Lemon blueberry donuts

My brother is a very practical person. There is nothing extraneous in his life—he's economical and he asks me to provide peer-reviewed evidence whenever I make a categorical assertion about almost anything. This makes him sound insufferable, but I think that's because it suits me to paint him as such. :) What it really makes him is someone I can rely on to make careful, calculated decisions that are the product of much rational, levelheaded thought and research.

I need this in my life, because I'm often tilting at windmills and making gut decisions based on intuition and spontaneous thinking. Basically, I think he needs to trust his first instincts more often and he thinks I always need to do a little more research before jumping into something. This means we argue like crazy and—since we share the trait of pure mule-headed stubbornness—we often have to take a beat or two before we can speak calmly to one another as adults.

This is all to preface the fact that when he gets me gifts, my careful Dr. Jekyll sibling goes all Mr. Hyde on me. My birthday and Christmas gifts stretch the bounds of practicality. Pineapple corer, donut maker, and kitchen torch . . . A string of gifts that have made my mom double over with laughter. I am not super fond of uni-purpose kitchen implements (except my garlic press!) but I find that I use the donut maker pretty frequently. (I also can't wait to use the kitchen torch, because fire! and caramelization! and fire! Also, if you're confused about my use of 'because' as a preposition, don't be. The Atlantic has confirmed that linguists have confirmed its use as such. So there.)

 

It makes five donuts at a time and works the same way a waffle iron does. Donut batter is basically cake batter. Sometimes it's a little thicker, but not by an appreciable measure. I've made several different kinds of donuts and my favorite thus far had been vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. That is, until these lemon blueberry ones . . .

Lemon desserts are my favorite. I love a good lemon meringue pie (though I haven't had one to match my grandma's since she passed) and I am a sucker for lemon curd. It shouldn't be shocking then, that my favorite donuts are of the lemon variety. I think next time I will omit the blueberries. They were delicious, but I think they made the donut a bit denser than I would have liked.

The recipe that follows is adapted from A Kitchen Addiction. I subbed Greek yogurt for buttermilk (for no other reason than yogurt is what I had--this probably also made it denser than it could have been) and used all-purpose flour (instead of half wheat pastry flour). I also added more lemon juice and zest to the batter. 

You can use a donut pan in an oven set at 350 degrees, if your brother has neglected to buy you a donut maker. You could probably even use a muffin tin, if you didn't care about the donut shape.

Lemon blueberry donuts with a lemon glaze

(makes about 20 donuts)

adapted from A Kitchen Addiction

Ingredients
For the donuts:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
6 oz Greek yogurt (whole milk yogurt, if you can find it)
2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh!!!)
3 tbsp melted butter (cooled, so it doesn't scramble your eggs)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen--don't thaw if using frozen!)

For the glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat the donut maker (or oven to 350). Spray the maker (or donut pan) with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together for a minute or so, until the sugar is super fragrant (this makes the donuts extra lemony, trust Dorie Greenspan and me). Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix it all together and set aside.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs. To them, mix in yogurt, lemon juice, butter, and vanilla. Dump the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and beat for a couple of minutes, until the batter has very few lumps. Stir in the blueberries.

Put the batter into the donut maker (or the pan). I use an ice cream scoop to get a uniform amount of batter into each. If using the donut maker, bake for about 5-7 minutes. Until the donuts are nice and golden. If sticking them in the oven, you'll need to bake them for a bit longer. 10 minutes, maybe?

While the donuts bake, make the glaze by mixing the powdered sugar and lemon juice together.

When the donuts are baked, you'll want to glaze them while they're still hot. When you can handle the donuts without burning yourself (I have a very high tolerance for heat, after making many donuts) dip the donuts in the glaze. Set them on a baking sheet to cool. The glaze will harden after 15 minutes or so.

Serve immediately. They're best the day they're made, but they are still pretty good the day after.