Easy, lemon infused, baked donuts topped with a layer of homemade lemon curd and frosted with a gorgeous marshmallowy toasted meringue.
Lemon is one of my absolute flavors to bake with. I have so many lemon dessert recipes, but if I’m being honest, lemon with meringue is superior.
Lemon curd and Meringue can be tricky to get just right but I have all the details in those posts so make sure to read them if you’re not familiar or need some extra tips.
How To Make Lemon Meringue Donuts, Step-by-Step Photos
Lemon Curd
Combine the sugar, eggs, lemon juice & zest, butter and salt in a small nonstick or enameled (NOT metal) saucepan over medium-low heat.
Whisk continuously until it thickens, about 5 minutes. The curd should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
While it’s still hot, press the curd through a sieve into another bowl/jar, cover it and allow it to cool completely to room temperature. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.
sugar rubbed with lemon zestingredients for lemon curd mixed togethermixture will look split until they the butter is fully meltedlemon curd thickenedlemon curd coats the back of a spoondiscarded chunks from lemon curd.finished lemon curd
Donuts
Zest the lemon on top of the sugar and use your fingers to rub them together well, until they’re well combined.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until they’re evenly distributed.
Add the room temperature butter and the oil and use an electric mixer to beat them at medium, until they’re crumbly like a streusel.
Add the egg and mix just until it’s well combined and the batter looks like paste.
Add the sour cream and turn the mixer to low speed while streaming in the milk.
Scrape the edge of the bowl and give it a good mix. Fill the donut molds about ⅔-¾ full.
Bake for 10ish minutes, until it springs back when you press on it.
Let the donuts rest for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove them from the pan and let them cool completely.
lemon zest rubbed with sugardry ingredients, butter and oildry ingredients mixed with butter and oilegg added to battersour cream and milk added to batterbatter piped into mini donut panbatter piped into donut pandonuts finished baking
Meringue
Combine sugar, cream of tartar and egg whites over a double boiler.
Heat until sugar is fully dissolved in the egg whites and reaches 170F (77C).
Whip egg whites and sugar until it’s a fluffy meringue.
raw egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixeregg whites and sugar cooking over a double boilercooked egg whites with sugar dissolvedMarshmallowy Swiss meringue
Assemble
Spread a layer of lemon curd on top of the cooled donuts (if there’s a flatter, less rounded side, spread it on that side so it holds more).
Use a piping bag to pipe the meringue on top of the lemon curd so it doesn’t slide around.
Use a culinary torch to toast the meringue.
lemon curd spread on top of the donutsmeringue piped on top of the lemon curdmeringue toasted with a culinary torch
How To Store Lemon Meringue Donuts
These donuts can be served right away or refrigerated for later. Keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days or freeze for longer.
To freeze the donuts, place them in an airtight container and then place the container in a freezer bag, squeezing out all the excess air. Bring them back to room temperature by thawing at room temperature for a few hours before serving or in the fridge overnight.
I hope you enjoy these lemon meringue donuts and I hope they bring a little bit of sunshine to your day!
If you have any questions, please comment down below – those will get answered much quicker than email or through social media.
If you’ve tried this, I would very much appreciate a star rating or review as well.
Combine the sugar, eggs, lemon juice & zest, butter and salt in a small nonstick or enameled (NOT metal) saucepan over medium-low heat.*
50 grams granulated sugar, 1 large lemon, zested, 1 large egg room temperature, 1 large egg yolk room temperature, 60 mL lemon juice, 42 grams salted butter room temperature
Whisk continuously until it thickens, about 5 minutes, just until it reaches about 170F (77C) – don't go over. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
While it’s still hot, press the curd through a sieve into another bowl/jar, cover it and allow it to cool completely to room temperature. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.
Lemon Donuts
Preheat the oven to 350F/177C convection and grease a donut pan (I did 12 large donut molds and 12 minis)
Place the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl) and zest the lemon on top. Use your fingers to rub the sugar with the lemon zest to release the oils.
200 grams granulated sugar, 2 large lemon, zested
Add the cake flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until they're evenly distributed.
210 grams all-purpose flour spooned and leveled, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Add the oil and butter to the dry ingredients and beat together until they're combined.
60 mL canola oil, 56 grams unsalted butter room temperature
Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until they're fully combined.
1 large egg room temperature, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Add the sour cream and turn the mixer to low speed, while streaming the milk in. Scrape the edge of the bowl and mix just until the batter is smooth.
113 grams sour cream, 80 mL whole milk room temperature
Fill each donut mold about 2/3-3/4 full and bake for about 8-11 minutes. They are done when you press on the center and it springs back and the edges are golden brown.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack. Allow the donuts to cool completely before frosting.
Toasted Meringue
Bring a small pot with a little water to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer (keep it on very low heat).
Wipe down your equipment with a tiny bit of vinegar or lemon juice (any edible acid) and then place the sugar and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisking them together.
150 grams granulated sugar, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Add the egg whites to the bowl and whisk the egg whites into the sugar. Place the bowl of egg whites and sugar on top of the simmering water (making sure it doesn’t submerge into the water) – you want the steam to heat the egg whites.
3 large egg whites
Whisk the egg whites frequently so they don’t coagulate around the edge of the bowl. Generally around 5 minutes, the sugar will feel like it’s dissolved in the egg whites but you want to take the egg whites to 175F (80C) in order to get that stable, marshmallowy texture, which is normally around 10 minutes for me. So make sure to check the temperature with a thermometer between the 5-10 minutes (it may take up to 15 minutes).
Once it’s at 175F (80C), turn the stove off, remove the bowl from the simmering pot and place it on the stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment. Beat at medium speed for a minute and then increase to medium-high for about 10 minutes.
Add in the vanilla extract and salt and mix, that just until it’s combined, making sure to scrape the edge of the bowl as well. The texture should be thick and marshmallow – not dry or foamy.
2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract, tiny pinch fine sea salt
Notes
Store bought lemon curd will work as well but I don’t particularly love any of them to recommend.
I recommend a light colored metal donut pan if you want them more uniform in color.
I got 12 large donuts and 12 mini donuts out of this batter. You could also get about 18 large donuts or 36 mini donuts if you’re making them all the same. The batter can wait while one set bakes at a time.
Store in an airtight container, refrigerated for 4-5 days or frozen for a few weeks.
If you need the meringue to be SUPER stable you can add gelatin to it.
I just dissolve a ¼ tsp of gelatin in 1 tsp of cold water. Let it set for a few minutes and then microwave it for 5 seconds. Add it in with the vanilla and salt, mixing just until it’s well combined. It’ll set once it’s refrigerated.
