Lemon Poppy Seed Donuts

We usually have breakfast for dinner at least once a week. I think it's one of the best ways to keep your food budget down (unless you go overboard with the bacon, people) and it can be healthy and fast. This week I'd planned to make a variety of muffins, hash browns, and some eggs. Because I forgot that one of the purposes of breakfast-for-dinner night was also to keep things simple, which does not involve anything like a "variety of muffins" so I just made a few eggs and one type of muffin. Well, donut. That's right. I fancied it up by making my muffins into donut shapes, which took no extra effort on my part (though it does require a donut pan). I even gave it a glaze. Why? Because my kids are ever grateful for all my sacrifices and hard work. Ha ha. Just a little joke there. No. I did it because I wanted to, that's why. And I did not regret it. Everything was simple and delicious. And I even threw a little whole wheat flour into those donuts and they were still awesome. And I felt better about eating them for dinner (though as we all know, that was just denial/justification of course).

Of course, if you don't have a donut pan, you can make this into muffins and then dip the top in the glaze.

Lemon Poppy Seed Donuts
makes 6 large donuts
adapted from Healthy Delicious
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

1/2 C plus 1 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp sour cream
1 1/2 C flour (I made 1/2 C of that whole wheat)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 sugar
1 egg
1 lemon, zested and juice (zest goes in donuts; juice in glaze)
1 Tbsp poppy seed
1 C powdered sugar (for glaze)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat a donut pan with cooking spray.

In small bowl, whisk milk and sour cream.

In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, lemon zest, and poppy seeds. Beat until combined.

To this, add half flour mixture and half milk mixture and beat.

Then add the rest of the flour mixture and the rest of the milk mixture and beat.

Put batter into the donut pan. You can do this by just plopping it in. If you worry about neatness, you can put the batter in a pastry bag (or a Ziploc bag with one of the bottom corners cut off) and pipe it in. This is neater, though I find that I always make such a mess getting it into my bag that I'm not sure it helps me personally that much.

Cook 15 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then turn out and cool completely.

Now for the glaze:

Take the lemon juice from your lemon and add it to the cup of powdered sugar. Whisk it together.

When the donuts are cool, drizzle this on them. I did this on a plate so as not to waste any precious glaze. Also, I didn't wait until my donuts were completely cool, but all was well anyway. If they're cool it will make a better "glaze." If they're warmer it will sink into the donuts more and still create amazingness.

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