Soft fragrant nutty almond baked doughnuts dipped in a tart but sweet, naturally coloured pomegranate glaze.
When autumn arrives, recipes tend to no longer be all bright and colourful but shift to an orange brownish neutral tone. However, with pomegranate, which is in season during these months, we can bring back that pop of bright colour. In these past weeks, I have been playing a bit more with this fruit as it’s actually one of my favourites. In fact, I have so many childhood memories in Malta which include this yummy and intriguing fruit.
I remember my father bringing me a pomegranate, once in a while, cleaning it and preparing the arils in a bowl for me to enjoy with a couple of nuts. It’s nothing that out of the ordinary but for me it holds a special place in my heart. This sweet memory is what got me to make these almond baked doughnuts with a pomegranate glaze. They taste amazing, as the sweetness of the almonds and the slight tartiness of the pomegranate balance each other out, also they are such an easy to make dessert!
Almond baked doughnuts
These doughnuts are not yeasted, they’re baked and have a cake like texture, so in reality they can be easily called cake doughnuts. To make these doughnuts, you’ll need a specific doughnut pan. There are several available nowadays; normal pans, silicone ones, large doughnut sized or mini ones. I have several types and all of them are quite good. However, if you don’t have any doughnut pan you can easily use a muffin tray, but of course you won’t have that hole in the middle.
For these doughnuts most of the ingredients you’ll need are the essential ones: flour, egg, butter, baking powder, ground almonds, milk, salt, almond extract and sugar. You can substitute the almond extract with vanilla extract, however this will reduce that sweet almondy taste.
All you have to do is first mix the dry ingredients together and then wet ingredients separately. Finally, simply mix everything together and pipe the batter into the doughnut pan, by filling half way through. Bake for about 10 minutes, let cool and finally glaze them.
Pomegranate glaze
If you never made a glaze, no worries, it’s one of the easiest things to do. All that you need is some icing sugar and some liquid, such as water or milk. In this case, I used fresh pomegranate juice, apart from adding that delicious tart taste to glaze, the juice gives the glaze a bright colour without adding any food colouring. The photos in this blog post are all naturally coloured by the pomegranate juice, and I actually was really surprised and pleased with this colour!
However, I would like to make a small note, not all pomegranate juice will give the same colour result. For this recipe here, I have freshly squeezed some pomegranate juice myself and the pomegranate I used have this rich vivid burgundy colour which made it so bright! While preparing this recipe, I have also tried making this glaze with a store bought pomegranate juice which was dark mauve coloured and gave a light blush glaze. It was still gorgeous but for this one I wanted something more bright so I went with the freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.
How to squeeze pomegranate juice
Clean and remove all the arils from a pomegranate. Blend the arils in a blender for not more than 15-20 seconds, the seeds need to remain intact. Sieve the juice and push the juice through, you might need help with a rubber spatula as the pulp is quite thick. Discard the seeds. Enjoy the juice directly or use it in your bakes, as in this case!
Almond baked doughnuts with a pomegranate glaze
Ingredients
Almond Baked Doughnuts
- 125 g plain flour 1 cup
- 90 g sugar 1/2 cup
- 65 g ground almonds 1/2 cup
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg
- 25 g unsalted butter 2 1/2 tbsp (melted)
- 125 ml milk 1/2 cup
Pomegranate glaze
- 60 g icing sugar 1 cup
- 1 – 2 tbsp pomegranate juice freshly squeezed or store bought
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F. Spray your doughnut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix all the remaining wet ingredients – the milk, butter, egg and almond essence – until you have a creamy consistency.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture gently. Mix them together until everything is combined.
- Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe the batter into the pan, filling about halfway.
- Bake the doughnuts for 10 minutes, until they have a golden colour or until they're fully cooked from the inside and a cake tester comes out clean.
- Allow them to cool for few minutes in the pan before placing them on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely.
- For the glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar with 1 tbsp of pomegranate juice. Add an extra tbsp until you've achieved your desired consistency. [For instructions on how to make freshly squeezed pomegranate juice see the note below the recipe.]
- Dip the doughnuts in the glaze and place them back on the cooling rack, for the extra glaze to drip off. The donuts can be enjoyed immediately or after the icing have set. Enjoy!
Notes
- Clean the pomegranate, and take out the pomegranate arils. Blend for about 15 seconds, the seeds should remain intact. Do not over blend.
- Pour the juice through a strainer. As the pulp is thick use a spatula or a spoon to help you get out all the juice over the strainer.
If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!
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