The Minnesota State Fair (otherwise known as The Great Minnesota Get Together) is a must go event for hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners each summer. Held the two weeks before Labor Day, it’s an annual celebration of summer, fun, and really, really good food. While there are plenty of things to do at the fair that don’t involve food, I would say that for many people, the food is the fair experience at it’s finest. This week, Lane and I are teaming up with six amazing fellow food bloggers to bring you a collection of Minnesota State Fair Copycat Recipes! These fantastic foodies have recipes for all of the great fair foods (see the links below) and we’re joining in with a new recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donuts.
While it’s always fun to try the crazy new foods vendors seem to dream up (just about anything on a stick is fair game!), I find myself typically heading straight for the classics: golden french fries, fried dill pickles, Sweet Martha’s Cookies, and of course, Mini Donuts.
Looking at the list above, it’s pretty obvious that my fair food favorites lean toward the savory. I absolutely have to get the golden french fries and I’ve never turned down a deep fried pickle. That being said, the one sweet treat that I make sure to find each year are the Mini Donuts. Best eaten right after they’re made, they are tiny classic fried cake donuts coated in cinnamon sugar. My husband, a total donut fiend, loves them too so I figured it would be fun to try and recreate them at home.
The original fair version are fried and they are so good. I wanted a recipe that would make a little less mess and be a slightly healthier version. To make that happen, I used greek yogurt to keep the batter light and moist and piped them into a lightly oiled mini donut pan and then baked them until golden brown. Once out of the oven (and – this is key! – while they are still warm) they are coated in a simple mix of cinnamon and sugar. Best eaten right away, they are a total crowd pleaser for kids and adults alike!
A note about some kitchen tools: while preparing to develop this recipe, I ordered a few things online. I grabbed a classic mini donut pan (this one) and I also ordered this cute little mini donut baker. Similar to a waffle maker, you pipe the batter right into the heated nonstick baking plates, close the lid, and 4 or 5 minutes later you have perfect mini donuts! While I am not typically a fan of one job kitchen gadgets, this thing is worth it’s weight (and only about $15) in donuts for the crisp, golden crust it puts on those little babies and how easy it is to use.
You can find our recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donuts below. And be sure to check out all of the other fantastic recipes featured on our State Fair Copycat recipe roundup!
Check out these other great State Fair Themed Foods!
Vegan Nachos: Kelly & Dustin with Dining Duster
Watermelon Kombucha Slushie: Sharon with The Honour System
Breakfast Pronto Pups: Janel with Nellie Bellie
Fried Pickles with Sriracha Ranch Dip: Greta with Pickles Travel Blog
Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donuts: Lane & Holly with With Two Spoons
State Fair Cookies: Alice with Dining with Alice
Corn fritters + maple butter: Haley with Cheap Recipe Blog
Fire Roasted Herb Butter Corn on the Cob: Julia from Girl Meets Kitchen
Cinnamon Sugar Mini Donuts
Ingredients
For the Donuts:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg you can decrease to 1/4 teaspoon if you want a more mild flavor
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1 cup plain greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
For the Topping:
- 4 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
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Lightly coat your mini donut pan with cooking spray.
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In a small bowl, mix together 4 tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and set aside.
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In a large bowl, gently whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
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Melt the butter and cool slightly.
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In another bowl, lightly beat the egg. Add the yogurt, milk, butter and vanilla and briefly whisk to combine.
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Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, taking care not to overmix.
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Using a pastry bag or plastic sandwhich bag with the tip cut, pipe the batter into the donut molds, filling each well no more than 2/3 full.
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Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. If using the mini donut maker, bake 4-5 minutes.
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After removing from the oven, toss the warm donuts in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat and serve immediately.
Omg x 100! First of all, we LOVE anything mini. And secondly, mini donuts?! Yes please and thank you. 😉 There is nothing that screams “FAIR” like the smell of donuts cooking. I love that these are baked and so easy to make! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Yay! My son’s comment was “why did you make mini donuts…I want a donut as big as my head!”. Ahhhh….kids.
I can virtually smell these beauties, they look so delicious! Such a great nod to the fair food, only better!
Love, love, love fair food!
omg those look so good!! mini donuts are my fave!!!
They are fantastic! Thanks for visiting!
One of my favorite treats are donuts! I might have to make hem with my girls this afternoon. They look so yummy!
Enjoy! There is nothing more fun than cooking with kids!
These look amazing and potentially dangerous, as who can stop with just one 🙂
I wonder how this would work with vegan yogurt?
I bet it would probably would work as long as the texture was similar. Let us know if you try it!
These look delicious! Definitely want to try this out!!
Please do!! We would love to hear what you think!
wow wow wow, so darn good.
Thanks Wayne! Just discovered your amazing site-I will be visiting frequently!
Oh my goodness…there is nothing like a hot mini donut! I love them at the MN State Fair! 🙂
So, so good!
Wow this looks amazing and dangerous at the same time. I may have to pickup a mold!
Totally worthwhile!
Looks delicious and “kids friendly” 🙂 can’t wait to try it soon
So kid (and adult) friendly!
*drooling as I write this* Ok, I need to order the mini donut pan in order to make these (wish I already had it so I could make them tonight)…seriously though, these donuts look sooooo good! Can’t wait to try this recipe! 🙂
You definitely should!
Nothing better than fresh, hot donuts!!! And these look terrific!!!
They are so, so good!
I have never made donuts from scratch before, but they are one of my favorite foods. I’d love to make these!
Turns out they are pretty easy!
donuts will always make the day better. esp these ones. I wouldn’t be able to resist these. I’d eat them all
Donuts make everything better!
This makes me hungry!!
So yummy!
Love this so much! They look incredible and I may have just been convinced to buy the donut maker thing because I need donuts in my life way more frequently. Also glad to hear that the fried pickles are a must at the state fair- that makes you pretty much an automatic BFF with me! Thanks again for joining in the fun!
So much fun! Thanks for organizing!
OMG I love mini donuts, these look soooo good!
You should definitely try them out!
Those look scrumptious! Hot, fresh donuts…yum!
Right? They are what the State Fair is all about!
OMG these look amazing!!! Ive never seen a mini donut recipe before hahaha but if I do have the time I should try this one day. Normally I don’t make pasteries but this looks so good!
You should definitely make these!
Oh yum!! I’ve only made donuts at home once so I’m definitely going to try this recipe soon!
You definitely should! You would love them!
These donuts look absolutely heavenly. I bet it would pair great with some iced coffeee!
Iced coffee would be the perfect accompaniment!
These look fantastic and are one of our favorite Minnesota State Fair foods!
Yay! Hope you love them!
These sound delicious…in fact all of the fair foods sound great. I have to go gluten free, but I’m sure my gf flour blend will work. My toddler loves anything mini.
I bet it would work just fine!
I love all of these fair recipes but this mini donut recipe is one of my favorites!
Thank you Angie! XOXO
These look delicious! I can’t wait to try making them.
I hope you get a chance soon! 🙂
When the donuts are mini, I get to eat twice as many of them. Right?
Absolutely!!!!!
These look delicious! I wish I could eat one right now 🙂
~Jessica
We hope you’ll make the recipe! You’ll love it!
These sound so good!! Mini makes everything more delicious. 😉
So, so true!
These are too cute! Perfect breakfast treat!
You can’t eat just one 😉
These donuts look amazing!!!
Thanks Jocelyn! XOXO
Wondering if these can be made a little bit ahead? Like day/night before? I am having a carnival-themed party and want to serve mini-donuts, but would need to make these the night before. Airtight container? Thoughts?
Hi Liz! While I think these are definitely best made just before serving, if you’re going to make them ahead of time, definitely keep them in an air tight container and consider warming them up briefly in a lower temp oven (maybe 200F?) for a few min just before serving. Let us know how it works out!
Absolutely the bomb! I caved and got a mini donut maker (Dash) so that my grandkids and I could make simple donuts together whenever they come over. They love to make things with me, but they are young and the trick is to find things that are easy and keep their short attention span. That said, I’ve tried countless recipes for mini donuts that could be used that don’t taste like “cake” or are just plain bland. Your recipe is absolutely delicious. It’s sweet, without being cloying, tender (even from the mini donut maker, which tends to toughen donuts up), and the nutmeg adds a little zip and is so much better than cinnamon. Honestly, I can’t think of a single thing to change about the basic recipe. Truth be told, we did have to glaze some of them pink, because that’s what my little one wanted, but I couldn’t even get some of them sugared or glazed before my husband was scarfing them down. Definitely a keeper!