Baked Lemon Doughnuts

I always like to make baked goods for our Sunday brunches.  My go-to are my banana crumb muffins.  They are soooo good and so consistent and I HIGHLY recommend you make them.

My 3 year old has been asking about doughnuts lately.  He doesn’t even know what a doughnut is.  In fact, he sometimes thinks his muffins are doughnuts, but it got me thinking about trying something new….at least to him.

First, you’ll need these:

I got these in San Francisco in 2014 on my many ‘walkabouts’.  I’m not sure why, because I could’ve gotten them in Toronto, but I felt compelled.  Let me explain… We went to Napa, primarily, for our Honeymoon in 2010. It was like going to paradise.  It was heaven.  We had the best time.  We finished off the trip in San Francisco for a few days, and I didn’t like it.  It was just another big city to me and it paled in comparison to Napa.  Fast forward to September of 2014.  We had just lost our son in July of that year.  I was on leave from work because of it.  Michael was going to the Oracle Open World Conference that year.  If you’ve not heard of this conference, it’s massive.  Like over 100 000 people flock to San Francisco for this conference.  We decided to make a trip of this and go to Sonoma before the conference.  Again, it was amazing.  We had such a great and relaxing trip.  We made our way back to San Fran for the conference and were staying at the hotel that was the hub of the conference!  People were EVERYWHERE!  Given I was still grieving our son hard, I didn’t want people around.  It was torture.  Add to that that Michael was gone 24/7 at the conference, I found myself alone in a big, foreign, and very busy city.  So, for now, I hate San Francisco, but I love my doughnut pans.  

Michael actually found this recipe and shared it with me.  It’s an Anna Olson recipe.  Can’t really go wrong with anything she bakes.  Originally, I wanted to glaze these doughnuts, but I didn’t have any icing sugar at the time.  So, I stuck to the recipe.  Later that day, I did run to the store, grab some icing sugar and glazed a few for dessert.  Leila did the decorating.  She had fun. 

As good at the lemon sugared doughnuts were from the morning, I think the glazed ones were better.  Just maybe with a few less sprinkles. 😉  Am going to try a blueberry glaze next!  That would be a perfect pairing with the lemon. 

Enjoy!

Baked Lemon Doughnuts

Sarah Nolan

These doughnuts are so light and fluffy you won't ever miss that they aren't fried! The subtle hint of lemon gives these doughnuts a freshness that will keep you going back for more!

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Equipment

• Baked Doughnut Pans

Ingredients

  

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup avocado oil The original recipe calls for vegetable oil, so if you have that on hand, go for it!  Avocado oil is also a neutral oil that your body can break down more easily.  
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For sugar coated doughnuts:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon

For glazed doughnuts:

• 2 cups confectioners sugar (or icing sugar)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (or 200 C) and grease two doughnut pans.*
• Whisk the sugar and lemon zest together in a large mixing bowl.  Whisk in the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.  
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.**  Add this all at once to the liquid and whisk until well combined. The batter will still seem quite liquidy.
• Transfer the batter to a measuring cup, or anything with a spout, and slowly pour the batter into each doughnut cup, filling about 3/4 full.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the doughnuts spring back to the tough, but there is no browning on the top.  Cool doughnuts for 10 minutes and prepare your topping of choice.
• For the coating, whisk the sugar and lemon zest together.  While the doughnuts are still warm, roll them in the sugar mixture and set aside to finish cooling.
• For the glaze, whisk together the icing sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth.  Take one doughnut at a time and dip the top of the doughnut into the glaze without dropping it and coat the doughnut generously.  Allow excess glaze to drip off and set aside on a rack to set.  If you want to add sprinkles, now is the time to do it!

Notes

* I greased my non-stick pans with avocado oil and they needed some help to come out of the pan.  I ran a knife around the outer edge of the mold and they came out with no issues.

** Don't skip the step to SIFT! I have often forgotten to do this and I am always left with lumps.  If you don't have a sifter, just use a fine-mesh sieve. 

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