Every spring I celebrate with two things: spring cleaning and doughnuts. The spring cleaning is obvious. We all wanna welcome in spring in with a clean house, a clean car, a clean slate. Yup, spring is all about those things for me. Not sure why, but I also equate spring with doughnuts. Usually bright, citrus-flavored doughnuts, and this year is no exception.
With these doughnuts, I decided to combine several flavors that remind me of spring: lemon, rosemary and olive oil. The doughnuts themselves are light and moist, and lightly flavored with lemon and fresh rosemary. Once the doughnuts are cooled, they’re dipped in olive oil and lemon juice, and coated in sugar, lemon zest and more rosemary. Once the coating hardens, you get a crunchy sweet topping to sink your teeth into on every doughnut.
Spring can’t get any better than this…
Lemon & Rosemary Olive Oil Doughnuts
Makes 12-14
Doughnut Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour (all purpose or gluten free flour blend)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons milk*
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, finely chopped
Doughnut Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425°, and grease a 6-cavity doughnut pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the greek yogurt, maple syrup (or honey), eggs, olive oil, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and rosemary. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon until combined.
Pipe or spoon the doughnut batter into the doughnut pan, filling each cavity almost to the top. Bake at 425° for 12-14 minutes, until the tops of the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer the doughnuts to a cooling rack. Use the remaining dough to fill the doughnut pan to make 6 more doughnuts. Cool the doughnuts on a cooling rack completely.
Sugar Crust Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1/4 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Juice of 2 lemons
Sugar Crust Instructions:
In a small bowl, combine the sugar, lemon zest and rosemary. In another small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice. Dip each cooled doughnut into the olive oil-lemon juice mixture, then immediately dip the doughnut in the sugar mixture, coating the top of each doughnut.
Repeat until all the doughnuts have been dipped in the olive oil and sugar. Return to the cooling rack and let sit until the sugar topping has hardened, at least 1 hour, and enjoy!
*increase milk to 4 tablespoons if using gluten free flour blend
Original recipe by La Casa de Sweets
These look amazingly good! I love that it features rosemary- an unexpected twist. Came across your blog tonight, and now I’m your newest fan 🙂
Now I’m craving doughnuts!!
Thank you 🙂
My hubby’s training for an enduro mtn bike race.
These will be his treat for finishing!
Love the pairing of rosemary & lemon. Reminds me of Italia.
Good luck to him, and enjoy the donuts!
Hi there! I just baked up a batch of your donuts! I got twelve donuts in total, and they were very easy and simple to put together. I loved them! But I went for a quick and easy lemon glaze instead of the original sugar coating. Yum! Thanks for the recipe!
[…] Lemon and Rosemary Olive Oil Donuts […]
These look amazing! I’d like to try making these… can you tell me which gluten-free flour blend you used with this recipe?