Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts
By Hoku Kim on October 22, 2015
Old-fashioned sour cream doughnuts are my favorite. They are more dense than their fluffy, yeast-risen counterparts, and their crunchy peaks and chewy valleys really add a lot of fun texture to the eating. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a custard-filled Boston Cream from Tim Horton’s, or a standard classic glazed from Krispy Kreme. But the old-fashioned Glazed Sour Cream Doughnut is my absolute favorite, with a banana cream sugar glaze. It’s no wonder that I’ve made more of these doughnuts than any other.

First, let’s discuss proportions. General baking proportions call for equal amounts of flour and sugar, and equal amounts of eggs and butter, all by weight. That is, flour = sugar, and eggs = butter. Flour and egg give the dough its structure and stiffness, while sugar and butter will soften a dough. A dense dough will have more flour and egg, while a softer dough will have more sugar and butter.

For these Sour Cream Doughnuts, we want a more dense dough that is also moist. So, these doughnuts need more flour and egg, and less sugar and butter. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of sugar and butter :) We’ll also add Nutmeg, for some great flavor, and Sour Cream of course.

Ingredients

Doughnut
2 1/4 cups Flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
2 tablespoons Butter
2 large Egg Yolks
8 ounces Sour Cream, approximately 1 cup
Canola Oil for frying
Glaze
3 cups Powdered Sugar
1 tablespoon Light Corn Syrup
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 drop Banana Cream flavoring (optional)

Directions

  1. Melt butter and let cool.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, and Nutmeg.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix the Egg Yolks, Butter, and Sugar until the mixture is sandy in texture and a light yellow color.
  4. Combine the egg mixture and the flour mixture.
  5. Add Sour Cream. Continue mixing and kneading until the dough is smooth, 6-8 minutes.
  6. Cover dough and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  7. Roll chilled dough until 1/2 inch thick.
  8. Use cookie cutters to cut the doughnut and doughnut hole.
  9. Fry doughnuts and holes in 2 inches of Canola Oil at 325° F.
  10. Fry one side for 20 seconds, then flip. Fry for 1 minute, and flip again. Fry for 30 seconds.
  11. Remove from oil, and set on drying rack until cool.
  12. In a medium bowl, mix glaze ingredients until smooth.
  13. When doughnuts are cool, dip in glaze. Allow excess glaze to run off.
  14. Add sugar sprinkles.
  15. Let dry on cooling rack.

Visual Guide

First, separate the ingredients into two sets:

One set is the dry set: Flour, Nutmeg, Baking Powder, and Salt.

The other set is the wet set: Eggs, Butter, Sugar, and Sour Cream. Yes, sugar is a dry item, but it's going in with the wet stuff later :)
Mix the dry set - Flour, Nutmeg, Baking Powder, and Salt - in a large bowl. Use a whisk to mix these together; this also fluffs the flour up a bit and breaks up clumps.
Melt butter, and let it cool slightly. Hot butter will cook the eggs, and we don't want that. So let it cool.

Mix the wet ingredients - Eggs, Butter, Sugar - in a bowl. Mix this well but do not whip. It will be semi-sandy in texture, and it will turn a lighter yellow color.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, and "knead" the dough for 6-8 minutes, until it becomes smooth and all the ingredients are well-integrated. This is a sticky dough, so keep it well-floured as you are kneading it.

Cover the dough and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Roll the dough out into a flat circle, 1/2 inch thick.
Use a cookie cutter to cut the doughnuts and holes. Knead the excess dough back together, re-flatten, and cut more doughnuts.
Fry the doughnuts and holes in 2 inches of Canola oil at 325° F. Cook for 20 seconds, then flip. The dough will be fragile, so flip it carefully.



Cook for another 1 minute, or until the bottom becomes golden brown. What is now the top of the doughnut should be cracked.

Then flip it one more time and cook for another 30 seconds.

Remove from oil and set on cooling rack.
For drying and cooling, I set a layer of paper towels on a cookie rack and the doughnuts on top.
While the doughnuts are cooling, mix up the glaze ingredients.
When the doughnuts are cool, they are ready for glazing. Dip the doughnuts into the glaze, and let the excess run off.

Place them on a cookie rack to let them dry (no paper towels on the rack this time).
Detail with sprinkles, cinnamon, nutmeg, whatever fun things you can think of. I like colorful sugar sprinkles for my topping. The crunch adds some extra texture. As for the color, well, the world could always use a little more color :)

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Enjoy!