Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: The little bit of nutmeg combined with the sour cream and sweet glaze makes these doughnuts taste just like the ones at your favorite bakery, if not better!
Texture: Slightly crunchy on the outside, cakey and soft on the inside. All the little cracks in these doughnuts just soak up the shiny, crackled glaze.
Ease: There’s no yeast in this recipe so you can have these doughnuts IN YOUR MOUTH in a little more than an hour from start to finish.
Pros: I think the pros are inherently implied, they’re doughnuts!
Cons: Deep fried sugary goodness ain’t too good for your diet.
Would I make this again? Yes, whenever I’m craving these old-fashioned cake doughnuts I’ll whip this recipe out.
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I have huge sweet tooth cravings on the regular. Can you relate?
When I get a doughnut craving, it’s intense.
In my experience, a lot of doughnut shops make pretty bland and greasy doughnuts that leave a weird residue on your tongue.
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There are a few local shops that I LOVE, but I rarely have an excuse to make a trip to one of them.
This recipe honestly takes about the same amount of time that it takes to drive across town to my favorite bakery, so it’s kind of perfect. Plus, if you only eat doughnuts when you make them from scratch, you can’t really go overboard, right? That’s my logic at least.
These Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts are just like the old-fashioned cake doughnuts from the bakery. They’re kind of crunchy and cracked on the outside, making those nooks just perfect for soaking up the thick, shiny, crackled glaze.
We completely dunk the doughnuts in that glaze in the recipe, and it’s amazing. The inside is soft and cakey with a more firm bite than yeast doughnuts. Plus you can’t beat sour cream – it’s good with just about everything.
I don’t always prefer old-fashioned cake doughnuts to yeast doughnuts, but when I do this is absolutely the recipe I use. You can’t beat how much less time these take than yeast doughnuts, too.
Sprinkle of Science
Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts Recipe Tips
1. Use a Scale to Weigh Your Ingredients
Using a scale is a smart idea for these sour cream doughnuts. Any issues I hear about the dough being too dry or sticky are likely due to inaccurate measuring! If your doughnuts aren’t as fluffy and light as you’d like, it’s due to compacting too much flour into your measuring cup. You can learn more about how to measure flour the RIGHT way here.
2. Use REAL Bleached Cake Flour
- This is a must for these sour cream doughnuts.
- Purchased cake flour will yield light and delicate doughnuts, just like the ones from a good bakery.
- DIY substitutions don’t really cut it.
- AP flour will not create doughnuts with that same soft texture.
- Bleached cake flour will work best. Unbleached (like King Arthur Flour) won’t absorb as much moisture and you may end up with doughnuts that crumble while frying.
- You can learn more about cake flour here.
3. This Recipe is FRIED
- Yes, you must fry these sour cream doughnuts
- This recipe was specifically designed to be fried and not baked.
- USE FRESH OIL. Oil goes rancid quickly, often before the date on the bottle.
- If it has *any* unpleasant smell, don’t use it, as that flavor will transfer to your doughnuts.
Can I Air Fry These Doughnuts?
I don’t personally own an air fryer, but a reader recently messaged me, letting me know that she had success air frying this recipe. Let us know in the comments below if you have success air frying these doughnuts, too!
My Favorite Doughnut Tools:
- Digital Scale – to ensure your ingredients are measured correctly
- Doughnut Cutter – for perfectly uniform doughnuts
- Deep Fry Thermometer – to ensure your oil maintains the correct temperature
- Dutch Oven – perfect for frying!
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Krispy Kreme Copycat Glazed Doughnuts
- Baked Strawberry Lemon Doughnuts
- Chocolate Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
- Pumpkin Old Fashioned Doughnuts
- Classic Cake Doughnuts
Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts
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Ingredients
For the donuts:
- 2 1/4 cup (255 grams) cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (29 grams) butter, at COOL room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) sour cream
- Canola oil, for frying
For the glaze:
- 3 1/2 cup (350 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup hot water
Instructions
For the donuts:
- In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until sandy. Add the egg yolks and mix until light and thick. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl in 3 additions, alternating with the sour cream, ending with the flour.
- Mix for 30 seconds on low speed or until the dough is smooth but slightly sticky. You want to mix enough that the dough doesn't fall apart in the oil, but not so much that it becomes tough. If the dough is unbearably sticky, add extra flour one tablespoon at a time (especially if you live in a warm & humid climate).
- Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour, or until firm.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use a doughnut cutter or two differently sized biscuit cutters to cut out as many donuts as possible, dipping the cutters into flour as necessary to prevent sticking. You should get about 12 doughnuts and holes. If the dough gets too loose, sticky, or greasy at any point, return to the fridge to firm it back up before continuing. Refrigerate while you heat the oil so the dough is slightly cold when it fries.
- Pour 2 inches of canola oil into a heavy-bottomed pot with a deep-fry thermometer attached. Heat to 325°F. Fry the doughnuts a few at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. Fry on each side about 2 minutes, being careful not to let them burn. Keep an eye on the thermometer and adjust your stove heat to maintain the correct oil temperature. Let drain on a paper bag to soak up the excess grease.
For the glaze:
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until smooth. Immerse each doughnut into the glaze. Place on a wire rack above a sheet pan to catch any excess glaze. Let sit for 20 minutes until glaze is set. Doughnuts are best served the day they are made but may be store in an air tight container at room temperature for a few days.
Recipe Notes
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Can you keep prepared dough in refrigerator overnight?
Made the dough for your chocolate ones this AM! Will be the 3rd doughnut recipe I’ve tried and hopefully one that’s finally satisfying. Any thoughts on using strong black coffee for the glaze instead of hot water?
These are perfect! I like to cut mine a little thicker …but recipe and flavors are great
These old fashioned sour cream donuts are absolutely AMAZING and my family and friends cannot get enough!! Thank you!!
I had my first sour cream donut at Krispy Kreme a couple weeks ago and it instantly shot up to my favorite kind of donut! I love to bake, so whenever I try something yummy, I take it as a challenge to make the homemade version. I’ve always been afraid of frying- the grease and high temperature felt intimidating, but today was a snow day, and it felt like the perfect opportunity to give sour cream donuts a shot!
I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I went ahead and used all purpose flour, sifted three times. They turned out beautifully: tender on the inside and crisp on the outside. The glaze seemed a little thick, so I added a tiny bit more water so it would coat the donuts more easily.
My mom and bother told me they were better than Krispy Kreme, and I have to agree 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe!
P.S. I believe the recipe poster is creating fake accounts and posting comments to give this recipe more positive comments, because the TRUTH is that this recipe is awful.
This recipe is a resounding NO for me. I have fried many a donut, including yeast raised and buttermilk with success, but this is by far THE ABSOLUTE WORST I have ever tried. They came out way too dark…almost burnt, and I even started with a 300 degree frying temp just in case 325 was too high. I refrigerated the dough as indicated, rolled it out and cut it, but when I put them in the oil to fry, almost half of them fell apart before I could even turn them!! I made the glaze before frying the donuts, with the hopes that the poster of this recipe was telling the truth about the flavor, and she was lying. It tastes NOTHING like a bakery glaze…it tastes like a homemade glaze that is a favorite of the maker. I wish I had something positive to say about this “recipe”, but alas, I do not.
Cake flour is not cheap…neither is real vanilla extract, so if you value your hard-earned money, DO NOT try this recipe. It’s a waste of time and money.
Hi, I don’t ever use cake flour what’s the equivalent for all purpose flour?
@Um…No Well, I beg to differ as I had a good experience AND it is not exactly a unique recipe as this ratio is other places as well. I did add a bit of half and half, BUT I had messed with flour so was not surprised. I air fried this recipe – great. I also cut and froze and then air fried, also deep fat fried after freezing. All were successful for me. I wonder if you (@Um…No) weighed ingredients or used volume. At any rate, this is a keeper for me.
I am just 1 person in my house so I was VERY pleased to discover that both storing the dough and freezing cut donuts and then frying worked very well. Deep fat frying is certainly more like a bakery old fashioned but the air fry results were close enough for me and much less mess and time.
So excited to try this recipe but I knew better……the flour to “wet ingredient” ratio didn’t even look right on paper. But, I decided to give it a go anyway.
I was right—not nearly enough “wet” ingredients and the best I could get was “thick” flour. This was in NO WAY shape or form dough. I added a small container of vanilla yogurt (was out of sour cream) and still not dough consistency. I added ANOTHER 1/2 cup of half and half (cream) and it was finally a sticky dough. This was NOT a measuring problem if I had to add that much liquid.
I also let the “mixture” rest an hour and then there was no way that sticky ball was rolling out easily. I added flour to the rolling surface and cut them out.
Oil heated per directions and they broke into bits in the fryer. Maybe not anyone’s fault since I had to improvise so much with the recipe.
Second cutting of donuts, I made them thicker–much thicker–more between 1/2 and 3/4 inch. Ridiculous. They did fry up nicely and didn’t break apart. The taste was meh.
I will look around for a better recipe but beware that this recipe does not have a proper dry-to-wet ingredient ratio.
your cream doughnuts smells like delicious 🙂
I’ll try it
@Prescia I just air fried this recipe. I spritzed donuts with spray canola oil and then 5 minutes at about 325. Now, this is in a Cuisinart Toaster Oven/Air Fryer but I followed some Phillips Air Fry suggestion for temp and time and checked them every 2 minutes as my Air Fryer seems to run hot. At any rate, they did well. They are not as puffy and crispy as deep fat fried and the exterior is smooth vs craggy, but they are very good. Bottomline, not exactly what I think of when I think of an “Old fashioned”, but very good flavor and texture as far as I’m concerned. A caveat(s) re what I did though for ingredients. I did not have cake flour and did the cornstarch substitute for 2 T flour per cup of flour and then the dough seemed a little dry so I added some half and half until it came together. I still think if the recipe was made exactly, the air frying as above would be fine.
Thanks, Tessa!