Soft and Fluffy Maple Bacon Protein Donuts with a perfect balance of sweet maple glazed donuts with salty bacon pieces inside and out! These baked doughnuts are made with gluten free flour, vanilla protein powder and greek yogurt, for a gluten-free, sugar-free and high protein indulgence!

Not gonna lie, I ate 2 and half of these donuts in one sitting.

That combination of the sweet maple glaze and salty bacon on a fluffy donut? It was just heavenly!

I even had some of that glaze just my itself. So good.

The only reason I left that half donut was because I wanted to have an equal amount of the recipe for the next day.

The first time I heard about this combination though, I was very skeptical. Bacon on a sweet recipe? But trust me, this is one killer combination!

Why double maple bacon? Because it’s glazed twice, and has bacon inside the donut as well as on the top!

Ingredients For Maple Bacon Protein Donuts

These healthy and skinny maple glazed donuts are made with clean, simple, but high protein ingredients like protein powder and Greek yogurt for an extra protein doughnut recipe!

They also use gluten free all purpose flour for a light and airy texture, like a maple bacon cake donut!

Gluten Free (All Purpose) Flour – or a regular all purpose flour
Vanilla Protein Powder – This adds in sweetness, so these vanilla donuts have no added sugar and are completely sugar free. I used Quest Nurition Vanilla Protein Powder for this donut recipe.
Optionally, Stevia Sweetener if your protein powder is not sweet enough.
Baking Powder
Spices: Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Cloves
Eggs Make sure they’re at room temperature though!
Almond milk, or any other reduced fat milk, also at room temperature
Non-fat Greek Yogurt – Same with the room temperature again. This not only adds protein, but also replaces the fat that’s in most donut recipes, to make these low fat.

To make this a Paleo maple bacon donut, use coconut yogurt instead of the greek yogurt. You also get a dairy free recipe here.

For keto or low carb maple bacon donuts, replace the gluten-free all purpose flour with almond flour – you might need to add an extra egg.

Be sure to also use an appropriate protein powder in these cases.

These healthy and skinny maple glazed donuts are made with clean, simple, but high protein ingredients like protein powder and Greek yogurt for an extra protein doughnut recipe!

How to cook Bacon for Maple Bacon Donuts

There’s plenty of ways to cook the bacon for these homemade maple bacon doughnuts, but I prefer the oven approach.

This not only gives you crispy bacon – which is what you want for this recipe since you need to be able to properly chop and crumble it up for the batter and topping.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Line a baking sheet with foil and place the bacon strips on there.

Bake for 10 minutes until they’re crispy. You want them crispy and not chewy or soft.

Drain out all the fat, and move the cooked bacon to a plate lined with paper towels.

Once they’ve cooled completely, chop up the bacon into small pieces or crumbles.

How to make Easy and Healthy Baked Protein Donuts

I actually call these double maple bacon protein donuts, because they have bacon pieces not only on the maple glaze, but also inside the baked donut itself! It’s also a double layered glaze, and has protein powder in the donuts and in the glaze too!

The best part about these maple bacon baked doughnuts though is that they’re really quick and easy to make. Since there’s no yeast here, there’s no waiting time!

Whisk together all the dry ingredients: gluten free flour, vanilla protein powder, (stevia if you need), baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
Whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl: eggs, almond milk and yogurt.
Add the wet mix into the dry and mix. Don’t over-mix or the batter will turn too dense because of the protein powder, and you’re going to end up with gummy donuts.

Also make sure you have enough liquid in there – the batter should be something like a thick brownie batter, but not too thick. Add more milk if needed (protein powder tends to eat up a lot of moisture)

Grease 10 cavities of a donut pan and use a spoon or piping bag to divide the mix, filling about ¾ the way up.
Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Don’t forget to let them cool!

I actually call these double maple bacon protein donuts, because they have bacon pieces not only on the maple glaze, but also inside the baked donut itself! It’s also a double layered glaze, and has protein powder in the donuts and in the glaze too!

Protein Powder Maple Glaze

This is probably the easiest recipe for a maple doughnut glaze you can ever get – plus it’s high protein sugar free too!

Non-fat Greek Yogurt or any other yogurt
Vanilla Protein Powder
Almond Milk
Maple Syrup – I use the sugar-free one from Lakanto, but feel free to go for the regular.

Whisk together all the ingredients in bowl. You should have something that’s slightly thick but still runny – between a protein powder frosting and icing.

Dip the top of donuts in the vanilla protein glaze, lift them out, shake off the excess and set the donuts on a cooling rack – the dry side down of course.

Let the glaze dry a bit, and then repeat for a thick double layer glaze.

Sprinkle on the extra bacon crumbles or pieces while the maple glaze is still wet.

Some Tips For Gluten Free Maple Glazed Protein Donuts:

Cook the bacon crispy – not soft or chewy – so you can get proper crumbles that sit well on the maple glaze of the donuts.
Let the bacon cool completely before chopping it up and adding it to the batter. You don’t want the batter to start “cooking” from the heat of the bacon.
Make sure your mixture has enough moisture in it. Protein powder extermely absorbent and if the wet ingredients are too little, the donuts will be dry! The mix should be like a slightly thick brownie batter.
Be sure to grease the donut pan if it isn’t silicon.
Let the donuts cool completely before dipping them in the glaze.
Double glaze the donuts! This gives a nice thick glaze, but make sure you let the first layer rest and dry for a bit before going for the second layer.

How to store Baked Protein Powder Donuts?

These homemade vanilla maple protein doughnuts keep really well in the fridge or freezer.

I wouldn’t keep them out on the counter for longer than 2 hours since they have actual bacon in there.

They last about 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container.

These donuts are freezer friendly too. Let them freeze individually on a baking sheet and then transfer them to freezer safe zipper bags. They should keep up to 2 months.

When it’s time to eat, thaw the donuts to room temperature.

I *highly* recommend warming them in the microwave for about 5-10 seconds before taking a bite. They really are quite magical that way!

Do I Need A Donut Pan for Baking Donuts with Vanilla Protein Powder?

If you have a silicon or metal metal donut pan use it. I use a silicon pan for these bacon maple syrup donut recipe because it makes cleanup really easy. If you use a metal one, be sure to grease it well.

But if you have no donut pan, you can make your own with a muffin tin!

Check how to do that on my Vanilla Cake Donuts post.

More healthy baked Baked donuts?