These baked mini lemon poppyseed donuts are so zesty! The sweet lemon icing sugar glaze makes the donuts pop with flavor. Side note: I will have to invest in deeper donut pans. I just started baking donuts to avoid the over-glazed donut shop donuts sneaking into the house too much. So I have these cute little pans for baking, and they do the job, but the center of the pan could be deeper. So I am hunting for some deeper pans. If you have good ones, please do share!
In any event, these sweet lemon donuts hit the snacking spot. If you have a guy’s lunch to pack or kids, you know how hard it is to come up with unique ideas to fill their bellies. These mini-baked donuts are perfectly sized to go in the lunch box, and the dense cake-like crumb is ideal for transportation.
I wasn’t sure how much glaze I wanted to put on these beauties, so I did a couple with a complete coating and some with just a drizzle. You can match how much glaze you add to how big of a sweet tooth you are serving. Also, if you coat the entire donut, mix up more of the glaze than the recipe calls for. Doubling the lemony sweet glaze mixture should be enough for the whole batch.
If you have deeper donut pans and are making these full-size, adjust the bake time accordingly. These baked lemon donuts were such a hit that they didn’t last long.
The donuts would likely freeze well if you needed to. As a general rule of thumb, most baking can be stored in the deep freeze for up to three months. So if you are in the baking aisle and something catches your eye wait, forget it, and return to baking these incredible homemade goodies! Homemade donuts can’t be beat. While baked donuts may not have the same depth of flavor as the traditional yeast donut that’s deep-fried, they do satisfy most donut cravings.
How to Make These Mini Donuts:
So what are you waiting for? Let’s get out our mixing bowls and get started. You will first cream the butter and sugar until it’s a soft yellow. After that, you add the whole eggs one at a time blending well after each addition.
From there, we add all the dry ingredients saving the poppyseeds until last. Now I want to note I was heavy-handed with the poppy seeds, so you can likely half the seeds and still have a pretty awesome donut.
Once your batter is mixed, we use an empty throw-away piping bag. I prefer these to the wash-out kind even though it’s not environmentally friendly because it’s tough to clean those piping bags. So fill the bag three-quarters of the way full and pipe a single ‘tube’ of donut batter around the bottom of the donut pan. Again if you have deeper donut pans, make your piping bag whole large enough to squeeze out an appropriate amount.
Why are we piping? Because you want the uniformity that it gives the finished donut. If you spoon the batter in, it won’t have a nice smooth surface.
Once you’ve piped the batter into the pans, pop them in the oven and wait until they bake to a golden brown. The top side of the donuts will be much lighter, so pay close attention to the sides touching the pans. That’s a good indicator of whether they are baked or not. Still, trying to figure it out? Use a toothpick and prick the surface in the middle of the donut. If it comes out clean, then it’s done.
Please don’t make the newbie mistake of glazing a donut when it’s remotely warm. I can’t tell you how many times, as a young baker, I was overzealous and tried icing things before they fully cooled. What will happen? Your glaze is going to melt and runoff. So cool those mini donuts entirely before you attempt to glaze.
When you are ready to glaze, squeeze the juice from an entire lemon into your powdered sugar. Now here’s the important part you can never add too much lemon. It just imparts more flavor to the glaze. You can, however, make it too runny. So add your juice a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. You want it to run like a thick gravy. It will set once on the donuts.
Put some parchment on a cookie sheet under your donuts while you glaze so you can move them out of the way to dry.
Store it in a covered container, and on the counter is fine.
Your Questions Answered:
Can I use a different fruit juice? Like orange or lime? You sure can. In fact any citrus juice would work in this recipe.
Can I double this recipe? So long as you maintain the right ratios this recipe can be doubled. In fact if you have deeper pans you may want to double to make a complete dozen.
Will these keep? This mini lemon poppyseed donuts are a bit drier. If you want to store them I recommend brushing them with a bit of extra juice before glazing. Careful to not overdo it though as the added moisture will make the donut moister.
Glazed Mini Lemon Poppyseed Baked Donuts
Equipment
- 3 Mixing Bowls
- 1 tsp
- 1 Tbsp
Ingredients
The donut batter
- 6 Tbsp Butter softened
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1½ Cup Flour
- 1½ Tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Whole lemon zested
- ¼ Cup Milk
- ½ Cup Poppyseeds
The donut glaze
- 1 Whole lemon deseeded
- 2 Cups Icing sugar
Instructions
Making the batter.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in your mixing bowl
- Add in the eggs and mix together.
- Measure and add in your dry ingredients add alternately with milk.
- Add the poppyseeds and mix well.
- Using a piping bag with no tip pipe the donut batter into the donut pan. Be careful not to fill past the height of the center post.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350℉ pre-heated oven.
Making the lemon glaze
- Put the icing sugar in a bowl and carefully squeeze lemon juice bit by bit into the sugar.
- Mix between juice additions until the glaze is thin enough to pour and spread easily. Be careful to not make overly thin.