Did you know that you can make more than just pancakes with pancake mix? These baked Pancake Mix Donuts are incredibly easy to make with just a box of mix and a few other ingredients!
Don't get me wrong, I love pancakes just as much as the next person. But sometimes... It's really donuts that I crave.
And while I can certainly make my own donuts from scratch (and have lots of easy baked donut recipes here on the blog!), sometimes it's nice to take a shortcut or two to get donuts on the table even quicker.
These Pancake Mix Donuts are absolutely delicious and you'll be shocked by how easy they are to make! I decided to use the mix to make vanilla chocolate chip donuts, but you can make any flavor you want.
Can You Make Donuts with Pancake Mix?
Yes, you can! Most pancake mixes are simply made up of flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt (some of them have other ingredients added in or variations of these, but they're all fairly similar).
And this means that if you're using a pancake mix to make donuts, you have 3 ingredients in one. I say 3 because I do recommend adding more sugar to the batter as you generally want more sugar in donuts than in pancakes.
Of course, I have to note that using pancake mix to make donuts doesn't make baking them that much easier and if you have all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt in your pantry, you can easily make donuts from scratch without a mix!
Just make sure you have a donut pan on hand!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
You'll love this recipe because it will make flawless delicious donuts every single time. You won't need to get quite as many ingredients out of your pantry and it's the perfect recipe if you have a lot of pancake mix on your hands and want to switch things up!
Ingredients
You don't need too many ingredients to make these baked pancake mix donuts and it's likely that you already have many of them in your kitchen!
Remember that you can use any mix-ins you want. I used chocolate chips for these ones, but feel free to add fruit, nuts, coconut, or anything you want!
Here's everything you need to make the donuts:
- Pancake mix
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Whole milk
- Melted unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- Mini chocolate chips (or add-ins of choice), optional
- Icing (recipe below), optional
- Sprinkles (or topping of choice), optional
I suppose the donut icing is optional, too, but how much more delicious are donuts when they're topped with icing? Here's what I use for my vanilla icing:
- Confectioners' sugar
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
How to Make Pancake Mix Donuts
If you've ever made baked donuts before, you know how easy they are to make. These ones are even easier!
To start, make sure you preheat your oven to 325 degrees and spray a donut pan with cooking spray.
Then, in a large bowl, whisk together pancake mix and sugar.
And in a separate small bowl, lightly whisk the eggs.
Whisk milk, melted butter, and vanilla into the eggs, until combined.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, taking care not to over-mix.
Gently fold in chocolate chips or your add-ins of choice. You can keep the donuts plain, too, if that's what you desire.
Fill each cavity in donut pan about ¾ of the way with batter.
I recommend putting the batter in a plastic bag and cutting off the corner to pipe it into the pan (you can also use a pastry bag). This makes piping the batter so much easier!
Bake the donuts for 9-11 minutes, until they're light and springy to the touch.
Let them cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove to cool completely on wire rack.
If you only have a 6-cavity donut pan, repeat with remaining batter.
How to Make Vanilla Icing
I highly recommend you add icing and sprinkles to your donuts and you can make this super easy vanilla icing while the donuts are cooling.
In a medium bowl, whisk confectioners' sugar, 2 Tbsp milk, and vanilla extract together until well combined.
If you want your icing to be thinner, add remaining Tbsp milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.
When doughnuts are cooled, dip them upside down into the icing to coat the tops.
Add sprinkles or topping of choice.
Let the icing harden a bit and you're ready to enjoy the easiest, yummiest donuts ever!
Really though, they're perfectly soft and tender and filled with sweet vanilla flavor. Nobody would guess they were made with a pancake mix!
More Flavor Ideas
I wanted to keep these pancake mix donuts simple, which is why I flavored them with vanilla and added in chocolate chips. But there's so much you can do with your own baked donuts. Here are some ideas:
- Use cocoa powder to make your pancake mix donuts chocolate flavored.
- Add in fruit like strawberries, blueberries, or banana.
- Use extracts other than vanilla to add flavoring, like almond, hazelnut, lemon, etc.
- Use other add-ins like coconut, nuts, or butterscotch chips.
- Add sprinkles into the batter for a fun look.
What Else Can You Make with Mixes?
There's so much you can do with a box of pancake mix besides make pancakes! I also love baking with muffin mixes. No matter what you have on hand, you can make delicious baked goods! Here are some of my favorite mix recipes:
- Pancake Mix Cookies
- Pancake Mix Crepes
- Pancake Mix Muffins
- Muffin Mix Cookies
- Muffin Mix Pancakes
- Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick (from Sense and Edibility)
Easy recipes are my favorite when it comes to baking because the faster I can have a baked treat in my hand, the better!!
Some days you wake up craving pancakes and some days you wake up craving donuts. Luckily, with a box of pancake mix, you can have either! Or both.
More Easy Donut Recipes
All of my other donut recipes are from-scratch without pancake mix, but if you don't have flour or baking powder, you can certainly finagle all of these recipes a bit to make them with pancake mix! Here are some of my favorites:
- Carrot Zucchini Yogurt Donuts
- Milky Way Donuts
- Coconut Salted Caramel Donuts
- Strawberry Frosted Donuts
- Fruity Pebbles Donuts
- Blueberry Mojito Donuts
- Cranberry Matcha Donuts
- Guinness Donuts
- Sprinkle Donuts (from Beyond the Coop)
Hooray for making easy recipes even easier! And for taking a classic ingredient and turning it into something completely different. Pancake mix donuts will likely become a favorite recipe with your family!
What's the best thing you've made with a boxed mix?
Pancake Mix Donuts
Ingredients
- 2 cups pancake mix
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips (or add-ins of choice), optional
- Vanilla icing (recipe below)
- Sprinkles (or topping of choice)
Vanilla Icing
- 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a donut pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together pancake mix and sugar.
- In a separate small bowl, lightly whisk eggs. Whisk milk, melted butter, and vanilla into the eggs, until combined.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, taking care not to over-mix. Gently fold in chocolate chips or your add-ins of your choice.
- Fill each cavity in donut pan about ¾ of the way with batter. I recommend putting the batter in a plastic bag and cutting off the corner to pipe it into the pan (you can also use a pastry bag).
- Bake donuts for 9-11 minutes, until they're light and springy to the touch. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. If you only have a 6-cavity donut pan, repeat with remaining batter.
- When doughnuts are cooled, dip upside down into icing to coat the tops. Add sprinkles or topping of choice.
Vanilla Icing
- In a medium bowl, whisk confectioners' sugar, 2 Tbsp milk, and vanilla extract together until well combined.
- If you want your icing to be thinner, add remaining Tbsp milk a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.
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