What’s for Dessert Frosted Sour Cream Donuts
These look pretty satisfying to me
Donuts are a great treat, but how good can they really be?
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Difficulty: 2/5
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
I don’t think many people consider making donuts at home. For some reason, I feel like they just seem like they’d be a lot of work to make. This recipe is rated as easy in Claire’s What’s for Dessert, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Outside of Krispy Kreme’s original glazed donuts, I think that sour cream donuts are my favorite. I decided to use the vanilla glaze to keep things simple.
Key Ingredients and Omissions:
There really aren’t many ingredients
These are sour cream donuts, so you definitely want to use sour cream in them. The recipe also calls for cake flour instead of regular all purpose flour. I’m not sure how different these would come out if you used all purpose, but I just went ahead and used cake flour. Also, I didn’t have any vanilla extract, so I used equal amounts of vanilla bean paste instead. I used all of the ingredients that this recipe called for.
Tools:
Fry thermometer
Dutch oven or other frying vessel
Parchment Paper
Gallon bag or piping bag
Cooking review:
Making Frosting: 15 Minutes
Before starting with the donuts themselves, I made the frosting. To do this, I just whisked together the lemon juice, sour cream, and vanilla until smooth before slowly whisking in the powdered sugar. I set the frosting aside while I made the donuts
Making Dough: 30 minutes
After mixing the dry ingredients, I separated the yolks of my eggs and melted the butter. I whisked the eggs and sugar together until smooth and light, then whisked in the butter. The sour cream and vanilla was added next and mixed until combined. Half of the dry ingredients were added and mixed before the rest of the dry ingredients were folded in until sticky and smooth.
Filling Bag and Piping: 23 minutes
I transferred my dough to a piping bag then cut out 4” squares of parchment paper. I cut a hole in the corner of my bag and started piping out rings onto the squares. This was the most difficult part of this recipe, but it wasn’t too bad. The problem was that the dough was so sticky, that trying to lay it down on the parchment paper without the paper moving all over wasn’t easy. Make sure that the hole in your bag is a decent size (at least an inch wide), since this dough is fairly thick. I ended up with 8 donuts instead of 12. I wet my finger to smooth out where the ring overlapped and any other rough spots.
Frying Donuts: 10 minutes
Once my oil had reached 350 degrees, I dropped in one of my donuts to see how they would cook. I removed the parchment paper once the donut began to float and let it cook on the first side for about 2 minutes before flipping. They will begin to brown fairly quickly, but be sure to allow them to cook through. They may looks done on the outside, but if you piped them thick, I would say give them another minute to finish the insides. I ended up cooking 4 batches, each taking 2-3 minutes to cook. Some could’ve gone a little longer. Once done, I put them on a cooling rack.
Frosting: 4 minutes
After letting the donuts cool slightly, I frosted them by dipping them in the frosting and jiggling to get into the nooks and crannies. I put them back on the cooling rack and let them sit to set up.
Analysis:
I skipped the frosting on one donut to let you know how they are ‘plain’. The donuts had a very nice crisp exterior with a extremely soft interior. They had a very nice flavor, as well, being lightly sweet and cakey. If you try these, you’d probably say they are the best donuts you’ve ever had. My favorite part was that the crisp exterior was noticeable in every chew once you take a bite, offering some textural interest throughout the eating experience. With the frosting, the sweetness is added slightly, while adding some tanginess and a slight lemon flavor. The frosting goes great with the donut and really just elevates the already great experience. This recipe is getting a 9/10. It only lost a point because the piping step took a little more effort and concentration.
