Baked Strawberry Lemon Donuts

Baked Strawberry Lemon Donuts make such an easy breakfast recipe! These strawberry donuts have a tangy lemon glaze on top and are made with fresh strawberries. Plus, a step by step recipe video.

These homemade baked strawberry lemon donuts make the prettiest lazy weekend breakfast! Between the lemon glaze and the fresh strawberries, you can’t be sad eating these baked donuts. 

You know, one of the more embarrassing things that can happen in life (or, at the store, in this case) is when your credit card refuses to work.

And it’s not because it’s being denied (although you just know that’s what the super-annoyed-in-a-rush-and-letting-everyone-know-it lady behind you is thinking…I heard the sigh, and I’m pretty sure the whole store could feel the eye roll).

Nope. It’s just because the card reader is on the fritz.

Of course, the card works like a charm at another card reader in the store, but that doesn’t alleviate the slight embarrassment moments earlier (nor the desire to shout “vindicated!” to everyone in line behind you in line, but you somehow manage to keep your calm, confident exterior 😉).

Needless to say, in those situations, I desperately want some comfort food, like these Baked Strawberry Lemon Donuts, in excess.

Now, I l-ooooo-ve baked donuts. Given how many baked donuts recipes I have here for you to peruse (my current favs being these Strawberry Shortcake Donuts and Coconut Lemon Donuts…and these Chocolate Espresso Donuts 😍), this is probably no surprise.

Obviously, these are made in a donut pan, but, if you do not have a donut pan, you can make these in a muffin tin or mini muffin tin.

Some Quick Baked Donuts baking tips: 

• If using a donut pan: about 8 donuts and bake time about 9-11 minutes.
• If using a muffin tin: about 12 donut muffins and bake time about 12-13 minutes.
• If using a mini muffin tin: about 24 mini donut muffins (or, as I like to call them, donut holes) and bake time about 8-9 minutes.

All right, let’s discuss these pretty little Strawberry Lemon Donuts.

I made these donuts with my go-to baked donut base, which is a combination of flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. 

Nutmeg is a really important ingredient in baked donuts, because it gives the donuts a “donut shop” flavor (lots of donut shops use nutmeg in their recipes). However, you can omit the nutmeg if you’d like to. 

The wet ingredients are a combination of egg, vanilla extract, butter and buttermilk. Similarly to the nutmeg, the buttermilk is a pretty important ingredient because it makes a rich donut batter very similar to a cake donut. You can use whole milk or 2% in place of buttermilk, but I’d try to use buttermilk if possible. 

And, I have a buttermilk tip for you! Since you’re already using fresh lemon for this recipe, you have all of the ingredients to make buttermilk for these baked donuts.

Homemade Buttermilk Recipe:

• 1 /2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice + almost 1/2 cup milk.
• Pour the milk into a clear liquid measuring cup (you should have just a little bit less than 1/2 cup milk in the measuring cup). Add fresh lemon juice on top of milk (about 1/2 Tbsp, or enough to reach 1/2 cup measurement in the measuring cup). Allow the mixture to sit 1-2 minutes, then stir together with a whisk. 
• Voila, you have buttermilk!

Strawberry Donuts with a Lemon Glaze Tips & Tricks:

• Homemade baked donut batter is really thick, so don’t be surprised when mixing the batter.
• Spray your donut pan really, really well. These donuts will stick to the pan if the pan is not greased well.
• You can spoon the donut batter into each donut cavity, or you can use a piping bag and pipe the batter in each cavity. I prefer using a spoon, but please feel free to use whatever technique works best for you.
• The lemon glaze is made with just powdered sugar, a little lemon zest, and fresh lemon juice.

Two Easy Ways to Add Strawberries to the Batter:

1. Mix the fresh strawberries directly into the batter, then distribute the batter between into each donut cavity. 
2. Divide the batter between the donut cavities, then place the strawberries evenly in each donut (this is how I do it in the recipe video).

I prefer adding the strawberries into each donut by hand because I know there is an even amount of strawberries in each donut, rather than one donut having a ton of strawberries and one having only one or two strawberry pieces. However, that does take a bit more time and if you’re pressed for it or just don’t care that much, feel free to add the strawberries right into the batter first, then divide the batter between donut cavities.

Breakfast has got me like 😍

5 from 2 votes

Print

Baked Strawberry Lemon Donuts

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

These homemade baked strawberry lemon donuts are sweet, tangy, and the perfect spring breakfast.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Baked Strawberry Lemon Donuts

Servings: 8 donuts

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

Strawberry Donuts

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (you can substitute regular milk, but buttermilk yields a richer texture)
• 1 Tbsp butter, melted (or 1 Tbsp vegetable oil)
• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped

Lemon Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease a 6-count donut pan well with baking spray (the recipe will make about 8 donuts). Set aside.

2. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
3. Add in butter (or oil) and mix until combined.
4. At this point, you can mix in the strawberries and divide the batter between the donut cavities, or you can divide the donut batter between the cavities and press the strawberry pieces by hand into the batter (as seen in the video—basically, placing the strawberries in by hand evenly disperses them in the donuts).

5. Bake for 9-10 minutes, or until the tops of the donuts spring back when touched.

6. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the donut pan, then allow them to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.
7. Whisk powdered sugar, lemon zest and 2 Tbsp of lemon juice together. If the glaze is too thick, add in the remaining Tbsp of lemon juice.
8. Dunk each donut in the glaze, and allow to harden. If desired, sprinkle on extra chopped strawberries before the glaze fully hardens.
9. Enjoy!

Here are some other recipes you might like:

Here are some of my other favorite strawberry recipes:

Strawberry Cream Cheese Scones

Strawberry Shortcake Donuts

Strawberry Lemon Coffee Cake

Updated 2020.