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Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

Delicate Baked Carrot Cake Doughnuts topped with cream cheese frosting and chopped walnuts will bring smiles to your brunch table as you sit down with your cup of coffee.


Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

Welcome back to Brunch Week, hosted by Susan of The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen and Terri of Love And Confections. If you missed day one, you will definitely want to go check out my Banana Coconut Milk Pancakes and enter to win some awesome prizes.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear brunch, I immediately think about pastries, especially doughnuts. I knew I wanted to develop a baked doughnut recipe, but what kind? Soon my mind went to these Baked Carrot Cake Doughnuts. Dipped in cream cheese frosting then sprinkled with chopped walnuts, these beauties belong on your brunch table next to your coffee. The best part? You only need 60 minutes from start to finish.



Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

My mind has been carrot cake obsessed for the past month – carrot cake cinnamon rolls, carrot cake drop cookies, even my carrot cake cheesecake from last year. Really though – what else do you immediately think of when you have a bag of shredded carrots, begging to be used? If you do use pre-shredded carrots, you may want to chop them into smaller pieces for this recipe so they are more evenly distributed in the batter. If you’re using whole carrots, shred them finely with either a grater or your food processor. Make sure you press out any excess liquid that may occur from shredding.

Normally with baked doughnut batter, you’d pipe it into the pan. However, I knew the raisins and walnuts would get stuck in the pastry bag, so I just carefully spooned in the batter. I remember the first time I made doughnuts with chocolate chips in the batter. 10 seconds after attempting to fill the pan, a chocolate chip clogged the tip. So unless your piping tip is huge, save yourself the headache. Trust me.


Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

If you’re looking for a fried doughnut recipe, please don’t use this recipe. Baked doughnut batter is meant to be “runny” like cake batter, not sturdy like bread dough that you roll out. That’s why you use a doughnut pan because the batter needs a mold of some sort. That also means these doughnuts have a cake-like texture, not a fried dough texture that you’d expect from a fryer. Some people argue that these aren’t true doughnuts. That’s ok – more doughnuts for us to eat.

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Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

Ingredients

Doughnuts

  • 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
  • 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup finely shredded carrots
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

For the doughnuts:

  2. Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease two six-cavity doughnut pans*.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove.
  4. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until creamy and smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until fully incorporated then beat in the sour cream. Gradually add the flour mixture then stir in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts.
  5. Fill each cavity in the pans about half full with the batter. Bake 10-12 minutes or until firm and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then remove to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

For the frosting:

  2. In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and salt until creamy and smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar then add the milk. Beat until smooth.
  3. Dip (or spread with a knife) each cooled doughnut into the frosting then top with chopped walnuts.

Notes

*If you only have one doughnut pan, bake the first six doughnuts, remove them from the pan as directed, then cool the pan in the refrigerator for 5 minutes before reusing.

© Carla Cardello (www.chocolatemoosey.com)

 
Source: Adapted from Inside BruCrew Life
 

More Spring Dessert Recipes



Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls


Carrot Cake Drop Cookies


Carrot Cake Cheesecake


Carrot Cake Layer Cake


Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts


Double Lemon Glazed Doughnuts

Brunch Week Recipes

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Brunch Breads and Desserts:

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  7. Carrot cake in a doughnut, topped with cream cheese icing and nuts? Who cares whether or not they are fried? Gorgeous confectionary, Carla! Perfect for brunch!

    Reply

  11. I’ll take baked doughnuts. It means I can have seconds and not feel guilty. Also less filling. Also these have vegetables, so it becomes a legitimate meal correct?

    Reply

  12. I am ordering a baked doughnut pan. I can’t wait to try it out. I just heard about baked doughnuts in the last month. I am trying not to over anticipate and recipes like this is NOT helping. Lol

    Reply

  15. I can’t believe all the ingenious ways you’ve incorporated carrot cake into different desserts, Carla. This is awe-inspiring! Your doughnuts look amazing and any fool who turns their nose up at this for not being a “real doughnut”, hell, I’ll take their share!

    Reply

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