Banana Bread Doughnuts – Cakey baked doughnuts made of banana bread batter and dipped in a brown butter frosting and topped with chopped walnuts

Looking for some more easy back-to-school snacks for your kiddos? Well, look no further! Today’s recipe is kid-friendly and super simple to make for a fun afternoon snack.

Baked doughnuts have become my new go-to for doughnut recipes because they take virtually no time at all, especially when comparing to the time it takes to make classic fried doughnuts. Instead of frying the batter in hot oil, the doughnuts bake in preset molds that form the perfect round shape.

I’ve made a few different versions of baked doughnuts in the past, including:

• Irish Cream Baked Doughnuts
• Blueberry Crumb Doughnuts
• Apple Cider Crumb Doughnuts

I seem to have an affinity for fruity doughnuts, huh? I’m only adding to that theory with today’s recipe for Banana Bread Doughnuts. Made with a simple batter out of ripe bananas, flour, spices, and sugar, this doughnut has all the flavor of banana bread but with a little extra sweetness to make it a sweet treat perfect for afternoon snacks.

How is this doughnut made?

As I mentioned above, this doughnut is baked in a mold. Therefore, the process is much simpler than frying dougnuts:

• No rolling out dough
• No cutting dough into perfect circles
• No messy frying process

Instead, the process is similar to making banana bread, but then just filled into the doughnut mold.

First, you whisk the dry and wet ingredients separately. Then, they’re gently folded together to make the batter. No need for a mixer in this recipe. In fact, I almost warn against it because you’ll risk overmixing the batter, which will make the doughnuts tough in texture.

After the batter is made, it’s scooped into greased doughnut molds. They’re baked for 15 minutes or until they are no longer giggly.

After they’ve cooled down, they’re removed from the molds and ready for frosting.

Brown Butter Frosting

This frosting is slightly unique because it’s made with melted, browned butter instead of softened butter that’s been whipped with powdered sugar. To brown butter, all you do is melt it until the butter solids start to turn brown and the smell is wonderfully nutty and rich.

Once the butter has browned, sugar, vanilla, and cream are added to form the frosting. The doughnuts are then dunked into the frosting, top-down, to cover the top in creamy frosting. You can spread it on, as well, but it looks smoother and neater when you dunk them.

Finally, the doughnuts are finished with finely chopped walnuts.

Tips & Tricks

1. Make sure not to fill the doughnut molds too much, or else the doughnuts won’t be able to hold their round shape when baking.
2. Doughnuts must be completely cool to the touch before frosting, or else the frosting will melt right off the doughnut.
3. To fill the molds neatly, I put the batter into a plastic storage bag and piped it in. Super clean and mess free!
4. Don’t add all the cream/milk to the frosting at once. Remember – once you add it, you can’t take it back out! So add just one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you want. It should be thick like cake frosting but thin enough that you can dip the top of the doughnut and have it coat it evenly.

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More recipes you’ll love:

Easy Banana Cake

Banana Bread Sundae

Banana Nut Cinnamon Rolls