These strawberry basil donuts with chocolate drizzle are so refreshing yet incredibly flavorful. The basil and strawberry aromas complement each other beautifully, while the donuts are light and airy. They are a great treat to make in the spring when strawberries are in season.
When I developed this recipe, I chose to incorporate the basil flavor into the batter and the strawberry flavor into the glaze. I found the basil donuts provide a nice, refreshing canvas for the strawberry glaze to really shine.
For this batter recipe you will need to use cream. Cream helps prevent the donuts from coming out dry. Keep in mind that they are small, little “cakes” with a large surface area and they dry very quickly. Moreover, make sure to glaze the donuts shortly after baking. The glaze provides a moisture barrier which also acts in preventing them from drying.
For the glaze, you need to mix icing sugar with strawberry purée. To make strawberry purée, simply blend a couple of strawberries. If you wish to remove the seeds, pass the purée through a strainer.
I like that the strawberry purée has a nice tart aroma, which helps cut the sweetness of the icing sugar.
You will need a donut pan to bake these donuts. I used a regular 6 cavity metal pan from Wilton. This gave me 12 donuts. Smaller pans will require a shorter baking time. If you’re unsure whether the donuts are done or not, simply poke one with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, the donuts are fully baked.
See more donut recipes here.
And finally, here’s the recipe:
Strawberry Basil Donuts with Chocolate Drizzle
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 2 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
- ½ cup (120 ml/ 4 ¼ oz.) cream (35% fat content)
- 1 tbsp. fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature for greasing the pan
For the glaze:
- 1 ¾ cups (200 g/ 7 oz.) icing sugar
- 4-5 tbsp. strawberry purée
- 50 g semi-sweet chocolate, melted
Instructions
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.
- Crack the eggs into another bowl, then add the sugar and beat them at high speed using an electric mixer. Mixture is ready when almost triple in volume and light in color. Add the cream, vanilla extract and salt, and whisk until incorporated. With a spatula, incorporate the flour mix in two-three steps, mixing after each addition. Add the melted, cooled butter and mix. Add the finely chopped basil and gently mix.
- Allow the batter to sit for 5 minutes. Grease the pan, then pipe the batter 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 to a rack and allow them to cool.
For the glaze:
- Mix the icing sugar with 4 tbsp. strawberry purée. If the glaze is too thick, add one more tbsp. strawberry purée. Dip donuts into the glaze. Once the glaze is dry, drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate.
