Are you a donut person? I like them, but they’re not something I have regularly. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had one. I do remember making them when I was a kid, but I deep fry food at home so rarely these days that I have never thought about making them. Then I found this Raspberry Baked Donuts with a Raspberry Glaze recipe, and my whole donut outlook changed. You can bake donuts??!! Sign me up!
These Raspberry Baked Donuts with Raspberry Glaze are naturally pink with no food coloring and are bursting with berry flavor! They are super easy to make and are dairy-free with a gluten-free option!
The Ingredients
One thing I love about baking is that a lot of the ingredients will keep for a long time in my pantry. I had a lot of the ingredients because of that. Things like old-fashioned oats, coconut oil, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, honey, and vanilla extract were all just waiting for me in my pantry!
I even had some almond milk in the refrigerator, so my grocery list for this recipe was surprisingly short. Powdered sugar and fresh raspberries were not a problem, but I couldn’t find freeze-dried raspberries.
I had to order them, but I was able to get them quickly for about $6. I think there was enough in the bag to make this recipe 2-3 times. Or you could always use the extra to top your cereal or oatmeal.
The Process
This Raspberry Baked Donuts with a Raspberry Glaze recipe was divided up into manageable sections, and that made it a breeze! Here’s how my time was spent:
- 18 minutes to prep the donuts
- 15 minutes to bake the donuts
- 35 minutes to cool the donuts
- 3 minutes to glaze and sprinkle
- 1 hour 11 minutes total
The recipe lists 5 minutes to prep, 15 minutes to cook, with a 20-minute total time. When I have a discrepancy like that, it’s usually because the recipe’s times don’t include cooling. My total time not including cooling was 36 minutes. It’s still a good bit more than the time listed, though.
Making the Donuts
This raspberry baked donuts recipe utilizes a blender throughout, so it’s a must. No mini-prep here, I broke out the full-sized blender for this.
The first part of the recipe is mixing up the dry ingredients. It makes a pinkish powder that becomes the base of the donut batter. After that’s done, a quick rinse of the blender and I was onto the raspberry puree, but more on that later.
To make the batter, I added the liquid ingredients to the blender along with the powder I made in the first part. It was blended at the push of a button, and I transferred it into a plastic baggie.
It’s not in the instructions, but I used a quart-sized ziplock bag. Tip: Placing the bag inside a tumbler (A.K.A. highball or Collins glass) made filling it much easier. Then I pressed out as much air as I could and cut a small hole into one corner with my kitchen scissors.
That made piping the filling into the donut molds so easy. Oh, I almost forgot about those! The instruction only said to grease them, not how or with what. Tip: Canola oil spray made was a quick and thorough way to grease the donut molds.
As you can see, I chose silicone donut molds. They were inexpensive at $6 for two, and the flexible material made it easy to remove the donuts from the pan. The only small drawback was they had to be placed on a sheet pan because they were so flexible/floppy. If you don’t have sheet pans, a metal donut pan might work better for you.
Making the Raspberry Puree
This is technically part of the donut-making process, but I wanted to talk about it separately. With a good blender, it was quick and easy to do. However, the recipe doesn’t say to strain out the seeds.
I was so into the whole process that I didn’t notice all the seeds in the puree at first. I made the donuts with the unstrained puree, and I wish I hadn’t. When I chewed the baked donuts, I feel the seeds, and I felt like I had to brush my teeth as soon as I was finished.
I didn’t notice the seeds until I had the donuts in the oven and I began to make the glaze. That’s when saw the seeds and took a moment to strain them. Tip: Pressing the puree through a mesh sieve placed over a mixing bowl created a smooth raspberry puree.
Making the Glaze
After that was done, I made a smooth, beautiful glaze by simply mixing the puree with some powdered sugar. It didn’t seem like there was enough puree to absorb all the sugar at first, but it dissolved as I kept stirring. The result was a lovely pink glaze that was ready and waiting to be poured over the donuts.
I poured the glaze into a small measuring cup to await the cooled donuts. It took almost 45 minutes until the donuts were ready for the glaze, and it did thicken a bit. I was able to make it work by stirring it, but I made it much too soon. Tip: Don’t make the glaze until the donuts are cooled and ready for it.
Finally, I completely forgot to get sprinkles, so I improvised to decorate the glazed donuts. I used the crumbs from the bottom of the bag of freeze-dried raspberries as impromptu sprinkles. I loved how they turned out!
