Sour Cream Doughnuts

These are from A Baker’s Field Guide to Doughnuts and are a great basic cake-style doughnut.

Description: Cake style doughnuts with a rich, moist texture due to the inclusion of sour cream.

Field Notes: These are a rich doughnut with an almost velvety texture you can only obtain with sour cream. Although they sound fancy, these are a fabulous “basic” doughnut for a wide variety of toppings and glazes.

Quick to make

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sifted cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup sour cream, at room temperature

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Oil for deep-fat frying

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.

2. Beat sugar and eggs together in bowl of electric mixer until pale and creamy, or whisk well by hand in a large bowl. Beat in sour cream, butter, vanilla and nutmeg until combined. Add the dry mixture in two batches and beat just until the dough comes together. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

3. Remove dough from refrigerator. Prepare deep pot or deep-fat fryer. Line a rimmed baking sheet pan with triple layer of paper towels; set aside.

4. Dust work surface with flour. Scrape dough into work surface, dust top of dough lightly with flour, and roll out to ½-inch thickness. Cut out doughnuts with a floured 3-inch cutter. Gently re-gather scraps and cut out as many doughnuts as possible.

5. Heat oil to 350 to 355 degrees F. Fry a few at a time; do not crowd. Fry until light golden brown, for about 1 minute and 15 seconds, flip over and continue frying about 1 minute and 15 seconds more and light golden brown on that side as well. Remove from oil, drain thoroughly on paper towels. Repeat with remaining dough. Apply dry toppings or glaze as desired. Serve immediately.

Yield: About 12, 3-inch doughnuts

Lifespan: Best eaten as soon as possible