baked red velvet oreo donuts
I am stoked that I created both a red velvet AND a donut recipe all at once!
I’ve wanted a red velvet dessert on VE for a good while, but never could quite nail a treat. My biggest issue arose with trying, at first, to naturally color whatever it was I made. I know beets are a popular dye (for good reason, that shit gets everywhere and turns fabric bright magenta) but the concentration necessary was excessive and since it’s a puree I had to also account for that in the recipe’s proportions. Not impossible, I know, but more than I really wanted to think about.
Thankfully, I discovered that many brands of vegetable-based food dyes exist on the market, which are far better than the colorants using randomly-named pigments. I bought Watkins for these donuts (not sponsored, just mentioning because I want to) and although the container was itty bitty, it proved enough for my use and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
The Donuts
I mean, check that hue. 100% better than red-46 or whatever the hell the typical food dye contains.
These Baked Red Velvet Oreo Donuts are just that: baked, not fried, with a delightfully smooth cream cheese frosting so characteristic of the scarlet cake. And crushed Oreos. Oooohlala. I went back and forth several times on the base flavor of an Oreo-themed donut and landed on red velvet after much mental wrestling. I might still yet play with the other variants. Stay tuned.
The donut batter combines all your favorite cake ingredients in addition to the dye. Simply whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, butter, buttermilk, and dye until smooth.
In another bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Shake the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until just combined. As with cake, overmixing is a no-no. Prepare two 6-well donut pans with oil or butter. To transfer the batter to the pans, I used a pastry bag (with a random tip attached, hence the lines in the baked donuts) but you can also snip off the corner of a large ziptop and use that as a piping bag. The batter should not be runny at all, so risks of spills and mishaps out of the snipped tip should be minimal.
Pipe the batter into the donuts until used up, and bake the donuts for 8-10 minutes.
The Frosting
Cream cheese frosting is a must with red velvet. That’s a formula I shan’t warp at any points.
After the donuts cool, whip up this easy blend of softened cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a touch of heavy cream to loosen the frosting. I used two tablespoons, but you might only need one or up to three. It shouldn’t be much: this frosting is thick, not really like the whipped buttercream I used in my Triple Chocolate Explosion Cake.
I chose to keep the donut hole open instead of covering with frosting, but you can fill ‘er up if you wish. I used up all of my allotted frosting minus the good bit I ended up eating on its own…
The final touch? The Oreos! I recommend setting a piece of parchment beneath your wire rack to catch any strays, or setting the donuts on a large plate or platter. Oreos get messy.
I smashed the Oreos first with a can opener in a firmly-sealed ziptop bag. You can use a meat mallet, a rolling pin, your fists, your forehead, whatever. Just don’t rage too hard and split the bag open.
Sprinkle the Oreos over the frosting. I only did half just for aesthetic value, please feel free to cover the entire shebang with cookies. Give them a gentle press into the frosting to adhere. Then dive in. Honestly hard to just eat one.
Red velvet is a strangely polarizing culinary adventure, but I’ve also adored it. I used to order the red velvet cheesecake on repeat at Cheesecake Factory and tend to lean towards it when dining out and having a choice of dessert. Actually been quite a bit since I enjoyed something of that theme, so I’m utterly happy to have a fallback donut recipe to whip up when the craving strikes.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
Another to try: Strawberry Cheesecake Swirl Bars!
Ingredients
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp vegetable-based red food coloring
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup Oreo cookies (about 12)
cream cheese frosting
- 4 oz full-fat cream cheese
- 2 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 6-well donut pans with butter or oil.
- In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and butter until smooth. Whisk in buttermilk and red food coloring.
- In a separate small bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Fold into wet ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix!
- Snip off a corner of a large ziptop bag, or use a pastry bag, and scoop in batter. Pipe into donut pans. Bake 8-10 minutes until tops are set and the donuts feel fairly firm to the touch. Let cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then pop onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting: with a stand or hand mixer, whip the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon heavy cream until silky. If needed, whip in an additional tablespoon of heavy cream to reach the necessary texture.
- Toss Oreos into a ziptop bag and seal tightly, removing all air from the bag. Smash with some firm utensil: I actually used the head of a can opener. A rolling pin, a meat mallet, or similar instrument works well. The pieces should be very small, basically crumbs.
- Frost each donut with a flat headed frosting knife, leaving the hole open as desired. Sprinkle half (or all!) of each with crushed Oreos. 10/10 recommend serving dunked in coffee.
