Barefoot Contessa: Ina Garten’s Healthier Doughnut Recipe Has the Perfect Cinnamon-to-Sugar Ratio

Ina Garten has developed the “most perfect” cinnamon baked doughnuts that will give you flashbacks to your childhood. The best part is they’re so easy to make and bake, it eliminates the need for frying that often leaves a greasy mess behind.

Ina Garten’s cinnamon baked doughnuts are an easy treat to make

Ina Garten demonstrated how to make the easy cinnamon baked doughnuts recipe on her Barefoot Contessa cooking show. “And the good news is, they’re baked, not fried,” she said, adding, “They’re so good.”

Garten started by measuring the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and cinnamon) in a bowl, sifting them together to ensure there were no lumps.

“These are really good and they have a cinnamon sugar outside. It’s kind of like cinnamon toast,” she noted. “There’s something about cinnamon toast that always reminds me of being a little kid. When you’re sick and that’s what your mother makes you — it makes you feel better.”

The Barefoot Contessa star then combined the wet ingredients in another bowl — milk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla.

“This is really easy,” Garten explained. “It’s just wet ingredients, dry ingredients … combine them.”

While combining the wet ingredients, Garten offered a pro tip she follows. “I always mix things in a measuring cup because then you can measure and mix at the same time,” she explained. “And a little whisk is one of my favorite things.”

She stirred together the wet and dry ingredients and poured them into a special mini-doughnut baking pan using a spoon. “I love this recipe because you don’t have to fry the doughnuts,” she explained. “Not to mention, it’s better for you than fried doughnuts. But in fact, you don’t end up with grease all over the kitchen.”

“And they come out looking like the most perfect doughnuts,” Garten added.

She baked the doughuts in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 17 minutes “until they just spring back when you touch them.” After they baked, Garten showed her tip for getting the doughnuts out of the pan easily — giving the pan a whack on the countertop before turning them out.

Ina Garten figured out the perfect cinnamon to sugar ratio

Garten wasn’t done there, however, as she made an easy cinnamon-sugar glaze. “The thing about cinnamon-sugar is it has to be just the right combination,” she explained. “You don’t want it too sweet and you don’t want too much cinnamon in it. If there’s too little, it doesn’t look like cinnamon sugar. If there’s too much, it almost looks kind of burnt.”

She discovered the perfect ratio: ½ cup of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.

Garten dipped each doughnut into melted butter and coated it with the cinnamon sugar topping.

You can find the full recipe on the Food Network website.

Her fans love the doughnuts

On her website, Garten shared how the cinnamon baked doughnuts pair well with hot chocolate. “The doughnuts are baked (not fried!) and dipped in cinnamon and sugar — the way your mother used to make cinnamon toast for you,” she wrote. “How good does that sound??!  It’s the perfect afternoon treat!”

Her fans left rave reviews on the recipe, with one writing, “Very simple and easy. Made with sugar coating and without and both ways were great!”

“This was my first attempt ever making doughnuts,” another fan wrote. “The recipe was very simple and the doughnuts turned out great.”