Mmmm, Donuts

We've had a long, long tradition of Saturday morning donuts in our house.  It wasn't until recently that I decided to try and make them for myself.  My favorite donuts are the old fashioned sour cream donuts, but they are some of the hardest to find.  Not only hard to find, but hard to find good versions of them.

So I tried to do it myself.

Boy, these are so good when you make them at home.  Even better, they're easy to make.

I've made them a few times now.  After the first time, Connor, our donut critic, held one up and said "these are awesome."

They made the cut.

I made them tonight, so they'll be ready to go tomorrow morning.

In process...

Yum...

Update:  Here's the recipe.  I found this on line here, and only adapted it very slightly. I really only messed with the glaze--for my taste just a simple powdered sugar, milk, vanilla glaze works beautifully.  Here's the recipe with my minor changes:

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts
Makes about one dozen donuts and holes


2 1/4 cup (255 grams) cake flour (I've also made these using a combination of cake flour and whole wheat flour, and they worked great)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter 
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) sour cream
Canola oil, for frying

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 shortening 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, scraping the sides of the bowl down as necessary. The dough will be sticky. Spoon it into a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

On a floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Use a donut 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.

Pour the canola oil into a heavy bottomed pot to at least 2 inches deep. Heat to 325 degrees F. Add the donuts to the heated oil a few at a time, careful not to overcrowd the pot. Fry on each side about 2 minutes, but watch to make sure they don’t burn.  Keeping the temperature right at 325 degrees is key to this, otherwise they'll burn quickly.

Let drain on a paper bag to soak up the excess grease.

Glaze
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
A few tablespoons of milk 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until smooth. Dip each donut into the glaze, making sure they are covered completely. Place on a wire rack above a sheet pan to catch any excess glaze. Let sit for 20 minutes until glaze is set.

They'll keep for a few days properly covered, but in our house they haven't made it much beyond 24 hours.