Baked Lemon Poppy Seed Donuts
PREP TIME: 20 MIN | COOK TIME: 10 MIN | YIELD: 8 -9 Donuts
Scrumptious Moment - Sweet tooth cravings
This beautifully glazed creation was not made for any special event, other than to satisfy my sweet craving for a lemon-flavored dessert. If you call that a scrumptious moment, then you’ve come to the right place.
BAKED LEMON POPPY SEED DONUTS
As a connoisseur of lemon-flavored desserts, I couldn’t wait to make these lemon poppy seed donuts! This recipe makes about 8-9 cake donuts filled with poppy seeds and topped with a shiny and thick lemon glaze with notes of citrus and sweet vanilla sugar. The best part about them is that they are baked too, providing a quick, easy, and healthy (ish) alternative to this morning treat.
CAKE OR YEAST DONUT?
It is very simple: you are either a cake donut person or a yeast donut person. The debate over which one is better is longstanding, and has created quite a divide between friends, lovers, and bakers all over. Although I don’t discriminate against dessert, I personally find the dense and delicate texture of cake donut to be superior.
But what makes these two types of donuts so different? The technical answer is the type of leavener. Yeast donuts are made from a dough leavenened with yeast, while cake donuts are made from a chemical leavener like baking powder or baking soda. The result is a fluffy, light and chewy texture of the yeast donut, and a tender and moist consistency of a cake donut.
Regardless of where you stand on cake v. yeast controversy, I think we can all agree that donuts in general are one of the most beloved desserts. For me, they are a core memory of my childhood. So many Sunday mornings were spent running down the stairs, leaping into my mom’s car, and journeying to our local donut shop to pick out a fluffy donut swimming in cinnamon sugar (can’t forget the ice-cold chocolate milk on the side). I would inhale it immediately and end up with cinnamon sugar all over my face. I hope this recipe and the others on this blog also leave you with both a big smile and face full of frosting!
EQUIPMENT TIPS
While the recipe itself is intended to be foolproof, most people likely do not have a donut pan lying around their home. I have linked donut pans that will work for this recipe here. Alternatively, you can form aluminum foil into a rounded cylinder and placed that at the center of a muffin plan to replicate the look of a donut pan.
BAKED LEMON POPPY SEED DONUTS
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Then prepare your donut pan by spraying with non-stick cooking spray or avocado oil spray.
- In a medium to large bowl, combine the wet ingredients. First, mix together the melted butter and sugar until well incorporated. Next, add the egg, milk, greek yogurt, vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and poppy seeds.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
- Pour your donut batter into the corner of a large zipper bag and twist the top to create a piping bag shape. Cut the corner of the bag filled with the batter and pipe the batter into each donut mold of the pan, making sure not to fill it to the top (they will expand slightly).
- Bake the donuts for 10 minutes or until they are a light golden brown color. Let them cool for 5 minutes and transfer to a plate or wire rack where they will be glazed.
- While the donuts are cooling, make the glaze by whisking together in a wide but deep bowl: melted butter, milk, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice.
- Depending on how thick you want the glaze, you may have to adjust the milk or powdered sugar.
- Once the donuts are completely cooled, dip them into the glaze mixture and place back on the plate/rack to set.
- Serve and enjoy with a glass of milk!