These easy to make Baked Strawberry Lemonade Donuts made from freeze dried strawberries and fresh Meyer lemons are the perfect summer breakfast treat!
Aren't strawberries and lemon just the greatest combination ever? Think about it. If you're at the fair on a hot day, nothing sounds better than a big glass of ice cold lemonade. That is, of course, until you see the strawberry lemonade right next to it. There's something so appealing about the pink marriage between tart and sweet. I could have just as easily just made strawberry donuts or lemon donuts, but don't you think strawberry lemon donuts are better? I certainly do.
I picture a lot of strawberries in my photos for the mere fact that they're pretty and the red color pop just makes me happy. I did not, however, use them in my recipe. All of the strawberry flavor and color came from freeze dried strawberries that I crushed up into tiny little pieces. That means you can enjoy these wonderful donuts year round. Yay.
Making baked donuts isn't much different than making a muffin. I've never made a "real" donut that is deep fried in oil. Boiling oil scares me. Its on my bucket list though. In the meantime I'll stick with baked donuts. I do have a fancy piping bag but I find a plastic sandwich bag does the trick just fine. You can even spoon your batter in the well but my OCD takes over and I like a nice smooth placement.
The donuts are definitely good, but the glaze is what makes them oh-so-good. I had a hard time not eating all of the glaze like it were soup. It took some serious willpower to save it for the donuts.
All you have to do is dip the tops of the cooled donuts in the glaze, give them a nice little twist to try and keep the drips on top of the donut, and set them out to dry. Then, when you're ready to eat the donuts you can have fun watching everyone scrape all the little extra bits of glaze.
I can't be the only one who wants to reach into my screen and shove one of these into my mouth. Am I?
The little bits of freeze dried strawberries shine through in both the glaze and the donut. I almost titled this post "the Homer Simpson Doughnut". He always drooled over the pink ones, didn't he?
This recipe uses pure vanilla extract. Did you know you can make your own homemade vanilla extract? It makes the perfect gift too. Watch how in the video below.
Baked Strawberry Lemonade Donuts
Ingredients
donuts:
- 2 cups cake flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1.2 ounces freeze dried strawberries (finely crushed, divided)
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (from two whole meyer lemons)
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
glaze:
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- Juice from both meyer lemons
- freeze dried strawberries (from above)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray donut pan with cooking spray.
- In large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and all but 4 tablespoons of the freeze dried strawberries (you will use the remaining in the glaze). In a separate bowl, mix together buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, and lemon zest. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Fill each pan cavity up to the center post, about ½ to ⅔ full.
- Bake 7-9 minutes in preheated oven or until the tops of the donuts spring back when touched. Remove donuts immediately from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, lemon juice, and remaining crushed freeze dried strawberries. Stir well and allow glaze to sit. If its too thick, you can thin out with additional lemon juice or water by adding very small amounts at a time.
- Dip cooled donuts in glaze. Donuts are best served fresh, otherwise store in airtight container.
NUTRITION INFORMATION
Love Strawberry Dessert Recipes?
You will have to try these favorites:
Meredith Youngson
These donuts are mouthwatering! Love the lemon-strawberry idea. I'm making my FIRST batch of donuts tonight and these will certainly be great inspiration
Sandra @ A Dash of Sanity
Strawberry and Lemon is one of my favorite combos and now it's in donut form!! This is perfection! Truly! Pinning, Stumbling and Yumming!