A light, fluffy baked lemon donut drizzled with a tart lemon glaze. Made with whole wheat flour and lemon Greek yogurt makes me feel better about indulging in donuts in the morning.
Kelley turned me on to the Chobani Lemon Greek Yogurt, tart but so creamy, smooth and delicious. With twice the protein of regular yogurt, I decided it would make a great ingredient for a baked lemon donut. I found a Baked Lemon Donut recipe, Chef Meg’s Light Lemon-Blueberry Doughnuts, on Shape.com that I adapted to create these donuts.
I was really surprised how light and fluffy these donuts baked up, even using whole wheat flour. My husband would have liked the donut to have an even more intense lemon flavor, so next time I’d substitute some of the milk with a bit of lemon juice, or maybe even a little lemon extract would kick it up a notch.
I’ve been seeing lots of baked donut recipes on line lately. I don’t know if there’s been more of them, or if I’m just noticing them more. I hope you’re enjoying them as much as I am because I’m just a little obsessed with them right now. Over the weekend I turned our favorite banana muffins in to fun banana cinnamon chip donuts.
Baked Lemon Donuts
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup whole-wheat flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 6 oz container Chobani lemon Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- ⅓ cup milk
- zest of one lemon
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- juice of one lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325º. Lightly grease two 6 count donut pans with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together egg, yogurt, oil, milk and lemon zest. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
- Divide batter evenly into 12 donut cups, filling each about half full. (Use a pastry bag or plastic bag with corner cut out to make filling the cups easier.)
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes in the pans.
- Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice to create a thin glaze.
- Remove donuts from pans and drizzle glaze on warm donuts. Cool on a wire rack.
More baked donut recipes:
Baked Orange Hard Wheat & Olive Oil Donuts, Farmgirl Gourmet
Peanut Butter Cake Donuts, Living in the Kitchen with Puppies
Strawberry Banana Doughnuts, Cafe Terra Blog
Pumpkin Spice Glazed Donut Holes, Burnt Apple
Eggnog Cranberry Donuts, Sugar & Spice and All Things Iced
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
I have a new full-size donut pan and this recipe will christen it for sure. They look fantastic.
Barbara Schieving
Yea! I love a new pan. Have fun with it. Enjoy the donuts!
Kimberly Ann
These look delicious – I love the addition of bright citrus in pastries!
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
Remember that commercial from so long ago….”Da lemon….da lemon…” ? I think of that!
Christie
I always swap out fat with yogurt in baked goods. It works so well. Your donuts look so delicious and I adore the lemon flavor.
Jen
I made these doughnuts today. I agree with your husband that they need a bit more lemon flavour, but they still turned out great. The recipe is very simple and it turns out exactly 12 doughnuts. The texture of these doughnuts are fantastic. I used PC brand lemon Greek yogourt, since we don’t have Chobani in this part of Canada. Thank you for sharing your yummy recipe!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Jen! So glad you loved them.
Mary
You could add lemon zest. Is there a way to make these donuts if you don’t have a donut pan?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Mary – yo could make muffins instead.
Anahi Abant
I just baked them, they are delicious! Light and fluffy, good recipe. Pinning it!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed them!
Artemis
This looks like a great recipe; not too heavy on the sugar either. Going to try these over the holiday with my mom.
“My husband would have liked the donut to have an even more intense lemon flavor, so next time I’d substitute some of the milk with a bit of lemon juice…”
Just so you know, grammatically, “substitute milk with lemon juice” is unclear. It doesn’t quite make sense. Try “substitute lemon juice FOR milk” or “replace milk with lemon juice.” Substitute-for or replace-with.
Consider the substitute teacher in place of regular teacher Smith – the conversation doesn’t go, “we’re going to substitute Smith with the grad student.” It’s either, “we’ll replace Smith with the grad student” or “we’re going to substitute the grad student for Smith.”
Barbara Schieving
I hope you and your mom enjoy the donuts. If you do decide to add a little lemon juice to the batter, I wouldn’t replace all of the milk with lemon juice. It would probably be too tart and and may make it too acidic to rise properly. Perhaps I should have said next time I would add a tablespoon of lemon juice in additional to the milk. You could try adding additional lemon zest to boost the lemon flavor as well.
tanya1234
thankxxxxxx alot
Kasey
Admiring the time and energy you put into your blog
and detailed information you provide. It’s awesome to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same unwanted
rehashed material. Wonderful read! I’ve bookmarked your site and I’m adding
your RSS feeds to my Google account.
Terra
Those doughnuts do look light, fluffy, and really moist!!! The lemon flavor must have been delicious, especially that wonderful drizzle! Thank you for the mention, Hugs, Terra
Ellie Robinson
Made them today!! They were very easy to make and very good. I didn’t have lemon yogurt so used a strawberry cheesecake flavor and added raspberry preserves to my glaze with a little milk. Next time will make sure I have lemon because I love anything lemon. Thank you so much for sharing and making our day 🙂
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Ellie – it’s been too long since I’ve made them. I need to pull out my donut pan. Your berry donuts sound delicious!
Maggie
Made these today, they came out great! I used Chobani key lime Greek yogurt because I couldn’t find the lemon flavor and it tasted just fine. The kids enjoyed them! I did see a lemon yogurt (non-Greek) so maybe next time I’ll use that one and see if there is more of a lemon taste.
Barbara Schieving
Key Lime is a fun substitute. So glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
Shyxter
These fluffy donuts are so mouth-watery. I also would like to have it with more lemon flavor, so adding more lemon extracts would be great. Thanks for sharing, Barbara. I work from home and I would really love to cook more for my family. I’m so glad I came across your blog 🙂
Christina Moses
What is the substitute for lemon yoghurt?
Barbara Schieving
Sour cream mixed with some additional lemon zest should make a good substitute for the lemon yogurt.