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These deep fried Maple Donuts are old-fashioned, cake-style donuts made with warm spices and plenty of maple flavor, then finished with a rich brown butter maple glaze. They’re crisp around the edges, soft and tender in the center, and perfect for a cozy Fall breakfast!
For more delicious donut recipes, make my buttermilk donuts next!
Maple Donuts: Recipe Highlights
- 🍁 Prep Time: 25 mins
- 🍩 Cook Time: 20 mins
- 🕛 Ready In: 2 hrs 45 mins, including chilling
- 👥 Serves: About 9-10 donuts
- 🔥 Cook Method: Make and chill the donut dough, cut the donuts, then fry until golden and dip in a brown butter maple glaze.
- Flavor Profile: Buttery, maple-forward, warmly spiced, and slightly tangy with a rich brown butter finish.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy/Intermediate: the dough come together in one bowl, but frying and maintaining the oil temperature takes a little extra attention.
Why You’ll Love These Maple Donuts
- That old-fashioned donut texture. These maple cake donuts have everything I love about a classic cake donut – crisp on the outside, tender in the middle, and have that dense-but-soft texture you want from a classic cake donut.
- Maple flavor all the way through. Maple extract flavors the donut dough, while real maple syrup goes into the glaze, so you get maple in every bite!
- The brown butter glaze makes them extra special. Browning the butter adds a deep, nutty flavor that pairs perfectly with the maple and warm cinnamon and nutmeg. If you’ve never tried it before, check out my guide on how to make brown butter for all of my tips.
Table of contents
Key Ingredients
(full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card)
- Sour cream – The star of the dough. It adds moisture, richness, and that classic tender cake donut texture.
- Salted butter – Melted butter adds richness to the donuts. For the glaze, we brown the butter for that deep, nutty flavor.
- Brown sugar and Granulated Sugar sweeten the donuts while adding moisture, caramel notes, and a little extra depth that works especially well with maple.
- Egg + egg yolk provide structure and richness, with the additional yolk helping create a softer, more tender crumb.
- Maple extract gives the donuts a much more pronounced maple flavor than maple syrup alone would provide. If you’re a fellow maple lover, my maple biscuits with brown butter glaze use that same maple + brown butter combination, so delish!
- All-purpose flour provides enough structure for the donuts to hold their shape while keeping them tender.
- Cinnamon + nutmeg – Add subtle warmth without overpowering the maple flavor.
- Maple syrup – Gives the glaze natural maple flavor and complements the stronger maple extract in the donut dough.
- Powdered sugar – Creates the base of the smooth maple glaze.
How To Make Maple Donuts
Make the donut dough. Whisk the melted butter and sugars together, then mix in the egg, egg yolk, maple extract, vanilla, and sour cream. Fold in the dry ingredients just until a soft dough forms.
Make the maple glaze. Brown the butter, then whisk it with maple syrup, powdered sugar, and heavy cream. Dip the warm donuts for a thinner glaze or let them cool first for a thicker coating.
Chill and cut the donuts. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, then press it to about ½-inch thick. Cut out the donuts and holes, then lightly score the tops with a sharp knife.
Fry until golden. Heat the oil to 350–365°F and fry the donuts in small batches for about 2 minutes per side, until golden brown and cooked through. Place onto a wire rack to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then dip into the maple glaze.
Pro Baking Tips
- Don’t overmix the dough. Once the flour goes in, fold just until no dry streaks remain. Overworking the dough can make cake donuts dense or tough instead of soft and tender.
- Keep the dough about ½-inch thick. Rolling or pressing it too thin can give you flatter, drier donuts. A thicker dough gives you that substantial bakery-style cake donut texture.
- Don’t skip scoring the tops. That shallow cut gives the donuts a natural place to split as they fry, creating those signature craggy sour cream donut edges.
- Watch the oil temperature closely. Aim for roughly 350–365°F. Oil that’s too cool can make the donuts greasy, while overly hot oil can brown the outside before the centers finish cooking. Let the oil come back to temperature between batches. This is especially important after adding cold dough to the pot.
- Fry in small batches. Two donuts at a time helps prevent the oil temperature from dropping dramatically.
Recipe FAQs
Cake donuts can be either baked or fried, but traditional old-fashioned cake donuts are fried. Frying gives them a crisp, golden exterior while keeping the inside soft and cakey. This maple donut recipe is fried for that classic texture and craggy finish.
An old-fashioned cake donut is a fried donut made with a chemically leavened dough instead of yeast. It has a denser, more tender crumb than a yeast donut and usually develops cracks and ridges as it fries.
Not quite. Cake donuts use similar ingredients to cake, like flour, eggs, sugar, fat, and baking powder, etc. but the dough is much thicker and sturdier than cake batter. For this recipe, the dough is chilled, rolled out, cut into rings, and fried rather than poured into a pan.
I don’t recommend it for this recipe. This dough was developed for deep frying. An air fryer will produce a softer, more biscuit-like exterior and won’t give you quite the same finish.
More Cake Donut Recipes
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Maple Cake Donuts
Equipment
- Heavy Bottom Pot (like a Dutch oven)
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp (56 g) Salted Butter, (melted)
- 1/2 cup (110 g) Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) Sugar
- 1 large (50 g) Egg
- 1 (18 g) Egg Yolk
- 1 tbsp Maple Extract, (sometimes called "maple flavoring")
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/4 cups (300 g) Sour Cream
- 3 1/2 cups (467 g) All Purpose Flour
- 4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 4-5 cups Vegetable Oil, (for frying)
Brown Butter Maple Glaze
- 6 tbsp (84 g) Salted Butter, (browned)
- 6 tbsp (120 g) Maple Syrup
- 2 cups (250 g) Powdered Sugar
- 4-5 tbsp (75 g) Heavy Cream
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Whisk together for about 1 minute, until the sugars begin to dissolve, then add an egg, egg yolk, maple extract, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Continue to mix until everything is smooth, about 1 minute. 4 tbsp Salted Butter 1/2 cup Brown Sugar 1/2 cup Sugar 1 large Egg 1 Egg Yolk 1 tbsp Maple Extract 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 1 1/4 cups Sour Cream
- Add the dry ingredients – all purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Use a flat spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a dough begins to form. Mix until there are no patches of flour, then stop mixing – this prevents the donuts from becoming tough. 3 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour 4 tsp Baking Powder 1 tsp Kosher Salt 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for 2 hours, ideally overnight, but until the dough is completely cold and firm enough to handle without falling apart.
- Once chilled, add about 3 inches of oil to a heavy bottom pot over medium heat. Warm until the oil reaches about 350-365 degrees F. It's helpful to use a candy thermometer to prevent the oil from becoming too hot and burning the donuts or too cool and the donuts becoming greasy. 4-5 cups Vegetable Oil
- While the oil is warming, make the brown butter maple glaze. Add butter to a skillet over medium heat. Once melted, reduce heat to medium low. Cook until the butter turns foamy and golden brown and has a nutty aroma, about 5-7 minutes, stirring often. Continue to heat until the milk solids/brown bits form on the bottom of the pan and are a deep brown color. 6 tbsp Salted Butter
- Pour the browned butter into a large mixing bowl (no need to let it cool) and add maple syrup and powdered sugar. Whisk together until smooth – it should thicken quite a bit. Then add 4-5 tablespoons of heavy cream and whisk until desired consistency – I added all 5 tablespoons of heavy cream for a thinner glaze. 6 tbsp Maple Syrup 2 cups Powdered Sugar 4-5 tbsp Heavy Cream
- Add the donut dough to a lightly floured work surface. The dough may be a little sticky so it's helpful to dust your hands with flour. Press the dough out until it's about a 1/2 inch thick, then use a 3-inch donut or biscuit cutter to cut donuts out of the dough. Place onto a piece of parchment paper, then use a 1-inch ring cutter (you can also use the bottom opening of a piping tip) to press into the center of the donut to create the donut hole.
- Using a sharp knife, make a shallow cut around the top of each donut, being careful not to slice all the way through. This gives the donut a natural place to split and crack as it fries.
- Fry 2 donuts at a time for 2 minutes per side, until golden brown cooked all the way through. Place donuts onto a wire rack to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then dip into the glaze (if the glaze has stiffened, microwave for about 15 seconds until it's become loose in texture).
- For a thinner more Krispy Kreme style finish/glaze, glaze the donuts while they're still warm. For a thicker glaze, wait for the donuts to cool completely – then add the glaze on top.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
