Honey Donuts with Vanilla Honey Glaze

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These Honey Donuts with Vanilla Honey Glaze are a delicious celebration of the wonderful floral flavor of honey! I usually mix-and-match multiple flavors in my bakes. I love coming up with delicious (and sometimes unexpected) flavor combinations. But, there are times that there's a single flavor that deserves all the spotlight!

Honey Doughnuts on parchment paper with white chocolate "honeycomb."

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Honey Donuts with Vanilla Honey Glaze are soft, fluffy baked honey donuts with a flavorful vanilla bean-honey glaze! Perfect for breakfast, brunch, or an afternoon pick-me-up!

If you enjoy this recipe, check out the posts for my Honey Cookies, Strawberry Powdered Sugar Doughnuts, and Apple Cider Doughnuts!

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Ingredients
Instructions
Substitutions
Variations
Equipment
Storage
FAQ
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Honey Donuts with Vanilla-Honey Glaze
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Ingredients

Here's everything you need to make these gems! Measurements for each of the ingredients are included in the recipe card, below.

Honey Donut Ingredients

Flour - Gives the donuts structure. I used all-purpose flour.
Sugar - For sweetness and keeping the donuts soft and moist.
Baking Powder & Baking Soda - For leavening.
Cinnamon - For flavor. You can skip this if you'd like, but I enjoyed the little hint of cinnamon.
Salt - To balance and enhance the flavors of the donuts.
Eggs - To provide structure and a little leavening. You want your eggs to be at room temperature.
Buttermilk - For flavor, richness, and moisture. You also want your buttermilk to be at room temperature. (Check out the Substitutions section below or the recipe notes for a quick substitution if you don't have any on-hand!)
Honey - For flavor, sweetness, and moisture.
Unsalted Butter, melted - For moisture and richness. Unsalted so that you control the amount of salt in the recipe.
Vanilla Bean Paste - For flavor! It's no secret that I love vanilla bean paste. It's soooo tasty without the vanilla bean price tag (and it pretty much stays good forever). If you prefer to substitute, you can use an equal measure of vanilla extract.

Hint: If you're hesitant to buy buttermilk for just this recipe, check out my post with 15+ Recipes Using Buttermilk with tips on how to store it (you can freeze it!) and recipes to use it up!

Vanilla Honey Glaze Ingredients

Powdered Sugar - For sweetness, and because it dissolves and gives the glaze a smooth texture.
Honey - For flavor, sweetness, and moisture.
Vanilla Bean Paste - For flavor.
Milk - To thin the glaze to the appropriate consistency. I used whole milk.

Instructions

With a few simple steps, you'll have freshly baked honey glazed donuts! More detailed instructions are included in the recipe card, below.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just incorporated.

Honey Doughnut batter in a doughnut pan.

Spoon or pipe the batter into a greased donut pan.

Hint: Take note of how filled the cavities are in the doughnut pan above! If you underfill or overfill, the donuts won't have quite an appropriate (round) shape.

Substitutions

Here are a few substitutions that you can make in this recipe:

Instead of buttermilk: If you don't have buttermilk, put 1 ¼ teaspoons vinegar OR lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup, then add enough milk (I find that 2% milkfat or greater works best) to come up to the 1 ¼ cup line. Let sit for 5 minutes, then it's ready for use!

Instead of vanilla bean paste: If you don't have it on-hand, you can use an equal measure of vanilla extract instead.

Instead of butter: If you don't have butter or prefer not to use it, you can use an equal measure of vegetable oil instead.

Variations

While the recipe as written is perfectly delicious, here are a few flavor variations that you can make:

Honey Lavender: For this vibe, add 1 teaspoon of lavender paste to the donut batter or ½ teaspoon to the glaze.
Honey Strawberry: instead of the vanilla honey glaze, glaze the donuts with the strawberry glaze from my Lavender Pound Cake with Strawberry Glaze!
Honey Raspberry: instead of the vanilla honey glaze, use the glaze from my Raspberry and White Chocolate Loaf Cake instead!
Honey Blackberry: instead of the vanilla honey glaze, use the glaze from my Blackberry Lemon Bread!
Honey Cherry: instead of the vanilla honey glaze, use my Cherry Glaze!
Honey Apple: apple glaze would also be lovely on these donuts!

Equipment

The one piece of equipment that you need to have for this recipe: a donut pan! I have owned a few brands of donut pans, and I like the one linked here best by far. If you prefer to make mini donuts, you can find a mini donut pan here.

Storage

I'll be up front: homemade donuts are best the same day. If you really want to make them in advance, I suggest making them the day before, cooling them completely, and storing in airtight containers. Wait to glaze until closer to when you plan to serve them. The longer these doughnuts sit, the more they absorb the glaze and the stickier they get. That said, we still had one left on day three, and my youngest ate it with gusto, sticky or not.

FAQ

Can these be fried?

No. A different type of dough (typically yeasted) is used for fried doughnuts. These doughnuts use a batter that can't be shaped for frying.

How did you make the chocolate "honeycomb?"

The little pieces of "honeycomb" are just melted white chocolate that I poured into molds. If you're interested in getting the molds for yourself, you can find them here.