I’ve had a lifelong love affair with Greek Mythology, ever since I found a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales on my mother’s bookshelf when I was a pre-teen. As I headed off to university, it was a toss-up between Classics or Archaeology as a major. Archaeology won out because I quickly discovered that besides mythology, the rest of Classical History was rather boring to me. But I always found the rich lives of the petty,meddlesome Greek gods and goddesses infinitely fascinating. Among my favourite myths was that of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and her daughter Persephone. Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god of the Underworld, and tricked into eating 4 pomegranate seeds. Because of this, she must spend 4 months of every year in the Underworld. Demeter mourns the loss of her daughter for those four months and nothing on the earth grows for that time. I got a lot of great college papers out of the wonderful imagery of this myth!
I am fairly certain that when I first read this myth in Tanglewood Tales, I had no clue what a pomegranate was. It certainly wasn’t a fruit we had hanging around the house. I did eventually try one, I believe at a high school friend’s house, and found it fun to sit there picking out the seeds and sucking off the pulp. But it seemed like a lot of work for a little bit of fruit, so I didn’t actively seek out pomegranates as a daily snack. (This is the same reason I don’t really eat oranges, unless they are of the easy-to-peel, delicious clementine variety. The amount of work involved in peeling them puts me off). And so pomegranates remained more of a mythical fruit than anything else.
Then someone had the great idea to juice pomegranates and save us lazy fruit eaters a tremendous amount of work. Now that I can get on board with, especially given all the wonderful health benefits of the mythical pomegranate. I don’t drink much juice anymore, as it tends to be a little much for my blood sugars, but it’s wonderful stuff, all thick and rich and red. My kids adore it, so when POM Wonderful offered to send me some for review, I could hardly say no. It’s certainly not a low carb product, but it’s a healthy option for my children and I can always get behind that.
I had approximately 18 zillion ideas of what to do with the stuff when it arrived. Pomegranate-glazed shrimp, pomegranate-glazed pork, pomegranate cheesecake, blueberry pomegranate sauce for ice cream or waffles, so many ideas, so little time. I found it hard to settle on any one thing, given how well the flavours of pomegranate go with so many other foods. But let’s face it, the best thing to do with pomegranate juice is to drink it, and my samples were at risk of being consumed by three small children before I could decide what I wanted to make. So I decided to have a little fun with it and create a real treat for the kids. I did do some pomegranate jello, but it didn’t really seem blog-worthy. But I had a new donut pan crying to be used and it suddenly occured to me that the pomegranate juice would produce a gorgeous colour of donut-glaze.
The Results: A great many thanks to the folks at POM Wonderful, because these were so much fun to make and my kids loved them! I put pomegranate juice in the batter instead of milk, thinking that perhaps the donuts themselves would be a lovely shade of pink, but as they baked, they returned to brown. No matter, the vibrant pink of the glaze made up for it. I added the blueberries because I just love the combination of blueberries and pomegranate, and it really added to the flavour of the donuts themselves. Besides, with all the goodness in both pomegranates and blueberries, I figured this way, I could call them “Antioxidant Donuts”!
I tried to keep the sugar in the batter to a minimum, because POM Wonderful is naturally sweet and I knew would add enough sweetness. The glaze, well, the sugar in that can’t really be helped, but these are supposed to be a fun treat for the kids so I just went with it.
If you don’t have a donut pan, you could make muffins or mini-muffins out of these. You will have to adjust the baking time accordingly.
Blueberry Pomegranate Donuts with Pomegranate Glaze
Donuts:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice
1 cup blueberries
Glaze:
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsp POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice
Sprinkles (optional)
For the donuts, preheat oven to 325F and grease the holes of a donut pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in eggs, butter, vanilla and pomegranate juice until well combined. Stir in blueberries.
Fill each donut hole 2/3 full. Bake 11 minutes or until firm to the touch and lightly browned.
Let cool 5 minutes in pan, then flip out onto wire rack to cool completely. Wipe out pan with clothe, re-grease and re-fill until all batter is used (my donut pan only holds 6 so I would have to do three batches).
For the glaze, whisk icing sugar and pomegranate juice together in small bowl until smooth. Spread over tops of cooled donuts. If using sprinkles, add before glaze dries.
Makes 18.
I am Carolyn, a writer, runner, mother and diabetic. I am also the evil mastermind behind this blog. I live for food. Join me in my experiments in creating delicious low carb, gluten free recipes. 
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I loved reading Greek mythology too! Glad you did doughnuts with the POM! They are gorgeous.
Carolyn, I love these! These are the prettiest donuts and the flavor combination sounds wonderful!
These donuts look so good! Love the pink color of the glaze!
These are gorgeous donuts!
I have a mini-donut maker that is now screaming at me from behind the pantry doors to make these…
These look so good! I wish I could have one right now!
These look amazing Carolyn! Are these baked donuts? I love that! They could be right in the bakery window….beautiful!
delicious looking innovative donuts
Wow Carolyn you surprising me every-time!! Those are gorgeous donuts..and what a lovely color of the glaze..fantastic, A+ and buzz from me!!!:))
So creative and delicious, Carolyn!
Carolyn, really you are such a genius! I am just loving these donuts. They are gorgeous first off and then your combination of flavors just cannot be beat. Fantastic!
your recipes keep getting better and better, I am eating with my eyes here.
Okay now you officially have me wanting an ice-cream maker AND a donut pan! Wowzers these look delicous! My son would literally be begging me for these if he saw the pictures. Great!!
So pretty! The pink frosting and the blue specks – gorgeous and delicious! And if I can justify a donut with fruit, I will!
These look so pretty that they almost look FAKE! Love the flavor combination!
Prettiest looking doughnuts! Love the idea of using pomegranate!
What a beautiful way to introduce your blog post today. I adore pommegranate and have never thought of using the juice in baking – thanks for the inspiration!
I love this flavor mix. Who can resist that cheerful glaze?
These are the prettiest donuts I have ever seen! Just gorgeous.
I love the flavor combo of blueberry and pom…sounds great. And these donuts won't make me feel nearly as guilty!
Wow I love blueberry donuts and these look amazing especially with that pomegranate glaze! Yum!
These donuts look amazing!
If you like mythology you might be interested in a series of books I just discovered. It's called The Myths, all of the books are retellings of classic myths by contemporary authors. I just started reading Weight by Jeanette Winterson which is about the Atlas story. Here's the web site if you're interested http://www.themyths.co.uk/
I didn't eat a pomegranate until I was about 21 when my husband (then boyfriend) introduced me to one. I agree that they are a lot of work and that the juice is a wonderful thing. The donuts look yummy and the glaze is such a pretty color!
Pink makes me happy! Beautiful donuts
Funny thing is, when my guy brings home a box of donuts Sunday morning after allowing the lady to put whatever combo in the box the pink glazed donuts are the last to be picked. With boys and me having a soft spot for maple I can see why. "Antioxidant Donuts" give me reason to believe they'd be healthier for me. Especially with the blueberries mixed in. I'd grab for your pink donuts first! Yummy!
If I could only reach through my screen… those are the most beautiful donuts I have ever seen!
Healthy donuts! They exist!
I was an archaeology major too, and I also grew up on Tanglewood Tales! My Persephone associations also kept me from pomegranates for ages, but thankfully I got over it…so I can try deliciou things like these doughnuts!
Wonderful how you used the POM juice! And these donuts looks just so cute.
My kids were looking over my shoulder as I looked at this post and they asked, "When are you making those, Mum?" Gorgeous!
Looks delicious! I love the addition of the Pom juice.
Would you believe I actually turned down the last offer from POM because I just don't think I can come up with anything unique anymore that no one else has already?
Leave it to you though, my creative, inspired friend. Beautiful donuts. You've done the pomegranate (one of my favorite fruits and well worth the effort to eat) proud.
That glaze is absolutely gorgeous! I love the color and consistency of it… Pomegranate is one of my favorite fruits and i would love some of these.. Thanks for sharing
These are SOOOOOOOOOOOO pretty.
These are fabulous, Carolyn! I rarely eat donuts, but I'd make an exception for these beauties. I'm sure your kids were thrilled with this treat
I would be!
Wow. These look amazing. Pom Wonderful really is wonderful!! A must make in my near future!
I wasnt sure if I had commented or not on here yet – but even if I have its worth repeating! These look amazing! I have never wanted a donut so bad in my life! You got me blueberry and then added pomegranate… swoon.
These look wonderful just like the juice that's found inside of them! I'm so glad I have a donut pan so I can try these little guys out…they sound too good to pass up!
These are so pretty! I love the pink glaze
Pomegranate and blueberry together sounds wonderful!
These are just wonderful, and so pretty
I loved eating pomegranates as a kid, fun but messy 
Who knew that the POM juice would make such a pretty color frosting. Beautiful!
What a great use of pomegranate flavor! I'm a sucker for blueberry cake doughnuts… so I know that I would devour these!
So cute and oh my…drool!!! This kind of unique ingredient donuts is so hard to find in the store, that's why people bake at home, right? I'm so envious I wish I could eat just one…….
Love it! Thankfully, I don't have a donut maker at home, or i'd be bigger than I already am. Maybe I'll pull out the deep cast iron pan!
I made these over the weekend. They were a total hit with my friends. Thanks!
Oh what a delicious looking blog you have Carolyn! I’m so glad Lizzy steered me your way. Thanks for sharing and, “see” you on Pinterest too!!!
These look absolutely delicious and I love the pink icing. Can you make these with almond meal? I am on a wheat free diet.