Cinnamon Sugar Buttermilk Brioche Donuts
These cinnamon sugar buttermilk brioche donuts are 100% the best donuts I have ever eaten. Made with my go-to brioche dough recipe, these donuts are fried into soft, pillowy perfection, then tossed in a generous coating of cinnamon sugar. With most of the recipes that I create, I normally have one taste and move on, not because they aren’t good, but because I just can’t eat everything that I make. But these donuts… oh man, I ate 3 of them!! I tried to just eat one and move on, but I couldn’t. They’re just so so good. The buttermilk makes them slightly dense, yet gives them the perfect soft, pillowy texture we all know and love from a good brioche donut. And you cannot go wrong with a classic cinnamon sugar coating. They are the perfect mid-afternoon snack, dessert (topped with ice cream, of course), or breakfast served with your morning coffee!
Cinnamon Sugar Buttermilk Brioche Donuts
Recipe details
Ingredients
For the Brioche Dough:
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry or instant yeast
- 172g buttermilk (warmed to 110 degrees F)
- 38g granulated sugar
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 450g all-purpose flour
- 30g malted milk powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 127g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- vegetable or canola oil (for frying) (I use Crisco)
For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 150g granulated sugar
- 16g cinnamon
Instructions
For the Brioche Dough:
- Heat the buttermilk to 110 degrees F and stir in yeast and sugar. If using active dry yeast, allow to sit for 15 minutes. If using instant yeast, simply move on to the next step.
- Mix the eggs and vanilla into the milk yeast mixture.
- Combine flour, malted milk powder, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour and mix on low-medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until it forms a ball around the hook.
- Add in one piece of butter at a time, allowing it to fully incorporate before adding the next. Once all of the butter is incorporated, turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and mix for 8-10 minutes. To check if the dough is ready, tear off a small piece and carefully spread it out to see if you can see the light through it without it tearing. If it tears, mix for another minute and check again.
- Once the dough is ready, transfer it to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and allow to proof in a warm environment for about one hour or until doubled in size. Alternatively, you can proof the dough overnight in the fridge.
For Frying the Donuts:
- Roll the dough out to 1/2″ in thickness. Use one large and one small round cutter to cut out as many donuts as you can. Cover them with plastic wrap as you re-roll and cut out the remaining dough. Allow the donuts to proof at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- While the donuts proof, add enough vegetable or canola oil in a cast iron pot to fill two inches and heat to about 360-370 degrees F. The temperature of the oil will drop about 5 degrees when you add the donuts, so you want to keep it around 365 degrees.
- Fry the donuts, two or three at a time, for 30 seconds on each side for a total of about 2-3 minutes (about 1 minute for the donut holes). Dry donuts off on paper towels quickly and then immediately toss in the bowl of cinnamon sugar. Transfer to a cooling rack over a baking sheet to cool completely.

Comments
Share your thoughts, or ask a question!
What is malted milk powder?
Sorry for my ignorance, what measurement is a "g" 172g of buttermilk? is a g a gram?