For tangy and sweet fans, you’ll love the recipe for key lime pie doughnuts. These delectable treats are a unique twist on the classic dessert, with a burst of citrus that will make our taste buds sing!
Today, I am sharing my recipe for key lime pie doughnuts with a twist: you can use key limes or a different lime, which won’t impact the taste. I should have titled this post: How To Make Key Lime Pie Donuts Without Key Limes!
The recipe starts with a simple batter, requiring no rising time or yeast and of course generously infused with fresh lime zest and juice, giving it a subtle citrus flavor.
Once made, you’ll simply fill your donuts into the donut baking tray cavities and bake until golden.
The finishing touch is the icing, made with lime zest and sugar, after being dipped into butter!
What sets these doughnuts apart is their complex flavor profile. The bright, zesty notes of the lime and the buttery sugar icing, create a harmony of flavors that will have your tastebuds begging for more.
Plus, the vibrant green hue of the glaze makes for a visually stunning treat.
These key lime pie doughnuts are perfect for any occasion, whether to impress your guests at a brunch or treat yourself to a delicious dessert. So what are you waiting for? Try the recipe and make your own.
Using a few simple ingredients is a fabulous treat that will have everyone asking you for the simple recipe.
My Key lime pie doughnut recipe works with or without key limes!
So before the key Lime fanatics get their tart and sassy attitudes, in a twist, beware, I used regular Persian limes, and there is no issue substituting one for the other becuase Persian limes are tart and sassy!
Persian limes, also known as Bearss limes, are a variety of lime often used in place of the traditional Key lime. Plus, I have an excellent reason for subbing the limes in my recipe: I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You might have guessed it’s hardly tropical here. Therefore, I could not find Key Limes, and our produce selection is always limited!
However, if you know your way around a kitchen ( I do, I used to be a Chef in my Italian restaurant), you know that substitutions are easy: sub Key Limes for regular Persian limes.
How Is A Persian Lime Different From A Key Lime?
While Persian and Key limes are tart and acidic, Persian limes are larger and have thinner skin, making them easier to juice and helping to prevent the pie doughnuts from becoming too soggy.
Using Persian limes instead of Key limes results in key lime pie donuts that are just as delicious and Tangy as those made with Key limes, but only the truest key lime aficionados would know! It is just a bit more tart, but no worries, the icing rounds out the overall flavor!
Therefore, using Persian limes for the key lime pie doughnuts is the perfect swap.
Key Lime Pie Doughnuts
Why I Don’t Fry My Key Lime Pie Donuts
Getting Fried or Are You Gonna Be Baked? If you fry donuts, you will need to do a lot of prep work and extra work, which is why I don’t fry the donuts.
Frying key lime donuts resembles a hot balmy day where temperatures will be in your face of about 375°F from the fryer! Get ready to lather up in that oil, and maybe prepare for some burn treatments. After you FRY those darling donuts, you will need to let them rest on a paper towel to drain.
But your tropical experience is incomplete without a good powdered sugar or icing coating. Then, of course, that awful belching that accompanies OIL-FRIED doughnuts. What a great day in paradise, isn’t frying fun?
Instead of hauling out the fryer or messing up the stove with an oil spatter, we bake the key lime-flavored donuts and yield a lighter, fluffier donut; it’s that plain and simple!
Key Lime Pie Doughnuts Are ALL About The LIME Flavor, Right?
Zesting is the skin of the lime (the green), but not the white peel you encounter after you begin zesting the lime.
- before you use a lime for it’s zest, always wash the lime and the lime skin
- you can either hold the lime on a cutting board and use a mini grater to zest
- or you can use a planar and zest
- using lime skin peel pieces will not work on this recipe
When it comes to key lime pie doughnuts, one of the essential ingredients is lime zest. Zesting a lime adds not only flavor but also fragrance and color.
There are a few reasons why zesting a lime is so essential.
First, the zest of lime is incredibly fragrant. When you add it to the doughnut batter, it will make your doughnuts smell amazing.
Second, the zest of lime is very colorful, and zesting a lime will provide a beautiful accent color to the donut and add a great flavor!
Finally, the zest of lime adds a unique flavor to your doughnuts.
Zesting a lime provides:
- Color
- Tartness
- And Tang
So, next time you make key lime pie doughnuts, zest a lime.
How To Zest The Lime For Key Lime Pie Donuts
Pro Tips For Zesting or Grating Your Lime
- Wash your lime before you use it (as mentioned above)
- Use a COLD Lime because warm-temperature ones are softer and might slide when you grate (hurting your fingers)
- room temperature limes might juice, which is not what you want to happen when you are seeking the zested lime skin
The Lime Tool You Gotta Have
The most invaluable tool is a Microplane. Simply put, every kitchen needs a Microplane without question. I’ve got several, and this Microplane comes in many different handle colors!
Plain or Iced?
My kids were plowing these doughnuts in one after the other without icing. However, I can offer a few suggestions for the icing. Instead, try a simple sugar and confectioner’s sugar combination with freshly zested lime through it.
In particular, first, swipe the donut with a bit of butter for a sugared donut with fresh lime, then add the sugar. By analogy, one might call it food porn! Mmm!
Doughnuts or Donuts It’s All About The Key Lime Pie Doughnut, Right?
Key Lime Pie & Caribbean Dreams
There’s nothing like tropical key lime pie, but these Key Lime Pie Doughnuts will tide you over until you travel to the Caribbean! ~ Dana XO
Key lime Pie Doughnuts Recipe Below
Key Lime Pie Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 1 Egg large
- 1/2 C Milk
- 5 Tablespoons melted butter unsalted
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- Dash of Salt not more than 1/2 Teaspoon
- One C All-Purpose Flour don’t use self-rising flour due to acidity of lime
- A Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 C Sugar
- 1/4 C Graham Cracker Crumbs
- 1 Lime (zest the whole thing) use a plane for fresh rind zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F
- Treat nonstick donut pans with spray or I used coconut oil brushed on each to release easily.
- In a large bowl mix eggs, milk, vanilla, and JUST 2 Tablespoons of butter to combine.
- Using a separate bowl, combine salt, flour, baking powder, and 1/2 C of sugar.
- Pour the mixture into the wet ingredients.
- Combine, scraping the sides to ensure all ingredients are thoroughly mixed and included.
- Next, add in Lime Zest and stir.
- Now in a separate small bowl, add the 3 Tablespoons of melted butter to the graham crackers (like you are making a crust).
- Add that to the mixture.
- Combine well.
- Pour your batter into a zipped bag using a cup to secure the bag while filling.
- Zip bag, and cut a small snip on the corner of a bag.
- Carefully pipe filling into each donut caveat, not filling more than 3/4 (or you will have spillover)
- Bake each tray 8-10 minutes (in cooler ovens it will take 10 full minutes).
- Donuts will rise to the rim of the indent and will yield firmly to touch, nothing soft.
- Immediately transfer from pan to cooling rack.
- Really they should just pop on out!
- Allow donuts to cool before Icing.
- Use my Crazy Good Tropical Lime Icing to frost!