Breakfast / Brunch
Sour Cream Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
Old-fashioned doughnuts are a rare treat, and once you take a bite into one of these fresh ones, you may never be able to eat store-bought doughnuts again. And because old-fashioned doughnuts are fried at a lower temperature than regular cake doughnuts, or their fluffy yeast cousins, their tops crack, resulting in doughnuts with crunchy outsides and soft, cakey insides. Because this dough can chill overnight, all you have to do in the morning is roll it out, cut the doughnuts, fry, and glaze them.
Making these doughnuts with sour cream and cake flour keeps them tender, while mace brings some warmth. And if you’re a chocolate fan, we’ve got you covered — with the glaze and icing, too.
After frying, dip the hot doughnuts in the glaze — this keeps them fresher longer. Of course, icing is here too, and is just as good. And lastly, be sure to fry the doughnut holes — kids love them!
Ingredients
WHISK:
BEAT:
Glazes & Icings
Both glazes and icings should be made just before using. Apply glazes to hot doughnuts but icings to cool ones. If either thickens too much, add hot water, a teaspoon at a time, to thin them. Each glaze recipe makes enough to double-dip one recipe of doughnuts and holes. Each icing recipe makes enough to single-dip one recipe of doughnuts and holes.
Vanilla Glaze: Sift 6 cups powdered sugar. Add ¾ cup hot water, ¼ cup light corn syrup, 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste, and ¼ tsp. table salt; whisk until smooth. Cover glaze with plastic wrap while frying doughnuts.
Chocolate Glaze: Sift ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder; whisk in ¾ cup hot water until cocoa dissolves. Sift 6 cups powdered sugar. Add cocoa mixture, ¼ cup light corn syrup, and ¼ tsp. table salt; whisk until smooth. Cover glaze with plastic wrap while frying doughnuts.
Vanilla Icing: Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and beat with ¼ cup hot water, 1 tsp. light corn syrup, 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste, and ¼ tsp. table salt with a mixer until combined. Ice doughnuts immediately after making icing.
Chocolate Icing: Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and beat with ½ cup hot water, 1 tsp. light corn syrup, ¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract, and ¼ tsp. table salt with a mixer until combined. Beat in 4 oz. melted semisweet bar chocolate just until combined. Ice doughnuts immediately after making icing.
Instructions
Whisk together flour, baking powder, mace, and salt.
Beat sugar and shortening in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until thoroughly combined. Add yolks and beat until pale in color. Add sour cream and beat to combine. With the mixer on low, add flour mixture little by little until all is added and dough is combined.
Wrap dough in plastic and chill 1 hour or up to overnight.
Prepare glaze according to directions, page 18. Heat 2-inches oil in a large high-sided cast-iron skillet or pot to 340°.
Roll dough on a floured surface to ½–¾-inch thick. Cut doughnuts using a 3¼-inch round cutter. Cut holes with a 11/4-inch round cutter. Reroll scraps once. Brush excess flour from doughnuts.
Fry doughnuts in hot oil, in batches of two or three, 45 seconds, then flip and fry 1½ minutes; flip again and fry 45 seconds more. Transfer doughnuts using a slotted spoon to a wire rack set inside a baking sheet. When cool enough to handle, but still hot, dip cracked side of doughnuts in glaze; shake off excess and return to rack. Once glaze is slightly set, dip doughnuts again on same side. Allow glaze to set completely, 15 minutes.
If using icing, dip the cracked side of the doughnuts in glaze once and let cool completely, then dip glazed side in icing. Let icing set before serving.
RECIPE VARIATION: Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts Reduce baking powder to 3 tsp. Add ⅛ tsp. baking soda. Omit mace. Combine ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted, ½ cup hot water, and ½ tsp. espresso powder until smooth. Add cocoa mixture to mixer after sour cream.
Mace is the red lacy membrane covering a nutmeg seed. It has a similar, but more pungent, flavor.
Adding the flour little by little allows it to be blended in without overmixing the dough.
Bloom cocoa in hot water to bring out its flavor and get rid of the raw, dusty quality it can have.
For smooth glazes and icings, sift powdered sugar and cocoa to get rid of any lumps.
Dipping doughnuts in glaze while they’re warm leaves a nice, thin coating and seals in freshness.
Icings should be loose enough to dip tops of doughnuts, but not so loose they run like the glazes.
Nutritional Facts
Nutritional Facts
Per serving double-dipped in vanilla glaze
Calories: 753
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 26g 40%
Saturated Fat 8g 40%
Cholesterol 75mg 25%
Sodium 632mg 26%
Carbs 128g 42%
Fiber 1g 4%
Protein 6g
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.