Orange Glazed Blueberry Doughnuts

Orange Glazed Blueberry Doughnuts slightly adapted from Gingerbread Bagels , doughnut recipe adapted from Wilton

2 cups cake flour (or 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup cornstarch)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp orange zest
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, at room temperature
2 eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup blueberries, halved

Orange Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp whole milk
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice + more to thin out, if desired
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Mix. Add in the orange zest and mix it in.

Pour in the buttermilk and add in the eggs, butter and vanilla extract. Gently mix the ingredients together. Be careful not to over-mix the batter. Fold in the halved blueberries carefully.

Lightly grease a doughnut pan with non-stick cooking spray. Carefully spoon the batter into the doughnut pan. You want to fill each one up 1/2 of the way. Bake the doughnuts at 400 F for 8-9 minutes.

While the doughnuts are baking, make the glaze.

Put the powdered sugar in a large bowl. Add in the orange juice, milk and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. If the glaze is too thick, add additional orange juice or milk, 1/2 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Once the doughnut are done baking, let them cool in the doughnut pan for 4 minutes. Then remove them from the pan.

Dip one side of each doughnut in the glaze. Set the doughnuts on top of a cooling rack with a baking sheet underneath. Allow the glaze on the doughnuts to dry and serve immediately. Yield: ~21 doughnuts.

Nutrition Information (per doughnut): 98 calories; 0.5 g. fat; 21 mg. cholesterol; 172 mg. sodium; 22 g. carbohydrate; 0.14 g. fiber; 1.9 g. protein (Note: Mr. P insisted on adding nuts to “his” doughnuts – not accounted for in nutrition information.)

Result: Best baked doughnuts to date! I think the key to a light, fluffy doughnut is in using cake flour. I even subbed out all the butter for unsweetened applesauce and halved the glaze recipe. The original recipe also called for glazing the entire doughnut, which I reduced to just one side. We were both impressed with how the blueberry and orange flavors popped and made these packed with fun summer flavor. Enjoy…guiltlessly!