Best Homemade Blueberry Donuts (baked not fried)

Ingredient Notes

blueberries – we use fresh blueberries, frozen can be used but they will most likely turn the batter purple. 

flour – I use regular all-purpose flour, while many donut recipes call for cake flour I wanted to use common ingredients.

sugar – regular granulated white sugar. 

buttermilk – this adds moisture to our batter. The acid in the buttermilk also tenderizes the gluten in the batter making it softer and more tender. 

eggs – these give our donuts soft and fluffy texture.

butter – I use unsalted butter because that is what I always have on-hand.

baking powder – this fluffs our donuts up. 

salt – works with the protein in the flour to improve the structure and texture in baked goods. 

milk – we use whole milk to make the glaze.

powdered sugar – this is the key ingredient on our sweet vanilla glaze. 

vanilla – we use vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla flavoring. 

How to make the donuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and spray donut pan(s) with non-stick spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until combined.
3. In a medium bowl whisk the buttermilk, melted butter and eggs together until well combined. 
4. Add the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, fold in the blueberries. 
5. Divide batter between the donut pans and bake for 17-20 minutes or until the top springs back when touched. 
6. Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

How to make the glaze 

1. Mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla together in a small bowl.
2. Dip the tops of the donuts into the glaze and allow the excess to run off, place on a wire rack over parchment paper or a sheet pan so any extra glaze can drip off.

Tips

• I find it is easy enough to use a spoon to fill the pans. You can use a pastry bag, or ziplock bag with the corner snipped off, to pipe the batter into the pans if you want. 
• As you can see in the photos, mine do have a donut shape but not much of a hole. If you want them to have a distinct hole you will need to only fill the donut pan about 2/3 – 3/4 full. I am okay with the homemade rustic look my baked donuts have. 
• I take my buttermilk and eggs out of the fridge about an hour before I make the donuts so it will be closer to room temperature. 

​To make blueberry muffins

If you don’t have a doughnut pan these can be made in a muffin pan. Divide the doughnut batter between 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray, or use paper liners, and bake for 21-23 minutes.

Cool in pan on a wire rack for a couple of minutes, take out of the pan and cool completely. If not using cupcake liners slide a knife down around the edges of the muffins to loosen them from the pan.

Glaze the same as you would the blueberry doughnuts, but you can will only need to make half of the glaze. 

Variations

• Use chopped strawberries, peaches or cherries instead of blueberries.
• Make a lemon glaze by adding lemon zest and swapping all or part of the milk with fresh lemon juice.

Storage 

​To keep donuts fresh store them in an airtight container, they will be very moist. Like most homemade baked goods they are best the first day or two and start to dry out after that.

Is it better to bake or fry doughnuts?

Baked donuts are better for you than fried donuts because they are less oily. Baking versus frying is also easier to clean up and safer because you don’t have hot oil to tend to. 

What is the difference between cake and donut batter?

Cake donuts are leavened with baking powder or baking soda, whereas regular donuts are made with yeast. Yeast donut dough needs to be proofed, then shaped, then proofed again before the donuts can be fried or baked. 

There is a great article over at Eater that gives the rundown on doughnuts.