Lemon Poppy Seed Doughnuts
There’s something so decadent about homemade doughnuts. You really don't have to make them. You do have to make dinner. You even have to make a cake every now and then. But doughnuts, not really. If you are going through all the trouble of committing for several hours, sometimes even overnight, to knead, raise and proof your dough, then doing more kneading and proofing, then frying and finally enhancing your doughnuts with filling and glazes, it’s because you want that mouthful feeling of fresh sweetened fried dough.
I could think about endless possibilities for doughnut flavor combinations. But since (sadly) I don't own a doughnut shop with a big flashing red sign outside, I simply cannot make all of them. I can’t have that many doughnuts every week. Well, I can, but I shouldn’t. There’s a flavor combo though that has been hanging around my mind for a while and last week I decided to go for it; Lemon Poppy Seed Doughnuts!
This is just a mash up between two of my favorite recipes: the dough from my Heart Shaped Doughnuts with Raspberry Filling recipe and the lemon curd from my Lemon Tart with Chocolate Crust recipe. The glaze is just a simple glaze and I used the same Eldelflower cordial that I used in my Easy Banana Bread with Poppy Seeds & Eldelflower Glaze. It’s all in the family!
What other flavors would you create? I’ve been also thinking in Nutella with pistachios or caramel ginger. Leave me a comment with the flavors you would love to put together so I have an excuse to make another batch soon!!
Recipe notes
When you fill a doughnut, place it standing with the punctured side up, that way the filling will not come out and will settle inside the doughnut. Stack them standing in a deep tray or pan like a loaf bread pan.
If you don’t have Eldelflower around (I never have this, it was a lovely gift!) I strongly recommend that, besides water, you add a bit of lemon juice, vanilla, almond extract or any not too sweet liquor to your glaze to balance out the sweetness of the curd and the sugar. You can even add a bit of all of the above. Just start with a squeeze of lemon juice and a teaspoon of the extras and work from there to taste.
After glazing each doughnut, wait a couple of minutes before sprinkling the poppy seeds, this way the seeds will not sink into the glaze.
Check my guide on How to Make a Simple Glaze to make a delicious glaze for these.
Lemon Poppy Seed Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnuts Dough
◯ Dough recipe from my Heart Shaped Doughnuts with Raspberry Filling
Lemon Curd Filling
◯ Lemon Curd recipe from my Lemon Tart with Chocolate Crust
Glaze
◯ Confectioner’s sugar – 2 cups
◯ Water – ½ cup
◯ Lemon juice, vanilla and/or almond extract, liquor of choice for adjusting the flavor – 1 Tsp+
◯ Poppy Seeds – 2 to 3 TBSP
Details
Yield:
about 10 to 14 doughnuts
Total time:
2.5 hour or
2 hours plus overnight chilling time in the fridge
Equipment:
stand mixer with the hook atachement
rolling pin
cookie or biscuit cutter
Steps
To make the doughnuts:
Prepare doughnuts and fillings according to recipes. Highly recommended if you can make the curd the night before so it settles overnight in the fridge.
After frying he doughnuts, fill them with the lemon curd (see notes).
To make the glaze:
Place a large sieve over a medium bowl. Sift the two cups of sugar. Add the water and using a hand whisk mix well until the glaze has no lump of sugar. Add flavorings to taste and mix again. Add extra water or sugar if necessary to adjust to your desired consistency. As you can appreciate from the pictures here, I went for a medium coverage glaze. Read all the tips on How to Make a Simple Glaze in my post.
