Gluten free lemon donuts are the perfect homemade baked donuts to make for breakfast or brunch, and these gluten free lemon donuts are dairy-free too! This easy gluten free donuts recipe is quick; the little lemon donuts are ready to eat in under 20 minutes.
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Lemon gluten free donuts are the snack my kids love when they get home from school. Drizzle icing on top, or eat these lemon gluten free donuts plain! They are bursting with delicious lemon flavor!
Just look at those little lemon gluten free donuts, and you can see how moist and delicious they are! If you love donuts as much as we do, you will check out my BEST gluten free donut recipes! I love to make these donuts for the kids. This easy gluten-free donuts recipe is much less guilty because I used applesauce to keep these gluten-free doughnuts super moist and reduce the sugar in this recipe.
My gluten free lemon tart recipe and my gluten free lemon bundt cake recipes are other great ways to use up those lemons :-). A delicious breakfast addition would be these gluten free lemon poppy seed muffins.
These moist and delicious gluten free donuts are so quick and easy to make with this Babycakes Mini Donut Maker. From start to finish, we had little lemon donuts in under 15 minutes!! If you don’t have a donut maker, I include directions for baking in the oven! For even more delicious lemon desserts, check out my Gluten Free Lemon Desserts!
Allergen Information:
This lemon donut recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free. You can easily make this gluten free lemon donut recipe nut-free! To make these nut-free, add 1/4 extra gluten free flour blend instead of the almond flour.
Ingredient Notes:
For the full list of ingredients and amounts, please go to the recipe card below.
- Gluten Free Flour Blend – I tested this recipe using Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour Blend and King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Blend. That doesn’t mean others will not work; I have not tested other flours.
- Almond flour – helps add some protein, so there isn’t a big sugar crash after eating one or two of these….(okay, maybe more like four or five. These are hard to resist!)
- Cane Sugar and Salt
- Baking Powder and Soda- Use aluminum-free baking powder.
- Xanthan Gum – If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain xanthan gum or guar gum, please add 3/4 teaspoon.
- Coconut Oil – Or another light oil.
- Apple Sauce and Lemon Juice
- Non-Dairy Milk – I used almond milk, but other dairy-free kinds of milk will work. Regular milk is also fine to use.
A Note About Gluten Free Flour
Every single gluten free flour blend has a different starch-to-grain ratio. This affects the moisture level of what you are baking. If your batter seems runny, you will need to add more flour. If your donut batter is too dry, you will need to add more non-dairy milk.
Variations:
The beauty of this recipe is that you can easily customize the flavor.
- Omit the lemon, and you have a delicious vanilla donut.
- Add white chocolate chips.
- Add blueberries or raspberries, which would taste delicious with this lemon donut.
Step-By-Step Photos and Directions:
Step 1: Add the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk to blend.
Step 2: In a smaller bowl, add the wet ingredients and whisk to blend.
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Step 3: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until “just barely mixed.” This will help keep your donuts light and fluffy.
Step 4: Preheat your donut maker. When the light indicates it is hot, add batter to each donut section. Close the lid and cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove the cooked donuts and place them on a rack to cool.
Step 5: Allow the donuts to cool completely. Drizzle icing over them or dip them in white chocolate.
Donut Baking Instructions:
I get this question a lot from my readers. I tend to use this little donut maker in most of my donut recipes. It is easy to use, making my donuts taste like they were fried…but they aren’t!
It takes about 5 minutes to bake donuts in a donut maker. If you prefer to use a donut pan, bake these gluten free lemon donuts at 350º F for 20 minutes. Remove the donuts from the pan and place them on a cooling rack.
Frequently Asked Questions:
I suggest spraying the donut pan or donut maker with a little coconut oil or gluten-free baking spray so the outside of the donut gets a little crispy.
You can definitely use coconut sugar in this gluten free lemon donut recipe. Note your donuts will be more of a brown color as coconut sugar is dark like brown sugar. To make a sugar-free lemonade drizzle, use honey with a small amount of lemon juice.
Store the donuts in an airtight container. I recommend freezing the donuts if you don’t eat them within two days.
Reader Raves:
These were very good. Didn’t have applesauce so used vanilla yogurt. Added a tsp of agar-agar. Used Monk fruit as sweetener. Drizzled with honey and lemon mixture.”
Rachel St. M, Pinterest user.
More Gluten Free Donut Recipes:
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Donuts
- Easy Gluten Free Vanilla Pudding Donuts
- Gluten Free Apple Fritters
- Fried Gluten Free Jelly Donuts
Love This Recipe?
If you made and enjoyed this recipe, I would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a comment below. Please include which flour blend you used. This will help others know this recipe is delicious. Thank you!
Gluten Free Lemon Donuts
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup gluten free flour blend * see note
- ¾ cup almond flour * see note
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup applesauce
- ⅔ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup almond milk * see note
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Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and whisk together to blend.
- In a medium bowl, add all wet ingredients and whisk.
- Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
- Preheat the Babycakes Mini Donut Maker.
- Put a little dough into each section of the donut maker.
- Cook for 5 minutes until done.
- Remove and put onto cooling rack.
- Ice, frost, or eat plain.
Oven Baking:
- Preheat your oven to 350º F. Add your donut batter to a donut pan. Bake 20-22 minutes until the donuts are baked.
Notes
- I have tested this recipe with King Arthur Measure for Measure GF and Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF blend. That doesn’t mean others will not work, I just have not tested other flours.
- If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain xanthan gum or guar gum, please add 1 teaspoon.
- I highly suggest using almond flour and not almond meal. Almond meal is more coarse and will make your donuts grainy.
- I used almond milk but other dairy-free kinds of milk will work but I do not recommend canned coconut milk. I used 1/2 cup, but starchier gluten free flour blends may need more milk.
- These will donuts keep up to 4 days in an air-tight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
SPECIAL NOTE
Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn’t test, my rule of thumb is to add more flour if your dough or batter is wet and add more liquid if the dough or batter is too dry!
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
Had everything for these and hadn’t used the donut maker I inherited from my grandma yet. Yum! I did have some blueberries I need to finish up, so lemon blueberry donuts for a morning snack. I offered to glaze them, but Hubs preferred them plain.
I love you added blueberries. I saw you post the photo of the donuts you made with this recipe, they looked so good!
When making nut free, you say (in two places) to substitute “1/4 extra” of the gluten free flour in place of the almond flour. Does that mean “1/4 CUP extra”?
Hi Toni, you add 1/4 additional flour blend and omit the almond flour.
Where is the milk in this recipe? I don’t see it in the ingredients, but you mention it in the notes and also in some of the comments.
Hi Laura, You will need 1/2 cup of milk or non-dairy milk. Thank you!
If we wanted to try these as a vegan Donut, do you have any suggestions on replacing the eggs?
I would recommend Bob’s Egg Replacer powder…I used it in this vegan donut recipe: https://www.fearlessdining.com/amazing-gluten-free-egg-free-vanilla-donuts/ I would mirror it and add the lemon juice/zest.
Great, thank you for the feedback. We will let you know how they turn out. 🙂
Do you have to use the almond flour, or can you use all Bob’s Red Mill?
Hi Liza, you can make them nut-free, but you need to use less flour than the almond flour quantity. Almond flour absorbs a lot less moisture. To make these NUT FREE, instead of the almond flour, add ¼ extra gluten free flour blend.
First off, just a quick “housekeeping note”, your actual recipe lists almond MEAL for the ingredient, but the Amazon link, and the footnote, both refer to/strongly suggest using almond FLOUR, NOT almond meal. So that might be worth fixing on the recipe, so as not to confuse readers/cause any problems for those who might skip the footnotes. 🥰
Secondly, We loved these donuts! We did replace the coconut oil with avocado, (with three littles and no microwave, taking the time to melt the coconut oil on stove/oven, and then wait for it to cool a bit so as not to fry the eggs in the batter, is just not going to happen. 🤦🏻♀️) so the batter was on the runnier side. Because of this, we had to fiddle around with the time/temp a bit to find out what worked best, and the *ahem* 2nd, 3rd, or 4th batch we made, we did skimp a bit on the liquid ingredients/added a smidge more flour to help with the batter consistency… so we’re still tweaking to find the best way to use the recipe with avocado oil, but overall, they were super yummy! 😋 TIP: If you LOVE lemon like we do, adding several drops of lemon essential oil really helps punch up the lemon flavor.
Hi Ariel, thanks for the housekeeping note. I will check that. As for the avocado oil, it shouldn’t be any different than the coconut oil. What gluten free flour blend are you using? The starchier mixes tend to turn out more liquidy than others. My guess is that is your problem, not the fact that you are using avocado oil.
Wow! So easy! So good! Thank you for this amazing recipe!
I am so glad you enjoyed them Kiki 🙂
Would flax eggs work with this recipe?
Hi Nancy, I haven’t tested this recipe with flax eggs. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out.