Baked Blueberry Lemon Donuts

These blueberry donuts are baked, with lemon zest, and finished in an easy 3-ingredient lemon glaze. And since they are baked and not fried, they come together in 30 minutes or less!

 

When the warm summer months roll around I love finding new, creative ways to use up all those beautiful plump berries that are just bountiful right now.

I love mixing some berries into a crisp like this blackberry crumble. Or stirring some into a cake, like this strawberry pound cake. But since National Donut day is this week (1st Friday of June!<– p.s. also my wedding day this week…is that a sign or what to enjoy some donuts?!). So I thought let’s celebrate life, love and happiness with DONUTS.

But I wanted something fun and easy and that screams summer is here!! So I went with a baked blueberry donut. No frying needed, friend. These are just as easy as if you were making a blueberry muffin but baked into a donut pan and dipped in a glaze.

Where’s my cup of coffee? That’s all that’s missing with one of these fresh blueberry lemon donuts.

For more donut recipes check out –> 90+ Donut Recipes

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• Super Quick To Whip Up – These are very fast to mix up, and bake in about 10 minutes. So in about 30 minutes or less you will have some homemade blueberry donuts ready to serve.
• No mixer required – I love easy baking recipes that require a couple mixing bowls and a whisk. You don’t need to get your mixer or fancy equipment at all for these.
• Baked…not fried! That means no standing over a pot of hot oil. And hey, baked, means healthier right?! Right.

Ingredients Needed

Ingredient Notes

• Milk – I used whole milk for best texture and richness. But low-fat or a plant-based milk would work just fine here.
• Blueberries – I used fresh blueberries here. If you want to try this with frozen blueberries I would recommend NOT thawing them as it would release too much moisture.
• Yogurt – I use plain non-fat Greek yogurt, but a full-fat or non-Greek yogurt would work as well. Or a vanilla yogurt would also be fine. I haven’t tested with sour cream but I think that would be fine as a substitution as well.

How To Make These Baked Blueberry Donuts

Making the donut batter

1. Whisk your dry ingredients together. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
2. Whisk together the wet ingredients. In a second mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar, yogurt, egg, lemon zest, vanilla, and melted butter. Make sure everything is room temperature otherwise it will seize up the butter in the bowl.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined. Do not overmix.
4. Stir in the blueberries gently. You want to be gentle here and gently fold the blueberries in so they don’t get smashed, turn your batter blue, and release too much moisture.

BAKING 101: Do not over mix once you’ve added the flour. Overmixing = Too Much Gluten = Tough Donuts! Gluten is the protein in the flour that forms when the flour becomes hydrated. We need some gluten to form because it helps creates structure and traps the gasses formed from the leavening agents. But if you continue to mix you will cause too much gluten to form resulting in a tough, chewy donut.

Baking and glazing the donuts

1. Add batter to pans. Spoon the batter into the pans or place batter into a sealable bag and pipe the batter into the pans (this is my preferred method – it’s neater and makes rounder donuts). Just cut a hole wide enough otherwise the blueberries may get stuck in the bag! You want to fill each well about 3/4 full. This recipe makes 8 donuts.
2. Bake the donuts. Bake the donuts for about 9-11 minutes until lightly golden brown and a toothpick comes out mostly clean (no wet batter).
3. Cool and glaze. Allow them to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then dump then out onto a baking sheet. Once they are cooled, dip them into the prepared glaze.

HEATHER’S TIP: Only dip the top of the donuts. I find dipping only the tops is better for storage and make for donuts that don’t get too soggy.

Recipe Tips

• Measure your flour correctly. Too much flour which can result in a cakey, dry donut. For best, results measure your flour using a kitchen scale.
• Use room temperature ingredients. You want the milk and eggs at room temperature otherwise when added to the bowl with the melted butter, they will solidify the butter again. I like to place your eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before baking.
• Use a piping bag to pipe the batter into the donut pan easily. If you don’t have a piping bag, then use two spoons to scrape the batter in the pans. Just make sure when piping, then the hole of the bag is wide enough otherwise the blueberries will get stuck!!

Recipe FAQ’s

More Recipes To Try

• Baked Apple Cider Donuts
• Glazed Yeast Donuts Recipe
• Baked Apple Cider Donut Muffins
• Red Velvet Donuts
• Blueberry Lemon Scones
• Lemon Cookie Recipe