Pop Tart Donuts
These baked pop-tart donuts are a fun treat inspired by everyone’s favorite breakfast pastry! Light, fluffy donuts are topped with fruity strawberry icing and chopped bits of pop-tarts.
We love store-bought pop tarts, homemade pop-tarts, even giant pop tarts. Now it’s time for a new spin on our favorite breakfast treat—pop-tart donuts!
For all those times when you just can’t decide between a donut and a pop-tart for breakfast, now you can have both at the same time. Fluffy baked buttermilk donuts with colorful sprinkles, frosted with strawberry icing, and finished with chopped pop-tarts. Ooh yes!
About this pop tart donut recipe
Just like our chocolate donuts and pumpkin spice donuts, these pop-tart donuts are baked instead of fried. This means there’s no fussing with a yeast-based dough, and no messy deep-frying either. Baked pop tart donuts are a delight to make and a delight to eat!
One difference between baked and fried donuts is that you’ll need a donut pan because baked donut batter is a lot thinner than the yeast dough used for fried donuts. While you can make your own donut pan using a muffin pan, you can easily find inexpensive donut pans online, so we recommend taking the plunge and buying one. The silicone variety makes it super easy to pop out your donuts once they’re baked.
What you need
- Dry donut ingredients – All-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground nutmeg
- Wet donut ingredients – Unsalted butter, vegetable oil, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, buttermilk, sprinkles
- Frosting – Confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, strawberry jam, strawberry pop-tarts
How to make them
Prepare. Preheat your oven to 400ºF and spray your donut pans with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
Tip: For 18 donuts, we used donut pans that make 3-inch sized donuts.
Make the batter. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. In another bowl, beat the butter, vegetable oil, and sugar on high speed, followed by the eggs and vanilla.
Beat in half of the flour mixture on low speed, followed by the buttermilk, and then beat in the remaining dry ingredients.
Fold in the sprinkles.
Bake. Transfer the donut batter to a large piping bag and pipe the batter into donut pans, filling them 3/4 of the way full.
Tip: If you don’t have a piping bag, you can carefully spoon the batter into the donut pan.
Bake for 15 to 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean.
Cool. Let the donuts cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely before frosting.
Ice and finish. Beat the confectioners’ sugar, butter, and jam in a mixing bowl until they’re light and fluffy.
Pipe the icing onto the donuts and scatter the chopped pop-tarts over the top.
FAQs
Buttermilk is needed in this recipe for the perfect fluffy texture. If you don’t have buttermilk, make homemade buttermilk! You can substitute ¾ cup of regular milk and stir in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes and stir before using; you’ll notice that the milk is considerably thicker!
A few different things could have happened. First, make sure you measured the flour correctly by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup, then sweeping off the excess with a spatula or butter knife. Another possibility is expired baking powder or baking soda. Baking powder can start to lose its effectiveness about 9 months after opening, while baking soda has an even shorter shelf life at 6 months.
How to make these pop tart donuts your own
We love these pop tart donuts as-is, but here are some fun variations to try:
- Use different pop-tart flavors. Try raspberry jam in the frosting with raspberry pop tarts for the topping, or switch things up with your own favorite pop tart variety!
- Try a different icing. Our cream cheese glaze or simple lemon glaze would be great with these donuts!
- Try a different donut base. Use the pop-tart icing and chopped pop-tart topping on our lemon donuts.
Storage Suggestions
Store your pop-tart donuts at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Bring back to room temperature before serving.
These donuts can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Store them in an airtight container or freezer bag and let them thaw at room temperature before serving.
More donut recipes
Get the Recipe: Pop-Tart Donuts Recipe
Ingredients
Donuts:
- 2 ½ cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup (60 grams) unsalted butter, partially melted (about 30 seconds in the microwave)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup buttermilk (full fat – see notes)
- ½ cup sprinkles
Frosting:
- 2 cups (240 grams) confectioners’ sugar
- ½ cup (115 grams) unsalted butter, partially melted (about 30 seconds in the microwave)
- ¼ cup strawberry jam
- 6 Strawberry Pop-Tarts, chopped into small pieces (for topping)
Instructions
Donuts:
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Spray donut pans well with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. For 18 donuts, I used donut pans that make 3” sized donuts.
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together butter, vegetable oil and sugar on high until well mixed (about 1 minute).
- Beat (on high) eggs and vanilla extract into the wet ingredients until well mixed (about 1 minute).
- Beat (on a low setting) ½ of the flour mixture into the wet ingredients just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Add in all the buttermilk and beat (on low setting) until combined.
- Add in remaining flour mixture and beat (on low setting) just until fully combined. It’s okay if the batter is still slightly lumpy. Do not overmix or the donuts won’t bake up fluffy.
- Gently stir in sprinkles until mixed well.
- Place donut batter into a large piping bag and pipe batter into donut pans. Fill each donut up only ¾ of the way full so they have room to grow without overflowing.
- Bake for 15-16 minutes or until toothpick inserted in donut comes out clean.
- Cool for 15 minutes in pan before removing from pan to cool completely. Let cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:
- In a large bowl, beat together confectioners’ sugar, butter and jam until light & fluffy (about 5 minutes).
- Pipe icing over cooled donuts.
- Sprinkle chopped Pop-Tarts on top of frosted donuts.
- Store at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Bring back to room temperature before serving.
Notes
- If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute ¾ cup of regular milk and stir in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes and stir once more before using it as a substitute for buttermilk. Read more about how to make buttermilk.
Note: Pop-Tarts is a trademarked product. Pop-Tarts is a proprietary brand that I want to acknowledge and give credit to. This post is not directly affiliated with them other than their products being perfect for this recipe.