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.
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
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Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts
Ingredients
For the donuts:
- 2 1/4 cup (255 grams) cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon 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 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.
I made these vegan with an egg replacer (bobs red mill) and vegan tofutti sour cream and they turned out perfect!!!!! im so happy to taste these again!!!!
Can 00flour substitute for,cake,flour?
Hi Diane! I’m not sure that would work so well. I believe most 00 flours contain about 112-13% protein, whereas cake flour contains 6-8% protein. In order for these doughnuts to be light and have a beautiful crumb, they need that lower protein content. I hope that helps 🙂 Happy baking!
I saw this recipe online and it just looked so good! I looked through the comments to see if they would be as good as they look and everyone was saying how amazing they are! I just had to give them a try so I did… I fallowed the recipe exactly but when I made the doughnuts (although they had pretty good flavour) they were flat and had the texture almost of a cookie. I was pretty disappointed and at this point all I wanted was to make a doughnut. I tried again being even more sure to fallow the recipe exact but the same thing still happened. Can anyone tell me why this may be happening and what I can do to fix it? Thanks!
Hi Addy! I’m sorry to hear that these doughnuts didn’t turn out as they should! Without having baked alongside you, it’s hard to say exactly what went wrong – but here are a couple of initial thoughts, based on your comment, that could have gone wrong:
– How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. From your description, it sounds like you maybe added too much cake flour Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here!
– How old is your baking powder? If your leavening agents are not fresh, the can’t do their job and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall after baking, and much more. This could be why your doughnuts were not as thick/tall as they should be, and why their consistency was cookie-like. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
I hope something here helps, Addy! Happy baking 🙂
Excellent, I’m very proud of how well they turned out. I was too tired to fry them so the dough in fridge for 2 days. It seems to me that if I turn just the donuts over in the oil just once, the ridges/crevices appear on the other uncooked side as opposed to if I turn them several times to achieve an even color. So half of them gained the lovely traditional ridged crispy edge.
Can the dough be made up the night before and fried the next morning?
Hi Liz! We haven’t tried that, though other readers have with success 🙂 Let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
Hi, I love sour cream doughnuts, but I really need to watch calories.
Could you please explain how, or if, one can cook these in an Air Fryer? Thank you!
Hi Antonia! I’m sorry, but we haven’t tried these doughnuts in an airfryer, so we can’t say if that will work – but we did have one reader say it worked well for them. Let us know how it goes if you give this a try!
I’ve made these a few times. Overall, they are usually pretty good. They always seem to come out a little denser than I would like and I rarely get the cracked top of a typical old fashioned sour cream donut. Any ideas? I do use bleached cake flour and all of the ingredients get weighed.
Hi Brian! Hmm, that’s strange. There are a few things I can think of as to why this could be happening. The oil you’re frying in might be a little too hot. Alternatively, perhaps your baking soda is not fresh and active anymore? Learn how to test for freshness here! Perhaps your sour cream is not full-fat (using a lower fat sour cream could throw off the chemistry of the recipe). Feel free to reach back out to further troubleshoot, if needed! Happy baking 🙂
An observation: My first batch I turned over and over again because I wanted an even color and avoid burning them. Then with more confidence, I left a batch unturned for a minute or more and noticed the uncooked topside was forming a crevice. Then I turned it to cook that side and viola, there was my classic cracked ridge. Hooray.
Hey!! Been loving this recipe for years now 😉 I was wondering if you’ve ever doubled/ tripled it? Wanted to possibly make a bigger batch to share with friends. Thanks!
Hi Menucha! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoy these doughnuts to much! You can definitely double this recipe – but any time you make a double or triple batch, you run the risk of accidentally missing larger quantities of ingredients (eg adding 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder instead of 3 teaspoons, for example). Also, most mixer bowls won’t hold such a big batch of dough. So, we typically recommend simply making the single batch two or three times, rather than doubling or tripling the dough in one batch. That being said, if you want to proceed and are confident you’ll add the correct quantities of each ingredient, and your mixer bowl is large enough, then go for it – just be careful to double check every ingredient, and make sure to mix everything thoroughly and scrape the bowl down extra, to account for the large dough batch. I hope that helps! 🙂
Can you use regular flour instead of cake flour?
Hi Joyce! No, this recipe must use cake flour. There’s a note about this in the pink tip box, above the recipe 🙂 These are definitely worth the extra flour purchase, though! 🙂
Is there a video?
Hi Sara! Yes, there is! Just scroll down a little, underneath Tessa’s Recipe Rundown, and underneath the picture under there. You’ll see a header that says “Recipe Video”. An ad may play first. Please note: the ‘recipe video’ icon at the top of the page does not work (we’re working on fixing that!) but for now, just scroll down a little to see it! I hope you give these doughnuts a try, and let us know what you think!! 🙂
can doughnut machine be used for this recipe
Answered by trying. I tried it with the doughnut machine just a little bit of the dough. Don’t use a machine came out hard as a rock.
I really didn’t want to fried them but that was the best way. The doughnuts came out great!
Delicious bakery style Old Fashioned donuts! The recipe was easy to make. I was only able to get 7 donuts, I would recommend doubling the recipe. Will definitely make these again.