So I might just lead with the fact that these doughnuts are insanely pink! I thought I was going for a more mellow shade, but I completely spaced the fact that beet juice powder gets more intense as it sits… so these beauties happened quite by accident. By all means feel free to dial it down a bit, but after a seriously long winter, I’m actually loving the vibrance. These doughnuts also get quite a bit of color from a special ingredient – freeze dried strawberries – these are so fun to work with, and I know there’s going to be more creations in the future. I took a package of freeze dried strawberries and pulverized them into powder. From there I added some to the batter, some to the frosting, and then saved a little to be ‘sprinkles’ on top. Freeze dried strawberries are a natural ‘natural flavoring’ agent, but without the chemicals. They have an intense concentrated strawberry flavor that really helps these doughnuts taste like strawberry in every single bite.
I bought my freeze dried strawberries at our local health food store, and I’d recommend stocking up whenever they go on sale, or looking for a good price online because they can be expensive in some store.
To crush them into powder, you can use a small food processor, or place them in a ziplock and crush them with a rolling pin, or a mortar and pestle works as well.
All the dry ingredients get mixed together in a bowl, and you can see how bright the strawberry powder is, it really adds so much beautiful color as well as flavor.
Then you add the wet ingredients and mix to combine…
… before adding chopped fresh strawberries to the batter.
Mix again to make sure the strawberries are evenly distributed…
… and then portion some of the batter into a lightly greased doughnut pan.
When the doughnuts are done baking, make sure you let them cool until they’re almost room temperature, before carefully removing them from the pan. I got a little over excited with the first batch, and broke half of them trying to take them out too early. They’re extra delicate cake doughnuts because of the strawberry chunks, but I promise the short wait will be worth it! Finally it’s time to glaze them, and as I mentioned before, feel free to make the frosting as pink as you’d like. You don’t even need to add the beet juice powder to the frosting, and it will be a light pink just from the powdered strawberry. 5 from 8 reviews
