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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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.
I love this recipe!
Can I made the dough the night before and refrigerate? Would it be ok even to have them cut and ready in the fridge?
Is there a printable version of this recipie
Hi Roni! Yes, the print button is located just above the ingredient list and instructions. Here is a direct link 🙂
Can I bake this in a doughnut baking pan in the oven. I don’t want deep fried anything.
these donuts. . . are really, really good. with the exception of using my own cake flour (1 cup all purpose flour-1 tablespoon; + 1 tablespoon cornstarch, sifted – i make large batches) I used the ingredients in recipe exactly. when I rolled and cut the dounts, I got sour cream cookies, which were still absolutely delicious. I ended up rolling logs and then pinching the ends closed, it worked for me. When they’d cooled completely I tried one. It wasn’t good. all i could taste was the oil, which was fresh canola oil, and the glaze was like sugar water. I liked the way they looked but not the taste. Until the next day. My goodness what a difference a day makes. I am ashamed at how many donuts I’ve eaten but they are so freaking gooooooooood. someone said this will work in the air fryer, I’ll try that next because I can’t live like this.
These came out way too dense and crumbly. I’m not a newbie making doughnuts but this is the first time I’ve used this particular recipe and the first time making a sour cream doughnut.
I was careful handling the dough but thought right away that it was too dry.
I triple checked the recipe thinking I’d left some liquid out, but no.
I’ll go back to buttermilk doughnuts after this.
I’d also always used all purpose flour before and never had an issue with it, so I don’t think I’ll use cake flour again.
I experienced the same. I don’t think cake flour/all purpose would make that much of a difference. Haven’t baked them yet but the dough does seem incredibly dry and dense – no worries about stickiness to say the least. Lol
What can I use in place of sour cream?
I would like to make these chocolate. How can I do that please?
Hi Myrrh! Check out our chocolate version here 🙂 Enjoy!
Play with it and start out at adding a 1/3 to a 1/2 cup of cocoa
I made these with the unbleached King Arthur Cake Flour and with WayFare Dairy Free Sour cream. Avocado oil for frying. For the measurements I followed exactly how they are listed with weighing some ingredients in grams and measuring the others. They were perfect! Exactly how I remember cake donuts being!! Highly recommend! Making another batch
Happy to hear how much you enjoyed them, Allyson!
Hey Shannon! I would love to make these. If I wanted to make them blueberry flavored, how could I do that? Or would that not work this recipe ? Please let me know!
Depends. If you are using canned blueberries then, more than likely, have to recalculate the recipe ingredients to account for the additional moisture of the canned juices. If you can, use Freeze
Dried blueberries to withstand the mixing (mixing, rolling, cutting) process.
I made these a few days before Xmas. They were sooo good. I live in a very rural town and the nearest donut shop is literally almost an hour drive from me, so I could only get these type of donuts on the rare occasion that I had to to that town for another reason. Now I can have them anytime. Without driving an hour. And they are just as delicious! P.S. my super picky family loved them too.
Does the sour cream have to be room temperature?
No.
I have all the ingredients I need for this recipe, but can’t get to the store to buy a donut cutter. What can I use instead?
Hi Shannon! If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, you can use a biscuit cutter and a piping tip or bottle cap to cut out your doughnuts – or a larger + smaller round cookie/biscuit cutter. They don’t have to be perfect, and it’s totally okay to improvise 🙂 Let us know what you think when you give them a try!
You can use a drinking glass, the thinner the glass the better. Dip it in flour first. Or if you had to, you could just use a sharp knife.