V has always LOVED strawberries. When she was little, she called them “froddies” — a cross between “fresas” and “strawberries” because her nanny spoke Spanish to her. She loved the freeze dried ones and I swear we almost went bankrupt providing them to her.
When I made the apple donuts for A last week, V softly asked me if strawberry donuts were possible. I didn’t think so, until I found a recipe for baked strawberry donuts from marshasbakingaddiction.com! She also has a recipe for a glaze you can put on top, which I chose to skip because we don’t have a lot of sugar around here and there is already sugar in the donuts. That said, my third batch of these had pretty tart strawberries and I think the glaze could’ve been nice.
To make this recipe gluten-free (here’s the link to my favorite GF flour for baking) and actually taste good, I’ve now made it three times. 🫠 But I can assure you that this is now fool-proof, and so good. It also comes together really quickly, and your total bake time is 10-12 minutes.
Gluten-free Strawberry Baked Donuts — makes six donuts or muffins
- 1 1/2 cups (187 grams) gluten-free flour (both Bob’s Red Mills 1-to-1 baking flour and King Arthur Measure for Measure gave me good results, but Red Mills made for a bit of a dryer donut so I prefer King Arthur)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (the original recipe has a way you can make buttermilk yourself if you don’t have any on hand; see the link above!)
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (100g) strawberries, finely chopped
Instructions
- 1. Preheat your oven to 400°F/200°C. Grease a donut pan or muffin tin.
- Finely chop 1/2 cup (100g) fresh strawberries. Set aside.
- Whisk together your flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Combine the egg and sugar — whisk until sugar dissolves. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla, whisk until combined.
- Whisk in your dry ingredients until just combined. The batter will have a reaction and sort of seize up and get stretchy and sticky. This is good. Don’t overmix.
- Gently fold in your strawberries.
- Divide your mixture into your donut pan or muffin tin. Fill each mold nearly to the top.
- Bake 10-12 minutes. GF flour is dense and you don’t want a raw middle.
- They’re good to go when a toothpick comes out clean!
They’re so delightful. The tartness from the strawberries and buttermilk go so nicely together. They’re sweet, but not too sweet. We love them.
Variations: I think these would be excellent as a blueberry muffin, and I plan to try this week or next. You could substitute the sugar for a very ripe banana and add an extra egg so they’re not too dry. I’m also dreaming about trying them with peaches or pineapple. Crazy? Maybe.
Before you come at me saying, “These didn’t taste like donuts,” I’m here to say: nothing but a donut tastes like a donut, sadly. If it’s not fried, made with wheat flour, or glazed — it’s NEVER going to taste like a real donut. If you go in thinking that these are delicious strawberry muffins in the shape of cute donuts, you’ll be much happier. 🙂🍓
And do you know who the happiest person was? V.
I’ve made these three times now and they never last — they’re always devoured by the end of the night! 🍓🍩
small life, slow life 