This baked banana donut recipe is the perfect way to use up leftover overripe bananas, on a morning where you just can’t quite make it to the donut shop for a special treat. These easy baked banana donuts have a sweet banana flavor and a fluffy texture, topped with a rich chocolate glaze.
A Short History of Edible Bananas
We think of bananas as the most ubiquitous of fruits. Blandly sweet, endlessly available, and not terribly controversial, nutritious bananas are an integral part of our diets. Bananas, however, have a long and sordid history. Bananas are native to the Indian subcontinent and traveled from there to Africa and onwards to the New World. There is much debate about the origin of the word “banana”, which may be related to the Arabic word for fingers (“Elbanan”) or the Wolof (West African) word for banana (“Banaana”).
Bananas were introduced to the United States at the 1876 World’s Fair in Philadelphia. Through aggressive marketing, and thanks to the advent of rail lines and refrigerated cars, the banana market grew rapidly. United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita Brands International), was founded in Boston and expanded aggressively into Central America through government contracts, offering construction of public works in exchange for well-priced agricultural real estate. United Fruit Company’s questionable business practices resulted in the coining of a number of not terribly flattering banana-related phrases, including “banana republic” (a country whose economy is dependent on the export of a single agricultural item, typically coffee or bananas), and “banana massacre” (named after the tragic massacre of Colombian laborers who sought to organize against United Fruit’s terrible labor conditions).
Beyond the Banana Donut Recipe: Sweet Breakfast Treats
These bannaa doughnuts are the equivalent of eating a rich dessert for breakfast. Don’t let the fact that there are bananas in there fool you into thinking this is a healthy option. But, if you prefer to start your day on the sweet side, here are a few other ideas:
Banana-ing About
Love banana so much that you need to have bananas all day, every day? Here are some other ideas to tempt you.
Useful Tools for Making this Banana Donut Recipe
No Donut Mold? No Problem!
Use a regular muffin pan to make this banana donut recipe into muffin-sized treats (these will need 20-25 minutes to bake), or use a mini muffin pans to make donut holes (these will need 10 minutes to bake).
Banana Donut Recipe
Equipment
- donut pan
- disposable piping bag
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup melted butter cooled to room temperature
- 1 soft banana
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp buttermilk
- For the rich chocolate glaze
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tsp light corn syrup
- 2 tsp water
- 1/4 cup chocolate jimmies optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray the donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, mash banana.
- Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brow sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg) into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add wet ingredients (egg, sugar, melted butter, mashed bananas, and vanilla extract), and stir to combine.
- Place donut batter in a disposable piping bag and pipe batter into the donut pan. If you don’t have a disposable piping bag, use a ziplock bag and simply snip one corner off. Alternatively, use a cookie scoop to control the flow of batter into the donut form. Fill the donut cavities no more than 3/4 of the way full. There will be enough batter to make 8-9 donuts.
- Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown and springs back when gently touched. Remove pan from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, before inverting onto a cooling rack. Unglazed donuts taste great dusted wiht powdered sugar, or proceed with making the glaze.
- Combine all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 20-second intervals until the chocolate begins to melt. Stir the melted chocolate into the remaining ingredients until a smooth glaze forms.
- Once the donuts are fully cooled, dip each donut in the glaze, then let sit on wire rack until the glaze hardens. Bonus points for topping your wet glaze with chocolate jimmies.
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