Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts
Deep fried or baked. Dipped in glaze or rolled in sugar. Topped with sprinkles or left unadorned. I don’t discriminate when it comes to my favorite food.
I have such a love for the golden brown rings of glory that I once walked more than five miles around New York City sampling nine different doughnuts in a single day. It was a Tour de Glaze that led me to crown the city’s best doughnut in the first ever Just a Taste Doughnuthon.
I’ve made doughnuts in the past. They were a semi-store bought insanely easy excuse for doughnuts, but they were delicious doughnuts nonetheless. But ever since my mom gave me Lara Ferroni’s Doughnuts cookbook, I knew I had to do both of us proud by making the real deal. And since I’m of the camp that thinks sour cream is the single greatest secret ingredient ever for baking (think Glazed Lemon Pound Cake, Blueberry Muffins and Chocolate Loaf Cake), I figured there was no better starting point than Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts. I could not have been more right.
Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts
Yield: 6 to 10 doughnuts
Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 5 min
Ingredients:
For doughnuts:
1¼ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
Vegetable oil, for fryingFor sugar glaze:
1½ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 to 4 Tablespoons whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extractDirections:
First make the doughnuts by sifting together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, sour cream, egg and butter.
Add the flour mixture in batches to the sour cream mixture, folding it in with a spatula until fully incorporated into a smooth dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter for 20 minutes.
Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it is approximately ½-inch thick.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out doughnuts that are 2½ inches in diameter. Re-roll scrap dough until all doughnuts have been cut out. Optional: Reserve the centers of each doughnut to make doughnut holes.
Prior to frying the doughnuts, prepare the sugar glaze by combining the sifted sugar, whole milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl.
When ready to fry doughnuts, heat at least 2 inches of vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until it reaches 360ºF.
Fry the doughnuts and doughnut holes in batches until they are golden brown.
Using a slotted spoon or spider, transfer the doughnuts to a cooling rack to drain. Let them cool just slightly before dipping them in the prepared glaze.
Recipe adapted from Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni.
Noma — February 25, 2011 @ 1:04 am
Running out to Krispy Creme now though they will not compare to yours!
Morgan — February 26, 2011 @ 2:03 pm
These look delicious! I have tried making homemade doughnuts only an handful of times. It is definitely something that takes patience! Bravo! These look superb!
Sanura @ MyLifeRunsOnFood.com — February 27, 2011 @ 12:59 am
I love doughnuts, and your recipe looks very easy. It seems doughnuts are becoming quite popular these days.
Kelly Senyei — March 1, 2011 @ 6:53 pm
Thanks so much for your comments! These were indeed very easy to make, and I picked this recipe specifically because it didn’t have time allotted for the dough to rise. A quick 20 minutes in the fridge and you’re good to go. And Sanura, I’ve always thought that doughnuts are the new cupcakes … enjoy!
Fat Tuesday: Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts | Holiday Helpings with Taylor Harkins — March 7, 2011 @ 2:37 pm
[...] on giving up sweets for Lent you may reconsider after trying these doughnuts! The image of these Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts alone is enough to make your mouth water. I could stare at this photo all [...]
Cinnamon Sour Cream Doughnuts « sweetnessandcomfort — March 10, 2011 @ 6:18 pm
[...] Posted by sweetnessandcomfort on March 10, 2011 · Leave a Comment Doughnuts are perfect morning “meals” or sweet snacks. As a child, when we made road trips to North Carolina, my dad was always excited to stop by the Krispie Kreme Factory when the “Hot Sign” was on, signaling that fresh, hot doughnuts were available. At school, there is a Krispie Kreme just blocks away. At home, you can’t go 3 miles without seeing a pink and orange Dunkin’ Donuts sign. Personally, I love glazed doughnuts, whether vanilla or chocolate. I recently tried to make my own doughnuts at home using this simple recipe. [...]
Diane Hurst — May 16, 2011 @ 9:15 pm
Ok when is the next Just A Taste Doughnutathon- I will start training-should I have the t-shirts printed up? Should we meet in a new fresh city? Can’t wait to get my sponser sheets filled! xxx
Liz — May 23, 2011 @ 10:10 pm
What would be the directions if I wanted to bake these instead of deep-frying? Thanks!
Kelly replied: — May 26th, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
Thanks so much for your comment, Liz! I have to admit that without having tried to bake them, that I do not know if this dough would work well in an oven versus a deep-fryer. Lara Ferroni’s book does have several baked doughnut recipes with doughs designed for baking rather than deep-frying. Enjoy!
Chocolate Glazed Cake Doughnuts « Whim & Wanderlust — September 19, 2011 @ 6:43 am
[...] there you go, cake doughnuts with a chocolate glaze. I think I want to try these ones next, see if I can recreate sour cream magic. LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); [...]
Kat — May 22, 2012 @ 10:52 pm
Tried it and it was a flop! Really disappointed
The outside cooked too quickly while the inside remained goopy and raw.
Ended up having to add baking powder just so it would rise a little and cook all the way through.
In the end, the finished doughnuts didn’t even come close to meeting my expectations. They also had this odd taste…
Will not be using this recipe in the future!
Kelly Senyei replied: — May 22nd, 2012 @ 10:57 pm
Hi Kat, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work for you! I just double-checked all of the proportions with Lara’s recipe in her book and everything matched up. In trying to troubleshoot your results, my first thought was that maybe your baking soda has expired?
Just a Taste » Cheesecake Brownie Bites — May 25, 2012 @ 11:53 am
[...] cheese, much like pancetta and Parmesan and sour cream, makes any dish better, so it was a natural addition. Best of all, you can leave disappointment in [...]
rissa — June 24, 2012 @ 10:24 am
when you mix the dough, are you supposed to mix it until it just comes together or mix it until it comes together like bread dough? whenever i make donouts i end up using my cookie scoop to make donut holes because the dough is so wet and sticky.
Kelly Senyei replied: — June 24th, 2012 @ 12:05 pm
Hi Rissa,
This is a thicker dough, such that you use a cookie cutter to stamp out the actual doughnuts, so no scooping should be required!
Noreen — June 28, 2012 @ 5:13 pm
I was wonder if the dough is supposed to come out thick like a biscuit type of dough or thick like a fritter batter. I mixed it and it came out more like a fritter batter. I think I might add more flour.
Kelly Senyei replied: — June 28th, 2012 @ 5:15 pm
Hi Noreen, It should be closer in consistency to biscuit-type dough.
Michelle — January 13, 2013 @ 9:55 am
Made these this morning. Big hit with my husband and teenage son. They come running whenever they hear me banging around in the kitchen on a Sunday morning! Usually when I make donuts it is a yeast dough and the wait is torture. These are nice, very tender and much easier. I used a teaspoon of butter vanilla extract in my dough. I did knead by hand just a couple of times to make the dough come together more smoothly. Next time I might reduce or omit the cinnamon and try some princess cake flavoring. Will definitely try again.