A donut you baked is a different object from a donut you bought.
Not worse. Different. The crumb is closer to a cake than to something pulled out of hot oil, and once you stop expecting the second thing, the first is genuinely good. It also means no fryer, no vat of oil to deal with afterwards, and a pan that goes in the dishwasher.
Every donut on this list comes out of the oven, and none of them costs more than 5 WW Points. Most sit at 3 or under. You need one donut pan, which is the only piece of equipment here that is not already in your kitchen, and it will pay for itself somewhere around the fourth batch.
A note on swaps: change the icing, the flour, or the serving size and the number changes with it. The recipe card on each post has the current value. And if donuts turn out not to be the thing you wanted, the rest of the Weight Watchers desserts are on one page, filterable by points.
1. Cinnamon Cake Donuts
The one to make first, and the one to make when you have no plan. Cinnamon sugar on a warm cake donut is the whole argument for baking these at all.
Roll them while they are still warm so the sugar has something to hold onto. Cold donuts shed it straight into the bottom of the container.
2. Chocolate Glazed Donut
The plain-clothes classic. A dark glaze that sets firm enough to stack, over a soft chocolate crumb.
Let them cool on a rack, not a plate. Glaze poured over a donut sitting on a flat surface pools underneath and stays tacky.
3. Blueberry Cake Donuts
Whole berries baked right into a pale cake crumb, so every one comes out a slightly different shape. They look homemade in the way you want them to.
Frozen blueberries work and do not need thawing. Toss them in a spoonful of the dry mix first so they stay put instead of sinking.
4. Nutella Filled Donut Bites
Round rather than ring-shaped, with a pocket of chocolate hazelnut in the middle that you do not see until you bite in. The cheapest item on this list, points-wise, which is a strange thing to say about a filled donut.
Two bites each. Make the full batch, because a half batch disappears at the same speed.
5. Apple Cinnamon Donuts
Soft apple pieces through a cinnamon crumb. This is the everyday version of the apple cider donut further down the list, and it is the one that works in March as well as October.
Dice the apple small. Big chunks steam and leave wet holes in the crumb.
6. Baked Apple Cider Donuts
The autumn one. Cider reduced down concentrates the flavour enough to survive baking, which is the trick the orchard stands use and the reason theirs taste like anything.
If you skip the reduction step you get a plain spice donut. Good, but not the thing you were after.
7. Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Buttercream
Orange-crumbed and properly spiced, with buttercream on top and pumpkin seeds scattered over. The most dressed-up donut here.
Canned pumpkin purée, not pie filling. The filling is pre-sweetened and will throw both the texture and the points.
8. Pumpkin Strudel Donuts
The other pumpkin one, and the better of the two if you like a streusel top. Crumb topping baked on, white icing over it.
Press the streusel down lightly before baking. It slides off donuts more readily than it does a loaf.
9. Carrot Cake Donuts
Grated carrot right through the crumb and cream cheese icing on top. It is carrot cake that has agreed to be portioned for you, which is most of the battle.
Grate the carrot fine. Coarse shreds stay firm and read as raw vegetable in a donut.
10. Sour Cream Donuts
Plain, lightly glazed, no fruit and no candy. The one for people who think the rest of this list is trying too hard.
Sour cream is doing real work here. It keeps a lean batter tender, which is exactly the problem baked donuts usually have.
11. Funfetti Cake Donuts
Sprinkles through the batter, white icing, more sprinkles on top. Birthday food that happens to be portioned.
Use jimmies, the rod-shaped ones. Nonpareil balls bleed their colour into the batter and turn it grey.
12. Strawberry Donuts
Real strawberry through the crumb with lemon behind it, finished with a dusting of icing sugar rather than a glaze. Lighter than most of this list.
Dust just before serving. Icing sugar dissolves into a damp crumb within the hour.
13. Raspberry Jam Donuts
Not filled — glazed, with jam spooned over the top so it runs down the sides. Gets you most of the jam-donut experience without the piping bag.
Warm the jam slightly so it pours instead of sitting in a lump.
14. Raspberry Lemon Cake Donuts
Raspberry flecks through the crumb, lemon icing drizzled over. The combination is a cliché because it works.
Fresh raspberries break up as you fold them in and streak the batter pink. That is fine, and arguably better.
15. Blueberry Oatmeal Donuts
Oats give these a heartier, more substantial crumb than the rest, and they are one of the lowest-point items here. The closest thing on this list to breakfast.
Let the oats sit in the wet ingredients for ten minutes before mixing. Skipping it leaves them chalky.
16. Toasted Coconut Donuts
Shredded coconut toasted until it is properly golden, piled on top. Untoasted coconut is a texture; toasted coconut is a flavour.
Watch it in the pan. It goes from pale to burnt in about forty seconds.
17. Peanut Butter Donuts
Peanut butter and banana in the crumb, chocolate on top. Three flavours that have been getting along for a century.
Very ripe bananas. The spotted ones you were about to throw out are the correct ones.
18. Triple Chocolate Brownie Donuts
The densest thing here. Closer to a brownie bent into a ring than to a cake donut, which is the point.
Pull them a minute early. Chocolate batters look underdone right when they are done.
19. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Donuts
Chocolate chips through an oat crumb. Sturdier than the rest, and the one that survives a lunchbox.
Mini chips distribute better than full-size ones in a batter this thick.
20. Mint Oreo Donuts
Pale green icing and crushed chocolate cookie over the top. Unsubtle and completely aware of it.
Crush the cookies coarsely. Powder sinks into the icing and you lose the crunch entirely.
21. Mocha Donuts
Coffee in a chocolate batter, which mostly reads as “more chocolate” rather than as coffee. One of two items on this list at the 5-point ceiling, and worth it.
Instant espresso powder, not brewed coffee. Liquid coffee thins the batter and the flavour disappears.
22. Caramel Pretzel Donuts
Caramel glaze with crushed pretzel pressed into it. Salt against sweet, and the crunch on top does a lot for a soft donut.
Add the pretzel while the glaze is still wet. Thirty seconds late and it will not stick.
23. S’mores Donuts
Marshmallow icing, graham crumbs, chocolate drizzle. All the parts, none of the fire.
Chill them for ten minutes before the chocolate drizzle so it sets in lines rather than spreading.
