Blueberry Cake Doughnuts
Every year, since 2010, I have spent my birthday at the beach. I was lucky enough for it to fall on our family vacation week. Being someone who loves the beach, this is very fitting, as I would get to be in my favorite place with my family on a special day. This year, things looked a little different, but not in a bad way. Since my family had to cancel our annual beach trip, I spent my birthday at home. Instead of having a beach day, then eating pizza, cake, and ice cream, I got to change things up and spend a lovely day with Carter that was topped off with homemade ribs that we ate with the whole family.
What did Carter and I do that is so special that there is recipe blog post for it? Well, we picked blueberries at a nearby farm and made blueberry doughnuts with them!!!
Maple Acres is a cute little farm located in Plymouth Meeting, PA. You may have seen people pick flowers there, as they have tons of them, but the farm also has different produce to pick depending on the season. Since it is July, which is peak blueberry picking season, Maple Acres had a ton of great blueberries to choose from. When I called to see how they were the guy on the phone said “amazing” and he was not wrong.
Carter and I got to the blueberry bushes and immediately saw plenty of ripe ones. We started in the first row of bushes, but then realized, if we want to find the good bloobs then we should go to one of the last rows; as humans naturally go to the first thing they see, making the first row over picked. We came to find many bloobs of varying sizes, some as big as nickles, despite their natural growth. Since picking blueberries is a pretty easy task when there’s an abundance of them, Carter and I got slightly lost in the process. That is to say, we picked way more bloobs than we needed for our doughnuts, which was more than ok since we now have fresh bloobs to snack on.
As I mentioned above, Maple Acres also allows you to pick flowers, specifically Zinnias. What I loved was not only the beauty of the flower fields, but the fact that the flowers are only 25 cents a stem. So, Carter and I took advantage of the price and made a beautiful bouquet. It was super quick and easy, and as Maple Acre’s likes to say, “a great place for pictures.”
the details of the blueberry cake doughnuts
These doughnuts are quite easy to make. Consisting of baking ingredients that almost everyone has on hand, they can be made pretty quickly because they do not require yeast. To start the whole doughnut making process, we needed to rinse our blueberries and see just how many we got. Turns out it was a lot. Two strainers worth to be exact…oops (see picture below).
So, what makes these doughnuts so great? Well, they have fresh blueberries mixed throughout them AND a blueberry, vanilla glaze. Adding blueberries to our glaze was Carter’s idea and it was honestly a game changer. Since we didn’t mash the bloobs into the dough, the blueberry flavor was only going to come from a bite into an actual blueberry; but since Carter thought to mash blueberries into the glaze, we were able to add extra flavor that set the doughnuts on top.
Another good quality of these doughnuts is the true cake texture. When it comes to doughnuts, two of the main players are yeast doughnuts and cake doughnuts. Yeast doughnuts are known for being very light, airy, and kind of fluffy. On the other hand, cake doughnuts are more dense, crumbly, and soft, resembling a butter based cake. Our doughnuts matched the above cake doughnut description perfectly. They had a light crumb with each bite and were dense, but not too dense where what you’re eating is no longer enjoyable.
blueberry cake doughnut subsitutes
To make our blueberry cake doughnuts, Carter and I used a plain doughnut dough, and added the blueberries in it. Therefore, the variety of things you can add to our doughnut base are endless. For example, if you don’t want blueberries and want a plain doughnut or classic vanilla doughnut, then just omit the berries! You can also substitute the blueberries with another fruit or even chocolate chips!
Another way you can mix up this recipe is by changing the glaze. For example you can make a plain doughnut and coat it in cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, or a chocolate glaze! The recipe we used is versatile and makes for a great variety of doughnuts.
If you’re really craving blueberries, then you could make a blueberry filling. Find your favorite vanilla custard or cream and add crushed blueberries to it. You’ll get a sweet, purple filling that is bound to enhance that bloob flavor! For this you will need a piping bag in order to fill the doughnut without cutting it.
Finally, another way you could give the doughnuts a blueberry flavor is by mashing the blueberries or putting them in a food processor before adding them to the dough. This will make the flavor much more intense and more true to the bloob. This tip is Carter’s idea and is something that we will be doing next time we make these doughnuts! 🙂
Overall, if you make this recipe, please leave a comment below, tag me on Instagram, pin it, or go like my page/share on Facebook! If you like my doughnut post, be sure to check out my blog page to learn about my favorite doughnut shops!
Blueberry Cake Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tbsp shortening
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- vegetable or canola oil for frying
For the glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tbsp water
- handful of mashed blueberries
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, buttermilk, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until well combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Next, add the vanilla and shortening and mix until just combined.
- Put the dough on a well-floured surface. Knead until it comes together. (The dough is very sticky so you may need a lot of flour). Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is about a 1/2 in thick. Next, cut out the doughnuts. During this, you can cut out holes in the center or leave the doughnut as is.
- Put the doughnuts on a well-floured baking sheet a refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Heat the oil until it reaches 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Fry the doughnuts, 3-4 at a time depending on the size of your pan, for 1-2 minutes on each side. DO NOT OVERCROWD. This will decrease the temperature of the oil and thus mess up the frying process.
- Once doughnuts are cooked (cut the first one to check), transfer them to a cooling rack on a baking sheet (this will prevent the oil from making a mess on your counter).
- To make the glaze, combine the 4 ingredients in a mixing bowl. Do not worry if there's blueberry chunks. They will not stick to your doughnut unless you want them to!
- Once the doughnuts have cooled for at least 5 minutes, dip in the glaze, serve, and enjoy!
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