Lemon Donuts and Lemon Brownies

So, I have been on a major lemon kick this past week. I tried three different lemon recipes: lemon donuts, lemon blueberry cake donuts, and lemon brownies (no chocolate, just lemon bars with the consistency of a brownie and not a lemon bar with a crust...if that makes sense) Good news-they were mostly successful. The lemon donuts were absolutely delicious! Josh and I both enjoyed those a lot, they were soft and fluffy AND I plan to use the recipe again, but with different ingredients to try some new flavors. Plus, they were sooo easy to make. Just make sure you have a donut pan, mine is a mini donut pan so they were cute little guys. We weren't such big fans of the blueberry lemon cake donuts, they were a little to heavy and dense. The consistency was just too much for both of us, but they weren't terrible. Lastly, the lemon brownies: a BIG hit! I made them for our youth group last night and there was only one left, which was great for Josh to take with him to work for his lunch dessert :) So, I'm going to give you TWO recipes today. I didn't get a picture of the lemon brownies, but just imagine a yellow brownie with frosting haha

(The pictures are a combination of the blueberry and this recipe, so ignore the blueberries lol)

Lemon Donuts

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

6 oz plain yogurt

1 tsp lemon juice

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup milk

zest of one half lemon

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

lemon juice from one lemon

zest from lemon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then set aside. 

In a small bowl whisk together the egg, yogurt, lemon juice, oil, milk, and zest. Add this bowl to the dry ingredients and whisk until completely mixed. 

Now grease donut pans with spray or butter and fill them about half full. I used a spoon to fill them up, and it wasn't bad. Be sure to fill them up only half way as they do rise quite a bit and that cause some of mine to be blobs at the bottom instead of nice donuts :)

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes (depends on if you are making mini donuts or regular donuts, only ten for minis and 15 for normal donuts) then poke with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, it's ready to go. Let cool for a few minutes before adding the glaze.

While baking mix together the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and lemon juice and zest in a small bowl. Drizzle over donuts after they are cool and ENJOY!

Lemon Brownies

Ingredients
3/4 flour
3/4 sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, soft
2 eggs
zest from one lemon
juice from one lemon

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 T lemon juice
leftover zest from lemon

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350. Use the butter wrapper to grease an 8x8 baking dish.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a large bowl (mixes very easily and quickly). In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, zest, and lemon juice. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together until well combined.

Pour into the greased baking pan. Place in oven and let bake for 22-25 minutes. Use a toothpick to be sure they are done.

Mix together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest for the glaze while they bake. After cooled, pour the glaze over the brownies, and they are ready to go!! So easy, so yummy!