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My baked lemon and raspberry donuts are an easy and zesty treat! This quick recipe can be whipped up and ready to eat within about an hour. Perfect if you need a last minute bake for guests or a tea time snack.
How to Make the Perfect Baked Lemon Donut
These zesty baked donuts couldn't be more easier. My recipe calls for cupboard staples and a couple of extracts.
Lemon Donut Ingredients
- The basics: flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter and a couple of eggs
- Your liquid: in my case I suggest soured milk or buttermilk. You could replace this with an equal measure of Greek yoghurt or heavy cream.
- Your flavours: vanilla extract and lemon extract. If you want to really accentuate the lemon, add half teaspoon of lemon zest as well (optional).
Quick Mix for Baked Donut
This is a one bowl donut recipe. In a medium bowl, cream together softened butter and sugar. Add your eggs one at a time, mixing after each and then your extracts. If using zest add this along with the extracts.
Add your baking powder, salt and then mix the flour in small additions, mixing after each, until you've fully incorporated it.
Finally, add in your milk in a few additions, stirring after each until incorporated. You should have a thick batter, much like a cake.
How to Fill Donut Pans
So once you've achieved your batter, the question is how best to fill your donut moulds. The benefit of the baked donut is that you don't have to worry about hot oil and frying. The downside is definitely the pan! Donut moulds are a bit of an awkward shape to fill as your batter will be a bit too thick to easily just spoon in to each.
There are two ways you could do this:
1. Spooning the Mixture into the Pan
You can spoon the mixture in, but this will be messy and difficult to get even. The mixture is thick and sticky, so spreading it with a spoon or offset spatula is going to be a bit of a pain. That said, you can definitely spoon it in if necessary and the finished product won't be any worse for it!
2. Piping the Mixture into the Pan
Piping is most definitely the best way to fill a donut mould! It is easier and cleaner - both in terms of the filling but also the inevitable kitchen cleanup after baking.
All you need to do is fill a piping bag (or a sealable plastic bag like a ziplock) with your batter. Snip off the tip to make about a .5" opening and then pipe around the moulds a couple of times. I aim for mine to be about ¾ full, but sometimes I overfill a bit!
A couple of quick tips for filling the piping bag:
- DON'T OVERFILL the bag - if you only have a small piping bag like I do, it is less mess to refill this a couple of times than to try to fit it all in at once!
- Use an empty jar or glass to help hold this up - this is a great trick if you're piping other batters as well, like macarons or choux pastry.
Baking Donuts in Silicone Pans
I opt for baking my donuts in silicone pans - these make for easy unmoulding, quick cleanup and efficient storage. My favourite benefit of the silicone trays is that they don't require any greasing or nonstick spray, so that is one less step to worry about. My pans are a set of two 6-cavity moulds - you can find them here.
One trick for unmoulding donuts from silicone trays: let them cool in the moulds for about 5 minutes or so. Silicone will cool down significantly faster than traditional baking trays. Once you are able to handle the tray with your hands, unmould the donuts slowly. If you try to unmould while still hot, they may stick a bit!
Raspberry Glaze
My quick raspberry glaze is made with just three ingredients - raspberries, lemon and powdered icing sugar. Simply add the raspberries to a saucepan along with the juice and zest of half a lemon. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Once the mixture boils, you can continue reducing this for another 5 to 10 minutes to help accentuate the flavour.
When you're happy with the reduction, remove from the stove and strain into a small bowl. Add two tablespoons of this to the powdered sugar and whisk to combine.
The measurements here are a bit dependent on personal tastes and how liquidy your reduction is. I didn't reduce my syrup very long, so 2 tablespoons of liquid were just enough for making a nice consistency glaze. If you reduce your mixture longer, you may need a bit more to bring your glaze to a good consistency. If you over-add the liquid, don't worry - just add a bit more powdered sugar to re-thicken.
How to Glaze Raspberry Donuts
You can glaze donuts in multiple ways - you can dip, dunk or drizzle. For best results in any case, you should wait until your donuts are cool from the oven and easy to handle.
The best way to achieve a fairly even and smooth coat on the top of your raspberry donut is to dip the top directly into your glaze.
- Hold the bottom of the donut by your fingertips.
- Flip this over so that the top is facing down and dip into the glaze, so that the glaze goes about a third or half way up the donut.
- Pull out, but keep this inverted while excess glaze drips off back into your bowl.
- Once any significant amount of excess has dripped back into the bowl, quickly flip back so that the top is now facing up - this should provide a fairly even coating though some will likely drip down the sides a bit.
FAQs for Lemon and Raspberry Baked Donuts
My lemon and raspberry donuts can be kept for a few days in an airtight container, though they are best eaten fresh! They can also be frozen, but I would recommend doing so unglazed. The glaze may sweat when defrosting and then seep into the donut, so your finished product will look better if you make the glaze fresh even if the donuts have been frozen.
Absolutely - this recipe is easily halved for six donuts or doubled for 24. The recipe itself is very forgiving.
My easiest alternative to buttermilk is homemade soured milk. For this recipe, this is made with half a tablespoon of vinegar in a half cup measure, filling the remainder with milk. This will cause the milk to curdle lightly and sour. This gives added acid to the mixture and is a frequently used trick in classic American cake recipes to add moisture.
If you like my Lemon and Raspberry donuts, you might also like:
Lemon and Raspberry Donuts
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Lemon Baked Donuts
- 1¾ cup plain flour
- 1¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
- ½ cup soured milk or buttermilk
Ingredients for the Raspberry Glaze
- 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
- zest and juice of half a lemon
- ¾ cup powdered icing sugar
Instructions
Instructions for Baked Donuts
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan).
- In a medium bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until pale and well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk together after each. Then add the extracts and zest, whisking to combine.
- Add the baking powder, salt and then the flour slowly in three or four additions - mixing to combine after each.
- Add the soured milk or buttermilk slowly in several additions, mixing as you go until you have a fully combined, smooth, thick batter.
- Add your batter to a piping bag and pipe around twelve donut mould holes. Fill these approximately ¾ full.
- Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the middle donuts comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes if using silicone moulds. Then turn out onto a wire rack to cool while you make the glaze.
Instructions for Raspberry Glaze
- In a saucepan over medium heat, cook down your raspberries with the lemon juice and zest. Mash these with a fork or the back of a spoon and bring to a boil. You can reduce these down for 5 to 10 minutes - the longer the more powerful the flavour. Remove from the heat and strain with a fine sieve to remove the seeds and pulp.
- Add two tablespoons of the liquid to the powdered sugar and whisk together. You may need to add a bit more of the liquid to reach a good glazing consistency. If you add too much liquid, add a bit more powdered sugar to thicken.
- Holding the donuts by their base, dip the tops of each into the glaze to coat or drizzle across.
Maria
It looks so yummy I will definitely try it
Carly | My Green Toddler
These sound delicious! Lemon and raspberry go together beautifully
Angela
These look fabulous!
Abhi
Wow! These look so yummy!