Bready or Not: Baked Lemon Donuts

I caved in.

It took months for Pinterest to finally wear me down. All the while, I kept telling myself, "You already have plenty of pans. You don't need another one to stuff into a cupboard." But then I'd look on Pinterest again and see donut recipes and they looked so good and baked and healthy...



So, it happened. I went out and bought donut pans, in both full and mini size. And then I had an excuse to try out those recipes that had been taunting me for months.

A week after buying my pans, I found Safeway-brand lemon Greek yogurt on clearance. I remembered a recipe for lemon donuts, and using the Pinterest app (gosh, that thing is handy), I double-checked the ingredients. I bought that yogurt. I made those donuts.

I made my husband very happy.



I'm including the recipe for glaze here, but I didn't use the glaze for this particular recipe. I knew I was making these to freeze so my husband could have a ready breakfast. They are really tasty without glaze or with a pretty sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Pretty indeed!



Baked Lemon Donuts
from A Bitchin' Kitchen

For the donuts:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 6-oz container lemon Greek yogurt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup milk
Zest of one lemon

For the glaze:
Juice of one lemon
1 cup powdered sugar

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Prepare donut pan by spraying with non-stick baking spray. You will want to spray again with each new batch.

3) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together egg, yogurt, oil, milk and lemon zest. Gradually add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, while mixing, until just combined.

4) Using a pastry bag, pipe batter into prepared donut pan. [Using a #12 Wilton tip, I did three circles of dough in each impression.]



5) Bake 10-15 minutes until a tester inserted into the center of the donut comes out clean. Use a chopstick or the edge of a spatula to gently pry out each donut so they can cool on a wire rack.

Continue baking donuts. Makes three batches, 18 donuts.



6) If you want to make the glaze, combine lemon juice and powdered sugar, and whisk together. Drizzle glaze over cooled donuts, or dip each donut into the glaze for complete coverage. Best eaten the same day.

If you opt not to glaze, you can simply dust powdered sugar over the tops, or eat them plain.

The donuts can also be frozen, unglazed. Thaw donuts overnight as you would bread, or take them straight from the freezer and zap them in the microwave.

OM NOM NOM.