Made | Lemon poppyseed donuts.

A new gourmet donut shop opened up in Union Square, and it's put donuts on my brain. The thing is, I'm not a fan of the super crazy donut. If you set a Maple Bacon donut and a Krispy Kreme glazed in front of me, I'd choose the original glazed every time (but don't do it too many times because I'll get a stomach ache). I've heard only good things about the new donut shop (aptly named Union Square Donuts), but I wanted to satisfy my donut craving at home. Enter: Shutterbean. There are all kinds of baked donut recipes at the ready. We had Meg and Tom over on Saturday, and I made the dark chocolate cake donuts and these baked cinnamon sugar donuts (I also put some grapefruit glaze on a couple of these). It was a good day, and I fell in love with the dark chocolate donuts thanks to my favorite cocoa powder. But after they left and the memories of the morning's donuts was fading, Mike kept asking me to make more donuts. I kept laughing off his suggestion until it hit me: lemon poppyseed donuts. I accidentally bought more lemons than we needed last week and a container of poppyseeds had been sitting patiently in our cabinets. So I took Shutterbean's cinnamon sugar recipe and made a few adjustments. 

Poppyseeds instead of nutmeg and cinnamon. That's acceptable right?

A little lemon zest in the buttermilk mixture.

She was a beauty.

I got the big donut pan for $3 at Savers a couple weekends ago, and I've already gotten my money's worth out of it.

Lemon Poppyseed Donuts

Yields 6 regular sized donuts and 12 mini donuts 

Recipe adapted from Shutterbean's Baked Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts

For the donuts
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tsp poppyseeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

For the glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A couple splashes of milk

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, poppyseeds, and salt. 

2. In a small measuring cup, beat the egg, then add buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla, and lemon zest. 

3. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into a plastic ziploc bag or a pastry bag. Pipe the batter into your sprayed donut pans; they should be about 3/4 full. 

4. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes or until the donuts spring back to your touch. Let cool in the pan a couple minutes, then gently pull from the pans. 

5. While the donuts are baking, make your glaze by combining the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and milk. Combine the sugar and juice first, then add milk until you've reached the desired thickness. 

6. Brush the glaze over the donuts while still slightly warm, then let them cool. The glaze will set and harden. Or you can eat them while they're still warm because who doesn't like a warm donut? 

The lemon flavor in the glaze drops a notch after sitting a day, so if you think they're too tart, add more powdered sugar before glazing or just wait a day. Keep these in a sealed container for up to three days, but who are we kidding?

All I needed was a little coffee for dunking and I was ready to go. Are you a dunker?