A simple baked donut with sweet layers of crumb topping, fresh peaches, and a dusting of powdered sugar – your summer brunch table needs these peach crumb baked donuts.
Creating recipes featuring peaches is difficult for me. Not because I don’t like them – if you’ve been around here for any length of time, you probably know that I love them. They were definitely my favorite fruit growing up, and I’ve spoken at length about my love of peach cobbler on here.
No, the issue is that I love them so much, it’s hard to keep them around long enough to actually bake them into something. I firmly believe there are few pleasures as great as that first bite of a juicy, ripe summer peach every year, and they are so good on their own that they really don’t need sugar and flour adornments.
Actually, we’ve gone a different, savory route most often this summer. If you haven’t tried adding peaches to a caprese salad with salty prosciutto over top, and then eaten it outside in some fashion, I’m not sure you’re doing summer right. Brian and I have basically lived on it the past couple months. Maybe I’ll post a recipe at some point, but Bon Appetit has an excellent version with burrata, which we’ve also done to great success. Just trust me and give it a try.
We’ve had a lot of peaches, plums, apples, berries, and a huge variety of vegetables around the past few weeks thanks to my new friends and partners at Imperfect Produce! I am so excited to be working with them. They are helping to fight food waste by sourcing oddly-shaped or surplus produce directly from farms and delivering it to your door for 30-50% less than grocery store prices. This perfectly good produce would otherwise be sent to landfills because grocery stores will only take “perfect” shapes and sizes. It’s estimated that over 20% of produce grown in America gets wasted for this reason, and I’m so happy to be a small part of the movement to fight that.
Over the next few months I’ll be developing and sharing recipes using the produce I receive from Imperfect Produce. As you can see from the photo above, there is nothing wrong with these beautiful fruits – all of which came from Imperfect. What I love about this service is that you can customize your box by choosing which fruits and vegetables you want every time, set your own delivery schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, skip whenever), and they text you when the driver has delivered it!
BONUS – You can get 40% off your first box with code “katiebirdbakes“. Right now the service is available in:
- Bay Area, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Orange County, CA
- Portland, OR Metro Area
- Seattle, WA Metro Area
- Chicago, IL Metro Area (yesssss)
- Indianapolis, IN
- Milwaukee, WI
- San Antonio, TX
- And they are adding more all the time!
Whether you have perfect or imperfect peaches, at some point you may find yourself with too many of them around to eat.
If that happens, I’ll venture that these peach crumb baked donuts are worth the time and effort. Let’s talk about the elements of these tasty little guys:
- Buttery cake donut base.
- Sweet diced peaches on top. (I tried folding them into the donut batter the first time I made them, and the donuts fell apart because they were too wet – so we’ll keep them on top).
- CRUMB TOPPING. Aka heaven.
- Sprinkle of powdered sugar snow on top. No one has ever been mad about that.
These may sound complicated, but they’re really simple and quick to make. If you haven’t made baked donuts before, you’ll be shocked by how quickly they come together. The batter is simply stirred together, topped with the peaches and crumb topping, and then they only bake for 10 minutes. That means you have less time messing around in the kitchen and more time savoring these fleeting last days of summer. WIN WIN.
Peach Crumb Baked Donuts
Ingredients
For the donut base:
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 medium peach (diced small)
For crumb topping:
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (cold and cubed)
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 6-welled donut pans (if you only have one, you’ll just have to reuse it once the first batch is baked). Set aside.
Make the donut base:
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Whisk in the buttermilk, sugar, egg, and vanilla until well-combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients – flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, and stir to combine with a large spoon or spatula. Stir until the ingredients are just combined, with no big patches of flour. Do not over mix – if you do, the donuts will be tough, and no one wants that.
- Spoon the batter into the donut cavities, or pipe them in by filling a gallon-sized bag with the batter, then snipping off a corner for a makeshift pastry bag. Fill each cavity about 2/3 of the way full, or else your donuts won’t have holes in the middle! The recipe yields 7 or 8 donuts depending on how full you make them (I got 7 once and 8 another time), so if you only have one donut pan, you’ll have to bake the first 6 and then the other 1 or 2 afterwards.
Make the crumb topping:
- In a small bowl, whisk together sugars, cinnamon, and flour. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture with a fork, pastry cutter, or my favorite method, your fingertips. Stop when some bits of butter are pea-sized, and some of the mixture looks like coarse sand.
Assemble:
- Arrange the diced peaches evenly over the batter in each donut cavity, making sure to press them lightly to adhere.
- Distribute the crumb topping evenly over the peach donut batter, pressing to adhere. Make sure you press it down so it doesn’t fall off during baking.
- Bake donuts for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned on the edges and tops (mine were done at 10). Set aside to cool for 2-3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack set over parchment paper or a baking sheet. Bake the remaining one to two donuts now if you only have one pan.
- Dust the tops of each donut with a light coating of powdered sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Thank you to Imperfect Produce for sending me the peaches I used in this recipe. All other opinions are my own!
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One of the best donut recipes I’ve tried! I made them vegan by using vegan butter, subbing the buttermilk with oat milk and apple cider vinegar, and swapping the egg for 1/4 cup of applesauce. It was perfect! I doubled the recipe to make 12 donuts and 16 mini muffins. Thanks for this one!
Wow! So glad the recipe worked for you with those substitutes, Maggie! Thanks so much for the review!
These sound amazing!! Do you think this recipe could be adapted into a muffin tin as I don’t have a donut pan?
Hi Jenn – yes, I think these would work as muffins! Just fill the cups 2/3 full, top with the diced peach and topping, and bake 18-20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Not sure how many muffins this will make, but if you try it let me know!
Hi Katie,
These look delicious but is there any way to make these without a donut pan? Do you think they would work as muffins or in a bread pan? Thanks!
Hi Anna – yes, I think these would work as muffins! Just fill the cups 2/3 full, top with the diced peach and topping, and bake 18-20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Not sure how many muffins this will make, but if you try it let me know!
I made these and they were absolutely divine! The base was the perfect amount of sweetness with the peaches and the crumb topping. Tender and moist. I made every effort not to overmix and they were perfection!
I just made these and they are superb. Absolutely perfect in every way— tender and not too sweet. I got 8 donuts. 10 minutes after taking them out of the oven, four kids devoured them and only 2 remain— little one insisted on seconds! I’ll have to hide the rest for big kid #5 and the hubs. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Thank YOU for the wonderful review, Mona! I am so excited that you and your family couldn’t get enough of these!