These might just be the best keto donuts ever! Sweet cinnamon scented donuts feature a rich brown butter glaze. So good, you’d never believe they are low carb and sugar-free.
Prize winning keto donuts? Okay, I confess, it’s more like keto recipe battle winning.
If you’ve ever seen the fun and hilarious High Falutin’ Low Carb on YouTube, you know what I am talking about. He takes two similar low carb recipes and tries them both out, on camera. He’s an absolute hoot to watch so I highly recommend seeking him out. It’s all done with good humor and good grace.
I am thrilled to say that he declared these keto donuts the winners. The look on his face as he takes a bite says it all!
If chocolate is more your style, make sure you check out my Keto Chocolate Donuts too!
Why you will love these donuts
Truth be told, I was never a donut fanatic. If someone brought them into school or work, I might have half of one. I always preferred muffins or scones.
Maybe that’s why I like keto donuts so much, as they really are just muffins baked in a donut pan. But you can have so much fun playing with flavors and frostings, and making your old favorites with far fewer carbs.
Brown butter is insanely delicious and it can totally transform your recipes from pretty good to absolutely outstanding. It’s great in sweet and savory recipes, everything from Brown Butter Chicken to my famous keto blondies.
It makes the perfect glaze for these keto donuts too. Delicious and sweet, with hints of caramel, it takes them to a whole new level.
Reader reviews
“Made these this morning for my family. So yummy! They were a hit with everyone, even my non-low carb kids. My husband and I were pleasantly pleased. Lol Will definitely make again!! I love browned butter so I knew I had to make the glaze as well. Thank you!” — Karin Owens
“May I please have the option to rate this at TEN STARS??? Omigosh, perfection! I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of a wee bit more cinnamon (I think I’m addicted to cinnamon lol), and I wouldn’t change a single thing. Sweet and tender and spicy (kind of like my fiancé, who can’t wait to sample a donut!), and something I’ve been missing since having to eliminate carbs. Thank you for yet another AMAZING recipe!!” — Wendy
Ingredients you need
- Almond flour: This keto donut recipe is made with almond flour. If you would like to use a different flour, please check out the Expert Tips section where I address this in more detail.
- Sweetener: You will need a granulated sweetener for the donuts and a powdered sweetener for the glaze. I find that erythritol sweeteners like Swerve work best for both parts of the recipe. Please read the Expert Tips section for more sweetener options.
- Protein powder: In the absence of gluten, another dry protein helps baked goods rise and hold their shape. It’s what sets my keto muffins and cakes apart from the rest, as it gives them a lighter, fluffier consistency. You can also use egg white protein or vegan protein, but don’t use collagen protein.
- Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon makes the donut super delicious, but you can just do vanilla if you prefer.
- Butter: This is the star of the show in this recipe so choose a high quality unsalted butter.
- Liquid: You can use almond milk, water, or a mix of cream and water.
- Heavy whipping cream: You will need to thin out the glaze with a bit of heavy cream.
- Pantry staples: Eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt.
Step-by-step directions
1. Whisk the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, Swerve, protein powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
2. Stir in the wet ingredients: Stir in the eggs, melted butter, almond milk, and vanilla extract until well combined.
3. Bake the donuts: Fill the wells of a greased standard donut pan about two thirds full. Bake at 325ºF for 15 to 18 minutes, or until lightly browned and just firm to the touch. Remove and let cool at least 15 minutes, then gently loosen and flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Brown the butter: Melt the butter in small skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the butter is browned and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool about 10 minutes.
5. Make the glaze: Place the powdered sweetener in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the browned butter until well combined. The mixture will be quite thick. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the cream at a time until a spreadable consistency is achieved. Stir in the vanilla extract.
6. Glaze the donuts: Spread glaze on cooled donuts and let set, about 20 minutes.
Expert tips
The baking pan
Choose a good donut pan. I’ve gone through quite a few donut pans in my day and they never seem to last long more than a year or two. Then I purchased the USA Donut Pan and it’s been going strong for 6 years now. It’s incredibly non-stick and your keto donuts will practically fall right out of them.
Yes, it is pricier than most, but you are paying for durability so you save money in the end. The coating is non-toxic so you don’t need to worry about that either!
You can also simply use a muffin pan and turn these into delicious muffins.
Keto flour options
This particular recipe uses almond flour, but you do have other options. Remember, though, you can’t simply swap coconut flour for almond flour and expect good results. They bake VERY differently. Please read my tutorials on baking with almond flour and baking with coconut flour for more information.
You can make a different donut as the base here, however. Try my Keto Samoa Donuts and add a little cinnamon to the mixture. Then use the brown butter glaze from this recipe. You can either cut the donut recipe in half or increase the glaze to make it work.
Sweetener options
I think both the donuts and the glaze turn out best with erythritol based sweeteners, but you can certainly try other options. Do keep in mind that allulose will make the donuts brown very quickly on the outside so keep your eye on them.
The glaze needs a powdered sweetener for the correct consistency. Swerve Confectioners works best, in my opinion. Powdered allulose or BochaSweet may make the glaze a little thinner so hold back the cream until you see how it comes out. You may need to add additional sweetener to thicken it.
Be patient and let the brown butter cool properly before adding it to the glaze. Otherwise the sweetener can clump badly and cause the glaze to separate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conventional donuts are high in carbs, fat, and sugars so they are not keto friendly. But baked donuts are super easy to make at home with a donut pan. And you can easily make them with almond flour or coconut flour for a healthier, low carb treat.
People with diabetes need to be very careful about how many carbs and sugars they consume. But choosing low carb or keto recipes can allow diabetics to indulge in treats that don’t spike their blood sugar. So this recipe could easily be considered diabetes friendly. I find that they don’t raise my blood sugar at all.
These keto donuts have 6.8g of carbs and 3.2g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3.6g net carbs per donut.
More healthy donut recipes
Vanilla Protein Donuts
With 12g of protein, these delicious protein donuts make a fabulous keto snack. Tender and sweet, these baked vanilla donuts are easy to make and fun to eat!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts
Tender keto chocolate donuts with a sweet sugar-free peanut butter glaze. These chocolate peanut butter donuts are an easy and fun breakfast treat!
Keto Donuts Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- 6 tablespoon Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tablespoon vanilla whey protein powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 3 tablespoon butter melted
- ¼ cup almond milk (can sub half cream and half water)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 7 tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 to 2 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Donuts
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and grease 8 wells of a donut pan (If your pan only holds 6, you can make muffins with the remaining batter or work in batches).
- In a large bowl, whisk together teh almond flour, sweetener, protein powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the eggs, melted butter, almond milk, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Fill the donut pan wells approximately ⅔ full and bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until the donuts are lightly browned and just firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan 15 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Glaze
- Melt the butter in small skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the butter is browned and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool about 10 minutes.
- Place the powdered sweetener in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the browned butter until well combined. The mixture will be quite thick. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the cream at a time until a spreadable consistency is achieved. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Spread glaze on cooled donuts and let set, about 20 minutes.
Michelle says
I used the glaze on top of my PSM cinnamon rolls, and it was dynamite!!! you could put this place on any breakfast. I will try the donuts next Your recipes never disappoint.
Teri Miller says
If I don’t have a donut pan can I use a muffin tin?
Carolyn says
Absolutely!
Wayne MacAskill says
These donuts (cinnamon with brown butter glaze) are simply delicious. Great flavour and light texture. I could have eaten the entire batch myself. Thanks so much for the recipe. I’m going to try a couple more of your donut recipes now. Kind regards.
Lynne C. says
I finally made these! I used a mini pan and avocado spray oil. I used buttermilk, also. They were flat; I probably overloaded the wells. But they are so delicious that I ate quite a few before the glaze was done. Thanks for this recipe!! 🙂
Angela T says
These look delicious and I can’t wait to try them. I bet they would make incredible donut holes rolled in cinnamon & sugar. YUM.
(FYI, you have a typo on step #2)
Kathi says
Do I need to put protein powders in the recipes? Can I omit them?
Carolyn says
You need them if you want your cakes, muffins, and donuts to be lighter and not dense rocks. 😉
Marcelle says
I don’t have vanilla protein powder and don’t want to buy it just for this recipe. So how much more vanilla extract would I need to add to make up for the difference? Thanks! This recipe sounds amazing!!!
Carolyn says
I would use 1/2 teaspoon. And maybe a little additional sweetener.
Wendy says
Is there a substitute for the whey?
Carolyn says
Please read the How To section and the Frequently Asked Questions.
Wendy says
May I please have the option to rate this at TEN STARS??? Omigosh, perfection! I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of a wee bit more cinnamon (I think I’m addicted to cinnamon lol), and I wouldn’t change a single thing. Sweet and tender and spicy (kind of like my fiancé, who can’t wait to sample a donut!), and something I’ve been missing since having to eliminate carbs.
Thank you for yet another AMAZING recipe!!
Cindy says
If I could rate these a 0 I would. They went into the oven like a crumble topping and came out the same way. You should never say batter because it was nowhere close to it. Luckily, I found someone else’s recipe and fixed it.
Carolyn says
So something went VERY wrong for you, and I suspect you used the wrong flour. Because it is indeed a batter, as you can see in my video. It’s not a crumble topping at all, it’s a proper donut batter. Additionally, if you look at the other reviews, these have been well loved by many.
Please tell me what brand of almond flour you used.
Greg says
These turned out fantastic! The only changes I made was to reduce to 2 tbsp of sweetener, added 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (“the” doughnut spice), and swapped in 1/2&1/2 for the nut milk.
So excited for this recipe’s possibilities… Next time I’m going to try adding blueberries and lemon zest!
Carolyn says
So glad you enjoyed them!
Nancy says
I just baked your cinnamon donuts and glazed them with the glaze from your chocolate donut recipe. They were amazing! Tasted just like my favorite chocolate frosted cake donut from the Donut shop in my old home town. Thank you so much for your wonderful recipe!
Carolyn says
Glad you had fun and made them your own!
Rhonda says
I have silicone donut molds (which I haven’t used yet).
Would these be okay instead of the pans you talked about? And what about putting a cookie sheet under the silicone pan for stability? Will that change the cook time?
Carolyn says
Yes and yes… but the bake time may change because silicone doesn’t conduct heat as well as metal.
Shannon Sinkler says
Hi Carolyn,
I was wondering if you have used cricket flour in any of your recipes? I am very curious about this type of protein powder and what range of recipies it can be used in. In sounds like it is used very similarly to nut flours with greater benefits.
Carolyn says
Not at this time, no.
Mc says
Just made these I only added a little bit more water and they’re amazing!! Do the nutrition value include glaze ? If so what is counts without glaze ? Because i only made the donuts
Carolyn says
It includes the glaze. You will need to run the numbers yourself if you want the donuts alone, I don’t have that info handy.
Laurie says
l ran the numbers for the doughnuts without glaze and this is what l came up with per doughnut (of the recipe making 8 doughnuts)
(Note: l use Red Mill almond flour and Ripple plant based milk instead of almond milk)
2.4 carbs
6 protein
16 fat
177 calories
Caroline says
Hi carolyn have just made these they are absolutely yummy Thankyou so much definitely a keeper.
Valerie says
Hi does the nutrition facts include the glaze? Sometimes I get confused if they do or not
Stephanie Van Horn says
Can you tell me how much powdered Stevia I would need to use instead of the Swerve? My box of sweetener says 1 tsp sugar= 1/2 packet of Stevia, and 1 tbsp of sugar = 2 1/2 packets of Stevia. So, if Swerve is a one-to-one ratio to sugar, then I would need 15 (6 * 2.5) packets of Stevia to make it equivalent??
Also, how do I store them? Do they need to go in an airtight container in the fridge? How long will they stay fresh?
I am new to the low-carb lifestyle, and love my sweets. These look amazing, and I can’t wait to try them!!
Carolyn says
I really must advise against stevia in the frosting for these donuts. It will be a disaster, as you need a proper bulk sweetener to give it structure.
Kate Wilkins says
Just made these myself and they have come out wonderfully, great texture and taste.
Brilliant recipe.
Just in case you keep track of substitutions and how they work out then I didn’t have any protein powder but did have some vital wheat gluten so substituted that for the protein powder as it is a protein and it was what I had.