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.
Ingredients
For doughnuts:
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Vegetable oil, for frying
For sugar glaze:
- 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 3 to 4 Tablespoons whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- 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.
- ★ Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to give it a star rating below!
Nutrition
Shoutout
Did you try this recipe?
Share it with the world! Mention @justataste or tag #justatasterecipes!
This post may contain affiliate links.
Recipe adapted from Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni.
Sorry but this was pretty terrible. The dough is so sticky I had to add a lot of flour to roll and cut it out and then it got a floury taste. It’s a very heavy dough too. One doughnut weighs about a pound
Sorry you didn’t enjoy the recipe, Angi.
Perfection.
Thank you.
I’m so thrilled you enjoyed the doughnuts, Alexandra!
First time making donuts and they turned out awesome. Very tasty.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Tammy!
Hi can i substitute the sour cream for plain yogurt?
Hi Luna – I haven’t tried that substitution in this recipe so I can’t say with certainty if that would work. Would love to hear your results if you give it a shot!
How many will one batch make?
Hi Pamela! This recipe will yield 6-10 doughnuts.
Can you bake these in the oven instead of frying them?
Hi Jan! I have a recipe for baked doughnuts that you can find here: https://www.justataste.com/baked-mini-buttermilk-doughnuts-with-nutella-glaze-recipe/ :)
How long do you fry the doughnut? Do you flip them half way?
Hi Janelle – It’s all based on the color. So once they’re golden brown on one side, you can flip them. Do one to test the time first, and then you can do several at a time.
Awesome! came out great and very tasty.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Gross. Too much cinnamon, too much vanilla, just not good. Very disappointed.
I’ve been a baker for several years and these were so easy to make and delish! Hubby luvs them! Thanx for the recipe, I’m making these again…soon lol
First-time ever making doughnuts and I must say that this was one of the easiest things I have ever made! They were very good too. Going to be a morning staple from here on in my household. Now to try to tweak the recipie and add a few extras. Thinking candied pecans maybe…
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi Kelly can I refrigerate the dough overnight and fry in morning so fresh
Hi Lena! I’ve never tried refrigerating the dough so I can’t say for certain if the recipe would work or not with that added step.
I tried making these last weekend. They came out terrible. I have no idea what I did wrong, as I had the oil hot enough, but they were laden with grease. They were absolutely inedible. :(
Hi Maggi – Did you use a deep-fry thermometer to make sure your oil was at the correct temp? They definitely shouldn’t be greasy if fried at the specified temp/time.
These look excellent! One question though: do they come it as cake donuts or rise donuts? I am still a donut novice.
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.
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.
Hi Noreen, It should be closer in consistency to biscuit-type dough.
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.
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!
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!
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?
What would be the directions if I wanted to bake these instead of deep-frying? Thanks!
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!
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
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!
I love doughnuts, and your recipe looks very easy. It seems doughnuts are becoming quite popular these days.
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!
Running out to Krispy Creme now though they will not compare to yours!