Weekend breakfast couldn’t be easier or more impressive than relaxing with a cup of coffee and a stack of these blueberry donuts with a bright citrus-y glaze. Best of all, they’re ready to eat in under an hour, and no one even has to get dressed for a run to the donut shop!
CLIFF NOTES:
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Microwave fresh blueberries for 1 minute then lightly mash with a fork. Mix all ingredients together, then fill donut pans and bake for 15-18 minutes. Cool on wire racks. For the glaze, mix all ingredients together to form a thick glaze. Dip the donuts in the glaze and enjoy!
MAKE IT YOUR WAY:
– If you don’t have a donut pan, make ‘donut holes’ using a mini muffin pan.
– Use a mixture of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries for a triple berry treat.
– Make a simple vanilla glaze instead of orange and honey.
– After dipping in glaze, dip the donuts in chopped nuts.
SIMPLIFY IT:
Frozen berries are a great substitute for fresh. Just cut the microwave time in half.
The best part of donut shop blueberry donuts is that they are INFUSED with blueberry flavor. Break one open, and it’s purpley hue confirms the flavor is there.
However, if you search online for a blueberry donut, almost all of what you’ll find is the equivalent to a blueberry muffin in a circular form … namely, a sweet, light and fluffy cake-like pastry with a few blueberries sprinkled throughout. This is not what I want in a blueberry donut. When I think of a blueberry donut, I think of a flavor BOMB … a somewhat dense, tight crumb with a bright blueberry flavor that is punctuated with bright exclamation points of blueberries.
And you know me, I want flavor in every component, so while a standard vanilla glaze is the typical topping for donuts, I took these donuts from really good to really exceptional by glazing them with an orange honey concoction that adds both a gentle sweetness and a brightness that pairs so beautifully with the blueberries.
Depending on how long you let them cool between baking and glazing, they can go from being a gleam in your mind to on your plate in less than 1 hour. So don’t blame me if you find these addictive treats calling your name every weekend all summer long, and all winter too, if you use frozen blueberries!
Baked Blueberry Donuts with Orange Honey Glaze
Ingredients
- FOR THE DONUTS:
- 1 cup (150 g) Fresh Blueberries (or substitute frozen berries, thawed)
- 1.5 cups (218 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon grated Nutmeg
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) Vegetable Oil
- 3/4 cup (530 g) Brown Sugar
- 1/3 cup (80 mL) Buttermilk
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- ——————–
- FOR THE GLAZE:
- 1 cup (110 g) Icing Sugar, sifted
- 1 Tablespoon fresh Orange Zest (from approximately 1/2 a large naval orange)
- 1 Tablespoon Honey
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
- Orange Juice, freshly squeezed from half of a large orange (2-3 Tablespoons)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
- Prepare donut pans (see notes for link to the pans I use) by thoroughly brushing interior with softened butter.
- Rinse the fresh blueberries, removing any stems or leaves, and microwave for 1 minute in a microwave safe bowl. Lightly smash with a fork to release some of the juice, but you still want nice bits of berries left. If using frozen berries, cut the microwave time in half.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all the donut ingredients except the blueberries until well combined. Mix in the berries.
- Spoon or pipe the batter into the donut pans, taking care to only fill each cavity about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the donuts spring back when you lightly touch the tops. Let then cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then gently loosen them from the pan with a small spoon, and set them on baking racks to cool for at least 30 minutes.
- While they’re cooling, make the glaze by mixing the ingredients together, starting with only 1.5 Tablespoons of orange juice, and adding a bit more at a time until the mixture is slightly runny.
- After the donuts have cooled, dip each donut into the glaze, then set, glazed size up, on a rack over top of a pan to catch the drips.
Notes
The donut pans I use can be found here.