Are you looking for an easy-to-make baked item that’s not too sweet but very tasty? These goat cheese donuts with sour cherry compote might be the thing for you! The donuts are light and airy with a kick from the goat cheese. While the sour cherry compote adds a little bit of sweet and sour, and a whole lot of flavor.
As you may be able to tell from the picture, these are baked donuts. I like baking donuts over frying for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is faster and easier to bake donuts since you’re working with baking powder instead of yeast. Secondly, when you’re making a batter it is possible to incorporate different flavor profiles such as goat cheese in the case of this recipe, which you can’t always do when making a dough. And thirdly, you don’t have any oily residue/ aftertaste, which can overpower the flavors of the donuts.
From start to finish, this donut recipe requires under 30 minutes to prepare and bake. Furthermore, you only need simple, easy-to-find ingredients such as:
- eggs
- flour
- sugar
- butter
- cream
- goat cheese
- vanilla extract
- baking powder
- and of course, sour cherries
When it comes to the sour cherries, I used frozen ones since I couldn’t find fresh ones. If you have fresh, use fresh ones. But if you don’t, frozen ones work just as well. You will be cooking them and they will lose texture anyway.
If time is an issue, you can make both the compote and batter one day in advance and refrigerate them overnight. Place the batter in a piping bag before refrigerating as it will develop more gluten overnight and become more difficult to handle.
As with my other donuts, you can make these ones in advance and freeze them for later. I recommend you only pour the compote over the donuts right before serving. The compote can be stored in a fridge for a few weeks.
The donuts themselves are quite simple and get their flavour from the goat cheese. Therefore I strongly recommend you serve them with some kind of compote or jam. If you’d rather not make the compote, I suggest you use some (store-bought) sour jam like blackcurrant.
Regardless of season, these Goat Cheese Donuts with Sour Cherry Compote make a great snack or dessert.
See more donut recipes here.
And lastly, this is how you make the goat cheese donuts with sour cherry compote:
Goat Cheese Donuts with Sour Cherry Compote
Ingredients
For the sour cherry compote:
- ⅔ cup (120 g / 4 ¼ oz.) sour cherries, pitted
- ½ cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (60 ml / 2 oz.) water
For the batter:
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup (150 g/ 5 ¼ oz.) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) granulated sugar
- ½ stick (60 g/ 2 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 ml/ 2 oz.) cream (35% fat content)
- ¼ cup (60 g/ 2 oz.) goat cheese, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature for greasing the pan
Instructions
For the sour cherry compote:
- Place the sour cherries, sugar, and water in a small pot over low-medium heat. Let it simmer for approximately 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
For the batter:
- Pre-heat oven to 180 °C (350 °F).
- In a bowl sift the flour, then add the baking powder. Mix them with a whisk and set aside.
- Gently melt the butter over low temperature. Make sure the butter does not bubble. Once melted, set it aside and allow it to cool a little.
- In a small bowl, mix the goat cheese and the cream until they reach a creamy, smooth consistency.
- Crack the eggs into another bowl, then add the sugar and beat them at high speed using an electrical mixer. Mixture is ready when almost triple in volume and light in color. Add the cheese-cream mixture, vanilla extract and salt, and whisk until incorporated. With a spatula, incorporate the flour in two-three steps, mixing after each addition. Add the melted, cooled butter and mix.
- Allow the batter to sit for ten minutes in the fridge. Grease the pan, then pipe the batter into the pan filling ¾ of each cavity.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until the donuts spring back when lightly pressed. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the donuts to sit in the pan for 2-3 minutes before taking them out. Transfer them to a rack and allow to cool.
- Pour sour cherry compote over donuts before serving.
