Donuts, Glazed or Filled. A great basic recipe for yeast raised doughnuts that you can experiment with to try different fillings or glazes.

Chocolate glazed homemade donuts.
Originally published December 7, 2007.
2019 update: While going through some old archived photos, I discovered some additional pictures of making these homemade donuts with the kids 12 years ago!! I’ve updated the recipe post to include the photos and updated the recipe instructions to add a printable copy.

Cooling on a wire rack.
Today’s recipe comes at the request of a reader desperately seeking a good homemade donut recipe. Regrettably, there are no decent donut shops here in St. John’s.

Dipping them in chocolate glaze.

Chocolate glazed.

Since Tim Horton’s stopped making donuts in their stores and started shipping its product as pre-frozen, partially cooked dough from some mass production facility on the mainland, this town is a decent donut desert!

Homemade round donuts fried and waiting to be filled.
Long gone are the days of fresh bow ties and lemon wedges that I so much enjoyed in my formative years. What is available at Tim’s today are pale pretenders to what once was. Sorry Timmy’s but it’s true.

Homemade donuts being dipped in vanilla glaze
Now, when the lamenting of decent donut days long gone gets too strong, we roll up our sleeves and make our own. As you can imagine, the kids LOVE this activity as much as they love sampling the results of their labours.

Partridgeberry Apple Jam filled homemade donuts.
Experiment with glazes for your donuts.
For a little extra flair to your glazes, try adding lemon or orange zest to the vanilla glaze recipe. Berry purees like blueberry and raspberry can also be added to the vanilla glaze for these donuts. Just a few tablespoons will do

Partridgeberry Apple Jam Filled.
Just adjust the icing sugar amount to add a little more if the glaze thins too much. Also, try adding the berry puree first and then adjusting the amount of milk as needed.
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charlie
Tuesday 3rd of March 2026
Thank you, Barry.
Janice Thatcher
Thursday 11th of April 2019
I am in serious need of several Boston Cream doughnuts. For some reason, they don't seem to be available in Italy. I love every recipe I've tried that you have published, so I am going to go for it! Would the filling and glaze from a Boston Cream Pie recipe have the right consistency to be used on doughnuts? Thanks for the website.
Barry C. Parsons
Thursday 11th of April 2019
Wait until June, I'll bring ya some! LOL! Yes, a good old fashioned custard recipe will work too. Like the vanilla custard in our OLD FASHIONED VANILLA CUSTARD PIEOld Fashioned Vanilla Custard Pie recipe.
Marianne
Friday 11th of January 2019
Can you fry them in a cast iron frying pan, or is that too shallow?
Annette
Wednesday 21st of January 2015
I don't suppose you have a recipe for a baked donut??
Barry C. Parsons
Wednesday 28th of January 2015
Afraid not. Might try one soon though.
Barry C. Parsons
Saturday 16th of March 2013
Icing sugar is just powdered sugar. That should be easily found in the baking aisle.