When I think springtime, one word pops in my mind, lemons!
I love lemon desserts, especially in spring.
And I know you are going to love
my fluffy baked lemon donuts,
and it all starts with a lemon.
The zest of an entire lemon
into three quarters of a cup of sugar.
I'm putting the entire zest of this lemon
into my three quarters of a cup of sugar.
There, I think I've got just about every bit
of lemon zest here.
Now, what I like to do is really give this zest
a good stir into the sugar
and you can actually see how the sugar changes
and the moisture is coming out of the zest.
That's actually oils coming out of the lemon zest,
evening out the flavor
and really giving these donuts a good lemon kick to them.
And now I add the wet ingredients right to the sugar
to dissolve the sugar a little bit.
I've got three quarters of a cup of buttermilk.
I'll add two large eggs,
just a quarter of a cup of vegetable oil,
and then just a teaspoon of vanilla.
A little mini whisk, just combine this.
And I'll add this all at once to my sugar.
Just until everything is smooth.
All right, now to sift the dry ingredients.
I've got one and a quarter cups of all purpose flour,
and part of the fluffiness
and the super delicate tenderness of these light donuts
is down to a quarter cup of cornstarch.
It's almost like making your own pastry flour
but it is a little bit different.
I've got two teaspoons of baking powder,
half a teaspoon of salt.
I'll add that.
And just a quick sift.
I'll add this all at once.
There you go.
And you just have to whisk this
until it's nice and smooth, no lumps.
And I'll pour this into a pitcher
because that is the easiest way to fill your donut tin.
(upbeat music)
This recipe makes 18 baked donuts.
What's very important is that you've preheated your oven
to 400 Fahrenheit, 200 Celsius.
It's the heat that's critical
to getting the fluffiness in the donuts.
Now for this style of recipe,
I like to give the pans just a quick little tap
just in case there are any large air bubbles.
And now I put these in, okay, get this, eight to 10 minutes.
That's all it takes to bake these donuts.
Okay, it's amazing how quickly eight minutes passes.
So what I like to do is leave them like this in the tin
just to cool a little bit, not too long.
You want to coat them while they're still warm.
Now you do have options here.
You can cool them completely, dust them with icing sugar,
almost like a jelly donut.
Of course, this one has a hole in the center.
You could dip them in a glaze
and top them with sprinkles if you wished.
But really what I like to do is add to the lemon sparkle
by rolling them while still a little warm in lemon sugar.
So just like I did at the top of the recipe,
I've got three quarters of a cup of sugar again
and I'm adding lemon zest.
And it instantly smells good.
So I have the fresh zest aroma from the sugar,
I have that cooked slightly mellowed lemon zest
in the donuts.
This to me just sings of springtime.
Nice little plate and these are probably still warm.
Oh yeah.
So let's turn them out first.
They are delicate when they're warm
so that's why I like to let them cool
in the tin a little bit
but they're just literally whew, light as air, it's crazy.
And then all you have to do
when they're still a little warm is tumble them around
in this zested lemon sugar
so you get this little light crunchy layer on the outside
and then this soft fluffy donut in the center.
And another perk to this recipe,
as if this all wasn't good enough,
is while a donut, yes is best the day it's made,
these will keep up to two days in an airtight container.
Isn't that absolutely beautiful?
Oh, it just smells like springtime in here.
So make an occasion out of making some donuts.
My mom loves lemon desserts,
she would love these for Mother's Day.