Lime Pie Baked Doughnuts

Anyone else hate deep frying at home? Ever since tackling some churros, the smell of the deep frying will forever haunt me. It's a lot of effort to deep fry, a lot of time to get it right and it can mean a lot of mess too. 

Enter baked doughnuts. They are a simple and easy alternative, with no mess. All you need is a doughnut pan to pop in the oven and in about 10 minutes, the result is a fluffy ring doughnut. 

Lately, I've been craving a tangy citrus and these lime pie doughnuts do just the trick. 

Have you ever made baked doughnuts? 

To make them, you will need either a doughnut pan, which aren't too expensive and can be found on Amazon, or you can use a muffin pan and roll up a ball of foil for the middle insert. 

The ingredients are simple, straight forward and probably ones you already have in the cupboard. The secret to the tangy taste though is plenty of limes. The more the merrier is the case in any citrus recipe, because there isn't anything more disappointing than biting into something citrus and hardly being able to taste it. 

There's no use of extracts from a bottle or flavourings, it's all natural, using both the juice and zest of the lime to make sure these little doughnuts pack a big punch.  

The pie element of these doughnuts comes from a crushed biscuit base, in this case, lotus biscuits have been used. Make sure to fully crushed them to a fine crumb and as they bake, the biscuits will in turn stick to the dough. 

I can safely say, I will without a doubt be experimenting with more baked doughnuts in the future, because these are beyond moorish. The mini size too is just an excuse to keep eating more, because they're mini and that's the rule, right? 

What flavours would you choose next? Maybe a bakewell flavour is next on the cards... 

Lime Pie Baked Doughnuts

Makes: 18 large doughnuts or 48 mini doughnuts

Ingredients:

90g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

1 egg

160ml milk (any kind)

zest of 2 limes

juice of 2 limes

200g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

150g biscoff biscuits (or any biscuit)

200g icing sugar

1-2tbsp lime juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f and grease a doughnut tin, with either butter or vegetable oil. Make sure that all parts of the moulds are covered, to ensure they don't stick. 
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, this should take a few minutes. Then add the egg and mix to combine. Next, add the milk, lime juice and lime zest until smooth. Scrape down to the bowl to ensure everything is combined.
3. Next, add the plain flour and baking powder and mix until just combined. 
4. Empty the mix into either a ziplock bag or a piping bag and place to one side. 
5. Take your biscuits of choice, in this instance I've used lotus biscuits (biscoff cookies). Place them in a ziplock bag and using a rolling pin, crush them until they are a fine crumb. 
6. Pipe your doughnut mixture into the moulds, filling them up 3 quarters full. Don't fill all the way to the top. Then sprinkle some biscuits crumbs on top, lightly pressing them into the mixture. 
7. Bake large doughnuts for 10-11 minutes and mini doughnuts for 7-8 minutes. Be careful not to overbake them as it will dry them out. 
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes, before tipping out  onto a wire rack to cool completely. 
9. While the doughnuts are cooling, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and then add the lime juice, starting with 1 tbsp, and then mix until smooth. Be careful to not add too much at a time, as you don't want it to be too thin. If it does go too thin, then simply sift in some  more icing sugar. 
10. When cooled, carefully dip the non-biscuit side of the doughnut into the icing and then place on a wire rack to set. Repeat until all doughnuts are covered. 
11. When the icing has set, serve and devour! These doughnuts will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container, however, they will taste best on the day as the biscuits base will soften. #