We recently celebrated our inaugural edition of “Press Day Potluck” at the Country Roads office, and I decided to get industrious. I went for it with a recipe for baked Lemon-Blueberry Doughnuts. They were a hit. I haven’t tried again because, frankly, I think it will be a bad move for my waistline; but they are semi-easy and scrumptious. They came from a cute little blogger called “The Recipe Rebel.” She goes into detail about donut vs. doughnut, which I appreciated, and even included a video.

Baked Lemon-Blueberry Doughnuts

For dough:

1/4 cup unsalted butter melted

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 – 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, depending on your tastes

1 cup buttermilk or substitute regular milk

2 2/3 all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup fresh blueberries

For glaze:

2 cups powdered icing sugar

1 – 2 teaspoons lemon zest

7 – 8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and grease your doughnut pans with butter or non-stick spray. In a large bowl, combine butter, oil and sugar and whisk until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and buttermilk and whisk until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and whisk just until combined. Stir in blueberries. Batter will be thick. Spoon batter into a large disposable piping bag or freezer bag. Pipe batter once around each doughnut hole – the batter shouldn’t quite fill the hole as they’ll expand and rise. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before removing from the doughnut pan to cool completely.

For the glaze, in a medium bowl (not too deep as you’ll want to be able to dip your doughnuts), combine sugar, zest, and 6 tablespoons of juice or milk. Add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of liquid if needed. You want your glaze to be thin enough to evenly coat your doughnuts, but thick enough that it will set and become dry to the touch. When doughnuts are completely cool, dip tops of doughnuts into the glaze and overturn so the glaze runs down the sides. Set aside for the glaze to set.