The classic Key lime pie receives an irresistible makeover with our baked Key Lime Doughnuts. Perfectly crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside, these vibrant and tangy treats add a bright pop of color, with flavorful lime juice found in each inviting bite.
Key Lime Doughnuts
Makes 12 doughnuts
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups (156 grams) unbleached cake flour
- ¾ teaspoon (2.25 grams) kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon (1.25 gram) baking soda
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (6 grams) lime zest
- ¼ cup (60 grams) whole buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 large egg (50 grams), room temperature
- 5 tablespoons (75 grams) fresh lime juice or key lime juice (see PRO TIP), divided
- 3 tablespoons (42 grams) vegetable oil
- 1½ cups (180 grams) confectioners’ sugar
- Green and yellow liquid food coloring
- Garnish: graham cracker crumbs, lime zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Butter and flour 2 (6-well) doughnut pans.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together granulated sugar and lime zest until zest is evenly distributed. Add buttermilk, egg, 3 tablespoons (45 grams) lime juice, and oil. Whisk until combined. Add flour mixture, and whisk until just combined, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Transfer batter to a pastry bag, and cut a ½-inch opening in tip. Pipe batter evenly into prepared wells (about 2 heaping tablespoons or 35 grams each).
- Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Invert doughnuts onto a wire rack, and let cool completely.
- In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and remaining 2 tablespoons (30 grams) lime juice. Tint with food coloring as desired. Carefully dip top of each doughnut into glaze. Garnish with graham cracker crumbs and lime zest, if desired. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
PRO TIP
Fresh lime juice works well in this recipe, but to make this a true Key lime baked good, use bottled Key lime juice such as Nellie & Joe’s Famous Key West Lime Juice. Juicing Key limes can be incredibly difficult due their diminutive size, and we find the store-bought juice to be as effective as fresh juice. Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
You have a brand name that inspires trust. I’ll not trust your recipes anymore. This recipe requires quite a bit of effort. I don’t mind putting for the effort if the results are exceptional. However, you clearly did not test this recipe. First of all you needed to have 60 g of batter in each well. Secondly, at this increased amount, then your bake times are correct. Unfortunately, I made two pans of these so 12 donuts using the 30 g, and the lowest specified baking time. These donuts were very small and thin and way over done. I then put 60 g in each well because I doubled the recipe. I decreased the baking temperature to 350 and baked them for a total of 10 minutes which then yielded a much nicer donut. Extremely disappointed in this recipe and your negligence in testing it.
Hi Suzanne,
We’re so sorry that the recipe wasn’t successful for you. We do test and cross test all of our recipes, but sometimes things don’t translate as well in a different kitchen. One thing that could have caused this is maybe, if you used used a different pan than we did, and if it was wider or deeper, it didn’t fill the same way ours did. We used a 3-inch doughnut pan. What kind of pan did you use? Our Test Kitchen can see if they have any more insights! Thank you.