Frying in Oil
- When donuts are almost completely risen, heat the oil in a deep fryer or large heavy duty Dutch oven to 320-330° F. Carefully lower donuts, only a few at a time, into the oil, parchment and all (especially if they're sticking to the parchment). Use tongs to remove the parchment from the oil. Fry for 1-2 minutes on each side (longer for donuts without a hole in the center).
- Remove donuts from the oil and place onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Glaze or garnish and fill as desired. Donuts are best eaten fresh, but will keep for a day, well covered, and can be heated very briefly in the microwave (15 seconds or so).
Air Frying
- Preheat air fryer to 350°F. Carefully place as many donuts as can fit in your air fryer in one layer, still on their parchment squares. "Fry" for 4 minutes (time may need adjusting depending on your specific air fryer.
- Remove donuts from air fryer. Glaze or garnish and fill as desired. To add dry toppings, such as sugar, powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar, first dunk donuts in melted butter so toppings will adhere.
For Vanilla Glaze:
- In the microwave, melt butter with milk in a one-quart measuring cup or bowl. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, whisking constantly until a pourable consistency. Dunk donuts in the glaze as desired.
For Chocolate Glaze:
- Add unsweetened cocoa powder and corn syrup to the vanilla glaze and whisk to combine fully. If too thick, add 1 tablespoon of hot top water at a time until smooth. If too thin, add more powdered sugar to thicken.
For Maple Glaze:
- Add maple syrup and maple extract to vanilla glaze and stir or whisk to combine.
For Strawberry Glaze:
- Add strawberries and freeze dried strawberries to vanilla glaze and use an immersion blender or regular blender to blend everything together. Adjust thickness by adding a tablespoon at a time of hot water for thinner glaze, or powdered sugar, a little bit at a time, for thicker glaze.
To Fill
- Take a chopstick or something similar (the end of a wooden spoon or a long, skinny decorating tip) and puncture a hole on the side of the donut. Wiggle and move it around to create more space to fill the entire donut. Fill with jelly, fluffy filling, or anything else you'd like (see other suggestions within the post itself).
Tauri Scruggs
Wow! Amazing! I tried a regular gluten recipe from Bon Appetite and tried to convert it to gluten free but it didn’t go well. This has such good texture!! I will say i didn’t use your flour blend because i already have a lot of bobs red mill 1 to 1 (i made my wedding cake with it a few months back) so it could be the reason i had a little issue but i think it’s because i didn’t cover the dough when it was proofing.
Ok so my issue i had was when i proofed the dough the first time i saw it had somewhat of a crust on top and i was like eh no big deal it doesn’t look thick. And then when i rolled it out it seemed fine. And then when i proofed the cut donuts they also got a sort of crust on the top and then when i fried them it cracked and they got super duper greasy like a funnel cake. But the texture was still light and fluffy and perfect.
I proofed the first time for 2hrs then left it in the fridge for around 8 hours. Then proofed the cut donuts for an hour. Did i overproof? Or is this bc i was supposed to cover the dough and it like dried it out sort of?
Thank you for this recipe it is amazing! I really didn’t think I’d ever have a Krispy Kreme donut again. I found out i was celiac 6 years ago as i was working as a dessert and cake baker at the local bakery in my small town. They taught me so much in my time there but there are still things i have trouble with converting into gluten free. I need to check your site for a croissant recipe.
Thanks again 💗
Ashley
These were easy and delicious! I even had forgot that I had the multi grain bread flour in the container and used that🤦♀️ they did great! We sub the regular sugar with date sugar and swerve as my little is a type 1 diabetic but the dough still rises and they puff up just the same🥰 thank you for sharing your recipes!!!
Kelley
OMG! These are the best donuts I've EVER eaten! Bravo!!! And thank you!!
Kim
Awe, so glad you liked them!!!!
Blaire
Wow! I have a son who is vegan and gluten free and his class is visiting a local donut shop. So I made these for him so he could also have donuts with his class. To make them vegan I used 6 Tbsp aquafaba for the eggs and I substituted garbanzo bean flour for the whey protein in the flour blend (same grams). They are incredible!! The rise on these was amazing. They feel and taste like the best gluten donuts! I feel like I hit the jackpot!
Kim
That is awesome, Blaire!!! I'm absolutely thrilled to know these work vegan as well!
Andrea
I made this recipe once and enjoyed how it turned out, but I realized that I did it wrong because I spaced (my 4 year old was also helping which complicates thinking while cooking) and used all five of the cups that I made in my attempt to try Kim’s gluten-free bread flour mix. I decided it’s too confusing for me to have a recipe in a recipe in a recipe printed out, and so I afterward wrote out the gram measurements assuming that this recipe needs half of the cinnamon roll dough ingredients and 3.5/5 (fraction) in grams of the 5 Cup flour mix ingredients. Here are the recipe ingredients that my calculations gave me:
(For flour)
100 grams potato starch
87.5 tapioca starch
26.25 grams tapioca flour
26.25 grams whey protein isolate
5.25 grams xanthum gum
(Rest of recipe)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 plus 1/8 tsp baking powder
12 grams instant yeast
1Tbs psyllium husks
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups milk
3/4 stick butter
1 egg lightly beaten
Beth
I’m in the middle of making these donuts and I’m so excited! I’ve made the cinnamon rolls before and they were the best. As I was remaking the cinnamon roll dough I remembered a few challenges I encountered. The cup and gram measurements in the recipe were pretty off for me….the grams were about a half cup less than the cup measurements. I decided to go by grams thinking they’re more precise. When I added the liquid to my dough it wasn’t like the initial cake batter texture but much thicker. I read in the cinnamon roll comments that someone said they added milk until the texture was more like Kim’s pictures because they used a milk substitute and assumed it was some discrepancy with using an alternative milk. I didn’t use any substitutes but still added milk until the texture matched the picture and that was helpful in getting the texture and properties of the dough I expected. I’m not sure why I didn’t get the right texture the first time. I read all the comments and tired to avoid any mistakes. 🤷♀️
Kim
Hmmm. I've always measured everything by weight (grams) and not cups, but when I first created my flour blends, I used my measuring cups to give an estimate as to how many grams are in one cup. My cup yielded 140 grams, but I don't trust cups as much as grams so I always go by grams. Maybe it's a component of your flour blend that is off, such as a brand that isn't quite the same texture as what I use. I found that when I had to substitute one brand of tapioca starch with the one I'm used to (Anthony's) because of supply issues, it was very grainy and terrible and none of my baked breads were having the usual results.
Kat
Do these donuts use psyllium husks? The cinnamon roll recipe has it as an ingredient but I dont see anywhere in the instructions to add it. Just want to make sure I dont mess up when I make them!
Kim
I'm so glad you caught that! Yes, they are supposed to and I left it out of the instructions.
Thanks so much for alerting me! It has been corrected 🥰
Lissette Zamacona-Fouhy
I have not tried them YET but they look like just what I want. Thank you so much for your recipes and for giving us options!
I have a question: How would I make these into chocolate donuts? Do I just add cocoa?
I am going to try them tomorrow so wish me luck!
Patricia
Oh my goodness... thank you for sharing this recipe! It’s been years since I’ve had a yeasty, fried donut. YEARS!! I nearly cried when I ate this, it was so delicious. My husband who can eat gluten even loved them (is that a good thing? Lol) I did use JUST egg as a substitute, since I am allergic to eggs. They turned out fantastic! Can’t wait to make some cinnamon rolls next!
Kim
Awe, yay!!!! I'm so glad you liked them! I'm also thrilled JUST egg worked as well for your egg allergy. That's awesome 🥰
Ali Z.
I love you, and my husband says he loves you too. You just made two Celiac people incredibly happy and over the moon. THANK YOU!
Erin Zibell
OMG thank you for all of your hard work in creating this recipe!!! These were so incredibly delicious.
Danielle S
Hi! Not sure what I did wrong, made your flour to the T, and allowed to chill dough overnight. It proofed beautifully and had the buttercream look. When I went to knead it and roll out, it was SO sticky I couldn’t even get my hands on it as it stuck everywhere and had to keep adding more flour but I’m worried that’s what caused it to be so tough and dense. The donuts have more thick bagel like texture and very dense. Could also be I fried too long but feels more like it is the flour. How could I fix this because not sure I would have been able to roll them out and cut them without adding so much but maybe should have been okay with the sticky and not assumed it shouldn’t have been?
Danielle S
So I just read on one of your other posts that you stated that using Bob’s red Mill rice flour can cause this issue… So that’s likely what caused this… But unfortunately I was dumb and made a 20 cups of this flower blend before I realize that… Is there anyway I can adjust the blind do you think to help counteract this problem or other recipes that I can use it for that won’t create such a tough dough? Or a way to add to it to make it better?
Kim
Oh, yes, that's why I state "superfine white rice flour" in the flour blend table and give a link to where you can find it. Bob's Red Mill is not superfine and is very gritty. Having said that, you may be able to adjust each of the recipes by reducing the liquid, but how much I'm not sure. I would start with about 1/4 cup (60 ml) and adjust from there.
Danielle S
I got the right ingredients now - but sad I have this huge flour blend to waste now 😭 going to try it with new blend tomorrow. But hoping I can figure out something that works with the old blend.
Jennifer Atkins
This dough is voodoo! Just kidding, no evil here! I am an experienced baker and even had a GF home bakery business for almost 2 years. I have NEVER worked with such a BEAUTIFUL GF dough!
I have cut out 6 long johns (from 1/2 batch) to be filled and frosted. They're resting now and I'm so excited to try them. Seriously, I haven't been this excited for a recipe in quite a while - are you looking for a new BFF?! 🙂
THANKS for all your (I know to be) hard work in formulation and then to freely sharing with all of us!
Kim
Awe, thank you so much!! Your kind words mean so much to me 😍😍😍
Jennifer
These were delicious. The dough was easy to work with after letting it rest in the fridge. That recommendation was clutch. I left it for over 12 hours but the dough did not seem to be harmed. They puffed up beautifully and were crisp on the outside and pillowy perfect on the inside. They were amazing even without the glaze. I ate way too many of them. After learning that I could not have wheat, I missed donuts the most. Thank you for helping me get a donut fix. The ones from the freezer section at my local Sprouts can’t hold a candle to these.
Kim
Awe, I'm so glad you enjoyed them! I had a small list of things that I missed when I first was diagnosed with Celiac and donuts was at the top. Then my list grew longer as time went on, haha! It's the things you can't have that you miss the most sometimes 🙂
Lori faria
Hi..the recipe for the cinnamon rolls states it takes psyllium powder but the recipe for the donuts says nothing about psyllium powder. Just want to clarify.
Thanks
Tabby Fleener
Thank you so much for this recipe!!
I made my family and I some delicious donuts last night, and although it took most of the day to make, for rising time and stuff, they were definitely worth all the effort. I am Gluten free and have been most of my life, but the one thing I miss is donuts and these hit the spot! Thank you so very very much for this! I will definitely make them again!
Kim
Awe, yay!!!!! It's my pleasure! I'm so glad you and your family enjoyed them 😍😍😍