Elevate your holiday brunch or dessert table with these easy Cranberry Orange Donuts! The recipe features fresh cranberries and an orange zest with plenty of ginger to spice them up. These donuts are also tender and moist thanks to the addition of sour cream.
Cranberry Orange Donuts
These baked holiday donuts are perfect to serve for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. The seasonal flavors are bright and cheery. Fresh cranberries add a tartness without being bitter. The orange zest and ginger are a great pairing with the berries and using sour cream rather than milk in the batter creates a rich moist donut.
My tween daughter loved them so much, I had to hide them on her...lol
If you like the cranberry orange flavor combo, try my Cranberry Orange Scones and Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies with walnuts.
Orange Ginger Glaze
The simple glaze for the cranberry orange donuts repeats the complimenting flavors of orange and ginger. It is an easy mixture of orange juice, zest, ground ginger and powdered sugar.
Sour Cream in Baked Goods
Using sour cream in my baked goods is one of my go to tricks. I use it in many of my bundt cakes but had not yet tried sour cream making donuts until now. I will certainly continue to do so after my experience creating these festive donuts.
Most donuts have a tendency to dry out quickly if left uncovered to serve. These Cranberry Orange donuts held up amazingly well, even being exposed to the air.
How to Make Cranberry Orange Donuts
Now I have a step-by-step guide with pictures to help those of you newer to baking. If you're an experienced baker you may wish to skip down to the printable recipe card.
Donut Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder (aluminum-free)
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoon melted butter
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
- ½ cup chopped cranberries (use fresh NOT frozen)
- Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat the cavities in your doughnut pan/s with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- Gather your ingredients. Chop your fresh cranberries a zest an orange.
- Whisk your flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Toss the salt in with your egg and beat. I use coarse salt such as sea salt and Kosher salt in my home, so add it to wet ingredients to give it time to dissolve.
- Mix in your melted butter and Hood Sour Cream.
- Then stir in the orange zest.
- Mix the chopped fresh cranberries into the dry ingredients. This helps coat them, so the don't get beat up while mixing the dough after.
- Now pour the wet bowl into the dry and mix well. You can expect the dough to be thick.
- Fill your prepared pans nearly to the top, about 80% full. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until pick will pull clean and edges are golden brown.
- Flip the donuts out onto a wire cooling rack. Allow to fully cool before icing.
Glazing the Donuts
Mix up this quick glaze for the Cranberry Orange donuts.
Glaze Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbs orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ tablespoon orange zest
What to do
-
- Start by simply mixing the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
- Dunk the top of each donut topside down into the bowl of glaze.
- Lift up and let excess glaze drip off for a second or two, then flip the donut over.
- Place the glazed donuts back on the wire rack for the glaze to dry.
- Once the glaze has firmed up, plate the cranberry orange donuts to serve. Store extra donuts in an airtight container.
- Start by simply mixing the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
Donut Recipes
If you like these, try my other delicious donut recipes:
- Baked Maple Glazed Donuts
- Baked Strawberry Donuts
- Glazed Yeast Raised Donuts
- Apple Cider Donuts
- Greek Yogurt Lemon Donuts
Cranberry Orange Donuts
Equipment
- doughnut baking pans
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder aluminum-free
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoon melted butter
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
- ½ cup chopped cranberries use fresh NOT frozen
Glaze
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbs orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ tablespoon orange zest
Instructions
Donuts
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat the cavities of standard sized doughnut pans with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In another bowl, beat eggs with salt. Then beat in the melted butter and Hood Sour Cream. Mix in the orange zest.
- Toss the chopped cranberries in the dry mixture to coat, then pour in the wet ingredients and mix well.
- Fill the prepared doughnut pans about 80% full.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick pulls clean and edges are golden brown.
- Flip the donuts out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
Glazing
- Whisk the glaze ingredients together until smooth.
- Dunk each donut top down into the icing. Lift and allow excess to drip off for a couple seconds and flip over. Place each back on the cooling rack for glaze to dry.
- Once the glaze icing is dry, the donuts are ready to serve.
Recipebook says
It looks yum. The description of the recipe was good.