Baked donuts are made with a touch of key lime, then topped with a sweet key lime glaze and graham cracker crumbs for that key lime pie touch.
One of the best perks of blogging is getting to meet some of your fellow bloggers in real life, and becoming actual real life friends – beyond the computer. I have been very blessed, because two of my best friends today I met through blogging – Carrian from Sweet Basil and Kristy from Sweet Treats and More. Well, every so often, we like to get together and talk about life, food, and of course, blogging.
Last week, we decided to get together for the morning and all bring something key lime to photograph together. And to top it off, we decided to throw a little key lime party and all blog about our recipes at the same time. Among the kids playing, kids crying (mostly mine), and kids begging for something to eat (again, mine), we managed to have a great morning. I always love hanging out with those girls! And I’m so excited for all of us to be able to share our key lime treats with you all today.
When I was trying to decide what to make, my mind went immediately to donuts. (Really, it should be no surprise at this point, right?) I was really tempted to make some real, full-fat, fried and full of goodness doughnuts, but then the baby weight stared back at me and I knew I shouldn’t pull out the deep fryer. And it totally ended up working out in my favor, though, because these turned out fantastic. I wasn’t sure how much lime flavor I was going to get, but the glaze totally pulled it all together. These were super tart – which is my favorite part about citrus desserts. (If you prefer less tart, just substitute part of the key lime juice in the glaze with milk.) And the secret to keeping these super moist is Greek Yogurt. I used a small container of Chobani Plain Greek yogurt, and it was perfect.
When it comes to citrus, I’m usually all about fresh. I don’t ever buy those bottles of lemon juice – it’s never the same as fresh squeezed juice to me. But I have to admit that it’s a different story when it comes to key limes. Have you ever had to juice key limes? Those things are tiny! And tiny limes equals having to juice a million limes, and well, in this case, I totally cheat and use bottled key lime juice. Plus, key limes are often hard for me to find. You can always substitute regular Persian limes, too, but I wanted to go with the real key lime for these donuts. And of course, to give them that “pie” twist, I had to add some crushed graham crackers. I adore key lime pie, and it just wouldn’t be the same without that graham cracker crust!
Now I’m thinking we need another morning together – so we can all bring you more delicious food!
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 6 ounces plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon key lime juice
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup key lime juice
- crushed graham crackers
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a donut pan.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg, then mix in the yogurt, oil, milk, key lime juice and lime zest. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, just until moistened.
- Transfer the mixture to a large ziptop bag. Cut off the corner and use the bag to pipe the mixture into the donut pan, filling each donut about half full. Bake until the donut springs back when lightly touched, 10-12 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.
- To make the glaze, mix together the powdered sugar and key lime juice. Dip the tops of the cooled donuts into the glaze, then dip into the graham cracker crumbs.
It’s a Key Lime Party!! Make sure you click over and see what my friends made. It’s all kinds of key lime goodness!
Key Lime Pie Milkshake from Sweet Basil
Key Lime Pie Frozen Yogurt from Sweet Treats and More
Baked Key Lime Pie Donuts from Taste and Tell
Other key lime recipes around the web:
Key Lime Eclairs from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
Macadamia Key Lime Pie from The Recipe Critic
Key Lime Cake from Your Homebased Mom
These sound so good and my key lime pie loving brother and grandpa would go CRAZY for these! I wish I could make them while we are all on vacation!
I am not familiar with the dessert key lime pie but it sounds delicious! Could I use some graham flour in the doughnuts to make it more liekt he base of the pie?
I love key lime everything and these donuts are awesome, love!
What a fun morning- isn’t it great to cook and blog with friends?!?! I have a donut pan and never remember to pull it out. These look so light and delicious!
How fun is this?! I love baking with friends! These donuts look so refreshing and summery!
Those key lime donuts look amazing!
I’m not going to lie, I drooled!
My family loves lemon donuts, I’m sure they’d love these too. How fun to get together and let your kids play.
These almost look too pretty to eat!
These are so fun! My mouth is watering just thinking about tart key lime flavor. I love this!
What an awesome flavor for donuts! Like nothing I’ve ever had. These look incredible, Deb!
Key lime is one of my favorite things in life, so these donuts sound perfect for me! They look just delicious!
I have quite a few key lime pie fans in our family so I know they will love these donuts! Pinning!
I love key lime, these are the prettiest donuts!
Key lime pie is my husband’s favorite! Totally going to try these!
Key lime desserts are amazing- my mom makes a key lime cheesecake. These doughnuts look amazing!
I love that you guys could all get together for a food party! I met one of my best friends through blogging also…it’s so amazing how these things happen!
I adore key lime and these donuts definitely need to get in my kitchen!
These look seriously amazing! I love key lime everything and in doughnut form – awesome idea!
Love this! I also have key lime pie greek yogurt in the fridge so I will most definitely be using that up in these donuts!
These are perfect. And gorgeous. And so yum!
These donuts look amazing!! So bummed I missed out on the key lime party. I’ll have to definitely get in on it next time!
Oh goodness! I love key lime pie, these donuts are too perfect 🙂
These look delightful, I love that you baked them.
These are delicious! I just made them for my son’s 1/2 birthday. Kids stamp of approval for sure.
How amazing do these look!
These look amazing! I was wondering if it would be okay to use vanilla flavored Greek yogurt in these or would that change the flavor?
I’m sure vanilla Greek yogurt would work just fine!
Oh also, is it ok to use regular lime juice instead of key limes for these? Would there be a difference?
You can use regular lime juice. The taste is a little bit different, but regular lime juice would be a fine substitute.
I. Want to make this but I don’t have a donut pan. Is there another option?
You could bake them as muffins, but you’d need to adjust the baking time.
I just made these this morning -fantastic!!! Wow. My husband adores key lime pie but can’t have much dairy so these will be regulars. So easy to make too! Yum.
Yay – I”m so glad you both loved them!