Campfire Donuts Recipe
We partnered with Volkswagen to create a super fun and delicious campfire donuts recipe for your next camping trip. These lemon ricotta stuffed “aebleskivers” with blueberry balsamic glaze are inspired by our great Danish compatriots – masters of cooking with fire 🔥 The donuts are cooked in a cast-iron aebleskiver pan. Like a muffin pan, except that the bottoms of the molds are rounded into half spheres. It doesn’t have to be a single-use pan either – works well for things like muffins and meatballs, too!
If you’re new to campfire cooking, check out our how-to guide.
Makes about 36 donuts
Ingredients
Donuts a.k.a. Aebleskivers
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup powdered sugar
3 eggs
½ cup melted butter or oil
1 ½ cups half and half
Blueberry Balsamic Glaze
2 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp salt
Lemon Ricotta Filling
2 C fresh ricotta
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 tbsp lemon juice (about ¼ lemon)
1 tsp lemon zest
Directions
Glaze
Add blueberries, sugar, balsamic vinegar and salt to a small sauce pot. Mash thoroughly. Place pot over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Stir occasionally until the mixture reduces by half, about 20 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
Filling
Whisk ricotta, sugar, and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl. Transfer the mixture to a plastic squeeze bottle with a tip. Reusable condiment bottles work perfectly for this. If necessary, cut the tip of the bottle, so the opening is approximately ¼ inch in diameter.
Donuts
Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Create a well in the center of the combined ingredients. Into the well, whisk the eggs, sugar and oil, leaving the dry ingredients mostly undisturbed. Now whisk in half & half, progressively grabbing dry ingredients from the edges. Continue until the wet and dry ingredients are fully combined and the batter is smooth.
Heat donut pan over medium heat and coat liberally with butter or oil. When the pan has come to temperature, add batter to the pan, filling molds just over halfway. Fry until bubbles start to form on the surface, about 3-4 minutes. Begin turning until browned all over, about 7 minutes total.
Tip each batch of donuts out of the pan onto a board or sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Re-oil/butter the donut pan as necessary between batches.
Finishing Touches
With a small paring knife, cut a ½ inch slit into the side of the donuts. Pipe/squeeze in ricotta filling into the slits. Dip and twist donuts about halfway into blueberry glaze, and serve.
Also delicious: skip the glaze and filling and simply roll the donuts in a mixture of ¼ cup powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon as they come out of the pan.
Watch us make this campfire donut recipe at the campsite: