300th Post! And Sour Cream Doughnuts

Heart shaped sour cream doughnuts!

Wow this is my 300th post! What better way to celebrate that than with doughnuts? My friend and I got together last week to bake and decided on doughnuts - something I've always wanted to make but was a bit scared, because for some reason they seemed daunting and difficult, and I was also frightened at the amount of oil I'd have to use. Well it turns out, doughnuts are extremely easy to make. It did use a lot of oil (probably 2 cups of oil per batch) but it's a small price to pay for delicious fresh doughnuts. We decided on two kinds - beignet souffles and sour cream doughnuts (my favourite!)

Beignet souffles in random shapes

The beignet souffles turned out okay. It was fun piping the dough directly into the hot oil, but the relatively small icing tip we used resulted in very skinny doughnuts instead of nice fat ones. And these doughnuts are definitely only good on the day they're made.

Next were the sour cream doughnuts which were perfect and everything I could have hoped for in a homemade doughnut! Nice slightly crispy edges, perfect cakey insides. So very insanely addictive. The only thing I'd keep in mind next time is to not have the dough too thick because the ones that were too thick didn't get cooked completely on the very middle. Not that it really stopped me from eating them. I'm super happy we made doughnuts, but I don't think I'll make doughnuts again anytime soon - for me they're kind of like croissants, I'm really happy I've made them but don't need to make them very often. Though I think I'd like to try this sour cream doughnut recipe baked.

Can you tell that the doughnut holes are heart shaped? I preferred the doughnut holes to the doughnuts!

The original recipe has cinnamon and orange zest but my friend was wary so we just kept them plain. You could easily modify the recipe to whatever flavours you like. We also opted not to glaze them because they were already perfect as is but you could easily fancy these up with glazes, streusels, chocolate ganache, etc. A coffee sour cream doughnut with a white chocolate ganache sounds good to me. Oh and I totally won my friend over into loving sour cream doughnuts.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Plum Sour Cream Kuchen
Croissant Pockets with Apricots and Brie
Orange Cream Cheese Muffins
Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake

Sour Cream Doughnuts
Adapted from Bon Appétit | October 2004

Use a clip-on deep-fry thermometer to gauge the oil temperature when frying these doughnuts: too low and they'll absorb oil, turning leaden and soggy; too high and they'll burn before the insides are cooked through.

The recipe says it will yield 24 doughnuts and 24 doughnut holes, but we got 12 doughnuts and 12 doughnut holes.

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled briefly
1 cup sour cream

Canola oil (for deep-frying)

Whisk first 5 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in large bowl until very thick, about 3 minutes. Beat in orange peel and vanilla. Gradually beat in butter; beat in sour cream in 2 additions. Gently fold in dry ingredients in 4 additions (dough will be slightly sticky). Cover; set aside 1 hour.

Sprinkle 2 rimmed baking sheets lightly with flour. Press out 1/3 of dough on lightly floured surface to 1/2- to 2/3-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds. Arrange on floured sheets. Repeat with remaining dough in 2 more batches. Gather all dough scraps. Press out dough; cut out more dough rounds until all dough is used.

Using 1-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes.

Line 2 baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches. Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365°F to 370°F. Fry doughnut holes in 2 batches until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels. Cool doughnuts and doughnut holes completely.