I wish I had known a lot sooner how quick doughnuts can be made

And I am not exaggerating, it actually takes maximum 20 minutes to make these, 15 if you are quick! As I recently mentioned on a different post, I love it when a recipe is versatile, I love that you have a base, but then you have thousands of possibilities of flavours to add to it. This is what doughnuts are. This time around I decided to go with a lemon and pistachio combination, which I honestly think is a winning combination! But I already have in mind other ideas that I cannot wait to explore.

Autumn is definitely in full swing here in London and I am slowly moving towards comfort food, all I can think about at the moment is apples, nuts and pies, but I am really trying to maintain a balance between my autumn obsession and some other “timeless” recipes. I am also surprisingly excited about Halloween this year? Probably due to the lack of social activities in the past year…

Anyway, back to these beauties!

This is how I made them

You don’t need a lot of ingredients for these doughnuts, which makes them the perfect quick bake for when you fancy something sweet but haven’t got that much at home! All you need is: flour, baking powder, baking soda, melted butter, sugar, milk, greek yoghurt, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, eggs and pistachios.

The first thing to do is to mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, once that is done, leave them aside. Now combine the butter and the sugar and slowly add the rest of wet the ingredients starting with the milk and lastly the lemon juice.

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Once all the wet ingredients are mixed, pour them into the dry ones and mix them with a spatula until just combined, make sure you don’t overmix them, so keep mixing them just until you don’t see any flour.

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Once mixed, add in the lemon zest and the pistachios and mix again.

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Pour the mix into a piping bag or a large freezer bag and pipe it into greased doughnut baking pans, they should fill up 2/3 of the tin. Bake them for 10 minutes at 170 degrees celsius.

Once they are done, transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. Then, mix the icing sugar, the lemon juice and the milk until you have a paste. Dip the doughnuts in it and sprinkle them with pistachios, let them cool completely before eating (if you can!)

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… and enjoy!

Lemon & Pistachio Baked Doughnuts

Ingredients (makes 14-15 doughnuts):

For the doughnuts:

• 256 gr of flour
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 60 gr of unsalted butter melted
• 85 gr of sugar
• 120 ml of milk
• 80 gr of greek yoghurt
• The zest of 1 lemon
• The juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 eggs
• 60 gr of pistachios cut or grinded into small pieces

For the icing:

• 200 gr of icing sugar
• 1 tbsp of milk (plus additional if too think)
• The juice of 1 lemon
• Pistachios to taste (these are only for decor)

Process:

1. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees celsius.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set them aside.
3. In a smaller bowl, mix the sugar and the butter and then slowly add the rest of the wet ingredients mixing occasionally.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix them with a spatula just until you don’t see any flour.
5. Add the lemon zest and the pistachios again and mix with a spatula until combined.
6. Using a piping bag or a large freezer bag, pipe the mix into a doughnut baking pan, they should fill up 2/3 of the tin, and cook them for 10 minutes. Then, let them cool down for a few minutes and transfer them into an cooling rack. Let them cool down completely before continuing.
7. Once the are cold, mix the icing sugar, milk and lemon juice. If the mix is too thick, add some extra milk slowly until you have the desired consistency.
8. Dip the doughnuts into the icing and sprinkle them with some pistachios. Let them cool completely.

NOTES:

1. If the doughnuts grow too much in the oven, simply cut the top with a serrated knife.
2. I used these doughnut baking pans.