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.
Belenda says
Have had these pinned forever and finally took the time to make them this morning. The donuts, alone, are pleasantly and surprisingly good. I have way too many fails with almond flour recipes being moist. The icing – not so much. Too much of the cooling aftertaste for me. However, not all is lost. I have cream cheese sitting out and plan on mixing that brown butter icing, couple tablespoons at a time, into the cream cheese. I hope to salvage the brown butter concept.
Carolyn says
Did you use Swerve or a different erythritol?
Heather from Canada says
Hi Carolyn. Could I use a bit of Bob’s red mill gf flour or peanut flour in place of the protein powder? Protein powders give me violent migraines, I think from the soy lecithin generally used as a preservative. Thanks!
Carolyn says
Sure, or if you can find powdered egg white, that would work too.
Janet says
Wow! I didn’t know something “healthy” could taste this FABULOUS!!!!! And the aroma as they were baking was an appetizer like no other. My husband LOVED them. He said they’re better then what you buy then added, “they’re better then home made”….. which of course tickled my funny bone because they ARE home made. Makes me feel like a Kitchen Queen to be able to offer these to my husband and growing boys. I bought 2 donut pans and can see they will be put to good use. THANK-YOU for the inspiration and the FABULOUS recipe. Thank-you even more for doing “what you do” and blazing the way for us others who are looking into low carbing and gluten free, taking out the hard part, and handing us these golden recipes on a silver platter! May you be RICHLY BLESSED. If you decided to publish cookbooks I’d love the opportunity to purchase one! Happy Thursday to you 🙂
Bryony Blood says
What about sour cream donuts? That is my fav……..
Carolyn says
I’ve never heard of them. Do you have a link to a recipe that I could make over?
Bryony Blood says
Sure! Here is one: http://www.completelydelicious.com/2012/01/old-fashioned-sour-cream-doughnuts.html
Saw a version at whole foods the other day and I was so sad not to have one!
Andre Chimene says
Carolyn, you make Diabetes Delicious!
Carolyn says
Well, I try! 🙂
jean says
Can these be made without protein powder?
Dee says
I am allergic 2 almonds, is there another flour I can use?
Carolyn says
Are you allergic to all tree nuts?
Sandi DeFalco says
Carolyn – I finally got around to making these. I LOVE THESE!!!! The donut flavor, with the added vanilla whey protein, is by far better than coconut flour donuts I have made in the past. The browned butter glaze, wowee!! I tasted it before putting on the donuts, to see if it was good, double WOW! It reminds me so much of caramel that I came back to read the post and sure enough you said it tasted like caramel. I was so anxious to try the donut (even though it wasn’t completely cooled) so I put some glaze on it. Normally, I don’t like glazed donuts, or glazed anything. But this version is awesome! Now, I went back to the kitchen to add the rest of the glaze to the other 7 donuts that are completely cooled now. So, here I am waiting for another 20 minutes (glaze is starting to thicken, oh yes) for the glaze to set and will have a second donut. I am so happy I decided to try these this morning. I’m assuming I could store these (whatever is left of them) in an airtight container, but do I refrigerate them? Forget about freezing them, they will never make it to that stage.
Carolyn says
I think you could have them on the counter for a day or two, probably no more than that. Glad you like them so much!
valerie says
Can the whey protein powder be sub with anything else? or left out?
Carolyn says
They won’t rise very well if you don’t have some sort of additional protein, even if it’s egg white powder or hemp protein.
Xotchil says
Would xanthan gum work? Im new to Keto and also gluten free baking. I see xantham gum in a lot of recipes but am unsure of what it does and or replaces. Thanks!
Carolyn says
Xanthan gum helps hold baked goods together but it won’t help them rise. You really need the protein powder for that.
Lauralee says
Just made these and they were amazing… even without the glaze! Thank you so much.
lisa says
I finally made these last night. Never did brown butter before and your instructions were perfect! I want to find other uses for it! The glaze never got to be “spreadable” so I’m unsure what I did wrong there but I poured over the cooled donuts as a glaze and the butter hardened up after. Delicious!!!!!!!
Katharine says
Just made these! I subbed plain whey protein powder and upped the vanilla to 3/4 tsp in the donuts (Sometimes the vanilla protein powder is too strong for me). My glaze doesn’t look anything like yours, but luckily it still tastes fantastic!! I just ate an entire one and swear it resembled the beloved cake donuts I used to eat every Sunday as a child. And the smell of that brown butter icing is AMAZING. I couldn’t stop smelling it. Wow! I think this is one of my favorites from your site, Carolyn. Thank you!
Katharine says
Just made these. Again. Delicious! Best part was I tested my blood sugar before eating one…and again 2 hours afterwards. And it was a few points LOWER than when I started! The glaze smells SO good when it’s warm, I can hardly stand it! I just stand there sniffing and sniffing and sniffing…..my kids don’t really like them, but that’s fine….more for ME! 🙂
Carolyn says
What is with kids, eh? Mine loved the donuts, but only without the glaze. WHAT??? 🙂
Katharine says
So your kids are crazy, too! 🙂 Ha! I’ll try making some without the glaze and see if they eat those….
Celeste says
Oh my! I made these donuts this afternoon! What a treat they are.
I did make a few changes… Used egg substitute and used Liquid splenda in place of the stevia. I used 18 drops for the donut part of the recipe. For some reason the stevia leaves me with a terrible after taste. Don’t know why…
I added 10 drops of liquid splenda to the Glaze. Only had to use 1 tablespoon of heavy cream.. It was perfect!
My DH had one and he did just fine with blood sugar control… He has been a type I Diabetic since he was 12 years old. Now 58 years old. He keeps extremely tight control of his blood sugar and so far the recipes I have tried from you site have been just fine for him. FYI…. his last A1C was 5.3
He has not had a donut since he was a little boy. Haha… He licked the bowl of the glaze!
Carolyn says
How wonderful! I am so glad for your husband that these worked out well. His A1c is fantastic! And I am so glad that one of my recipes gave him a chance to have donuts again.
Rebekah says
I made these tonight because I wanted something not chocolate or cheesecakey & hoped the kids would like. My eldest hates most of my sugar-free baking, so I was determined to make this recipe a little sweeter. I added some extra erythritol equivalent to a 1/3 of a cup, added 10 drops of maple extract along with vanilla extract & some extra cinnamon.
The glaze is not done yet, these babies just came out of the oven. My eldest tried a quarter & is asking for more! My toddler is a little harder to please though….
Winning recipe, will make these for an upcoming toddler birthday party. Carolyn, how do you come up with all these fantastic recipes??
Carolyn says
Phew, when I read the first part of your comment, I thought they weren’t going to have made the grade! I have no idea how I come up with these, they just pop into my head and I do them. I have a long list of things I want to make and there isn’t time enough in the world for me to make them all!
Liz says
I knew these would be good, but I’m STUNNED at *how* good! This was my first attempt at a baked good since going low-carb and wheat-free, and I have to tell you, with recipes like this one to alleviate a donut/cake/sweet craving, I honestly don’t see any reason why I would need to have a traditionally-made donut ever again. I *so* appreciate your efforts with these recipes… they really make me feel like this can absolutely be a permanent lifestyle for me, with no need to “cheat”!
Leigh says
Just made these after thinking about them for days. So, so, so good. I’m new to making donuts, and these were more dense than I expected, but still so very good. Will be making these again!
Johanna says
I made these in a regular sixed muffin tin. The recipe as-is made 6 muffins and they took approx 22 mins to bake.
I do not have liquid stevia so I used liquid splenda – have no clue as to the conversion so I winged it – used a little more than 1/4 c worth of sweetener (about 18 drop liquid splenda)
They were good but not sweet enpugh on their own w/out the icing.
The icing was not my favorite – the swerve stayed gritty and had a cooling effect (although def not as pronounced as my regular erythritol) I did use the confectioners swerve. I don’t think I care for the taste of so much erythritol, I find it gets bitter and burns my tongue and mouth when used this way, in this quantity. next time I may try adding powdered isomalt and polyd to my butter on the stove, melting it then adding the swerve and letting it melt completely, then take off heat and add cream. it may be more praline-like but the crystalization is not good to me. The taste itself was good – Just the after taste/mouth feel of so much erythritil. I must be sensitive to it!
I will def make the donut recipe again and play with the icing… I will have to try the other technique of dissolving the swerve in the cream first as well. Also Iwonder if I cool the browned butter in the fridge before I add to the swerve if that will prevent recrystalization.
Holly says
I made these 2 days ago, and my husband has declared them to be his favourite gluten & grain-free treat yet! I made them in a mini bundt tin, and 8 cakes took 18 mins to bake. They really were delicious, the only problem I had was the icing turned out a little gritty. Any suggestions?
Carolyn says
Hi Holly, what kind of powdered sweetener did you use? I think maybe a little more cream would have helped a bit. Here’s a suggestion….mix the powdered erythritol and cream before adding the browned butter. I think it might dissolve better that way.
Rebekah says
These look fabbo! Could I use hazelnut meal instead of almond?
Carolyn says
Sure. But keep in mind that hazelnut meal usually isn’t as finely ground so your donuts may be a little less smooth looking.
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking says
while we were away in South Carolina donuts were present at most of our breakfasts.
Yours sound so good, you can never have too much brown butter!