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This gluten free Lemon Blueberry Donut recipe breaks the mold of the breakfast donuts we are used to. These donuts are baked instead of fried which makes them a guilt-free treat you can enjoy any time of day! The addition of yogurt makes for very moist and cakey donuts, without the calories of butter. The light and refreshing flavors of lemon and blueberry are complimented with vanilla protein powder which creates a delicious and health-conscious treat!
Anyone else NEED to eat dessert every night, even when trying to cut weight? I do! I have an insatiable sweet tooth, however I am extremely health conscious and eat a dedicated gluten free diet. I set out to create a recipe that is light in calories & gluten free but tasty enough to fool my sweet tooth. This recipe hits all of those marks, and then some! I am obsessed with these delicious, moist, and flavorful donuts. The lemon and blueberry flavors are subtly delicious. You can add a lemon glaze (optional) to enhance the sweetness and lemony flavor. You will not be able to stop eating at just one! But that’s okay because each unglazed donut contains just 155 calories, so eat ‘em up!
Lemon Blueberry Donuts Nutrition Facts:
155 calories
7g protein
23g net carbs
3.6g fat
Plus optional glaze:
+50 calories
+12.8g carbs
See below unglazed donut deliciousness:
INGREDIENTS
For the base of this recipe I used my trusty Kodiak Cakes Gluten Free Flapjack & Waffle Mix. I am OBSESSED with this mix! I love that it is made from whole grain oats which add a heartiness to every recipe I bake with. This mix can be hard to find in stores, so any gluten free pancake/waffle mix will do. Kodiak Cakes has baking soda in the mix so I did not need to add any additional to this recipe. If your box of pancake/waffle mix does not contain baking soda I suggest adding 1 teaspoon to this recipe.
To make this recipe protein friendly I added 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder. Full disclosure- I used Arbonne Protein. I do not sell Arbonne products and I am not making any money from this post. It is simply just my favorite protein powder. However, any vanilla protein powder which you enjoy the flavor of will work! Two scoops of protein powder equals 20 grams of protein, so I also added 2 scoops of collagen peptides to boost the protein count by another 18 grams.
YOGURT
Donuts are typically made with butter which makes them moist and delicious. To make this recipe light and healthy, I removed the butter and added a ½ cup of Trader Joe’s Vanilla Coconut Milk yogurt however any regular vanilla yogurt will work. This yogurt was more thin, like the consistency of Yoplait regular yogurt before Greek yogurt became “the thing”. You can also use vanilla Greek yogurt to increase the protein in this recipe. However, if your Greek yogurt is thicker, you may want to add a few extra tablespoons of almond milk to the batter to make it a more batter-like consistency. Also, if your Greek yogurt is not sweet you may consider adding 2 additional tablespoons of maple syrup, or 1 packet of stevia. I have not tested this recipe with Greek yogurt.
LEMON
Add ¼ cup of lemon juice (about equal to the juice from ½ a lemon) along with the zest of 1 lemon. Make sure you zest the lemon before cutting it and juicing because you will not be able to zest it after it has been cut & squeezed. To zest, use a handheld zester or a multipurpose box grater.
PURE MAPLE SYRUP
Just 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup is used to sweeten this recipe. That may not seem like enough, however it is plenty because the protein powder, yogurt, lemon and blueberries all bring their own level of sweetness. The maple syrup simply compliments these flavors. When I say Pure Maple Syrup I mean the good stuff – 100% Pure Maple Syrup. Other conventional syrups are made of corn syrup and artificial butter. If you do not have Pure Maple Syrup I recommend using ¼ cup cane sugar instead.
BLUEBERRIES
I strongly suggest using fresh blueberries in this recipe. Fresh blueberries add another depth of flavor and sweetness, while frozen blueberries tend to be bland. Frozen blueberries will work if that is all you have access to. No need to defrost before adding to the mix.
DONUT PANS
Use 2 regular-sized donut pans to make 10 donuts. I used 2 Wilton’s donut pans. Each pan has 6 standard-sized donut cavities. Although there are 12 cavities available I do not suggest using all 12 cavities as these donuts will bake into perfectly rounded donuts when filling out 10 cavities. If you spread between all 12 cavities they will not rise into a rounded donut.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350 & grease 10 donut cavities with cooking spray.
- Add all dry ingredients (gluten free pancake mix, vanilla protein powder, collagen peptides) to a mixing bowl and stir.
- Next, add the wet ingredients (lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs, maple syrup, yogurt, vanilla extract, almond milk) and stir until combined. If batter is too thick or dry you can add almond milk by the tablespoon until batter becomes more manageable. The consistency should be thicker than cake batter, but thinner than bread dough. (see picture above blueberry section for a photo of consistency)
- Gently fold the blueberries into the batter (cue Schitt’s Creek reference)
- Spoon the batter into donut cavities until they are filled to the brim. The donuts will not overflow, they will become perfectly round and donut shaped.
- Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes, or until the batter is no longer doughy. How to test for doughiness? Just remove on of the pans from the oven and poke with your finger. If the donuts are done they will be springy and bounce back. If the donuts are still doughy your finger will poke through the pudding-y dough (very technical terms here).
- Let donuts sit for 10 minutes to cool before eating.
OPTIONAL GLAZE:
I personally do not think these donuts need a glaze because they are delicious on their own, however the glaze just makes them even more delicious!
- Add the zest of 1 lemon and the juice of ½ a lemon to a small bowl. Next, add 1 cup of powdered sugar and whisk until combined. If your glaze is too thick you can continue adding powdered sugar by the ¼ cup until desired thickness.
- After the donuts have cooled, dip them upside down in glaze to cover the top. Place on a baking sheet to let glaze dry.
Enjoy donuts for up to 4 days.
Lemon Blueberry Donuts
Equipment
- 2 standard donut pans (6 donut cavities per pan)
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten free pancake/waffle mix (I used Gluten Free Kodiak Cakes Pancake & Flapjack & Waffle Mix)
- 2 scoops vanilla protein powder (OPTIONAL – See notes)
- 2 scoops collagen peptides (OPTIONAL – See notes)
- 1/2 cup vanilla flavored yogurt (see notes)
- 1 zest of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (about the juice of 1/2 a lemon)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoon almond milk (see notes)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup fresh blueberries (see notes)
Optional Glaze
- 1 zest of 1 lemon
- 1 juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 1 cup powdered sugar (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease donut cavities.
- Zest 1 lemon.
- Add dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and stir to combine (pancake mix, protein powder, collagen peptides).
- Add wet ingredients (yogurt, eggs, maple syrup, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, almond milk) and mix with a fork until combined. Batter should be slightly thicker than cake batter. If your batter is too dry or thick you can add almond milk by the tablespoon until desired consistency.
- Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
- Spoon the batter evenly into 10 standard-sized donut cavities. The batter should fill the cavities to the brim.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until donuts spring-back when poked. Donuts are not cooked if the batter is still wet when poked.
Optional Glaze:
- Zest 1 lemon.
- Add lemon juice and lemon zest to a small mixing bowl and stir.
- Add 1 cup powdered sugar to lemon juice mixture and whisk until combined. If your glaze is too thin add powdered sugar by the 1/4 cup until desired thickness.
- Allow donuts to cool completely before glazing. Once donuts are cooled, dip upside down in glaze to cover the top. Place donut on baking sheet to allow the glaze to dry.
