Doughnuts from Scratch – Daring Bakers Challenge Oct 2010

Domestic

In this post, I’m participating in The Daring Kitchen, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesday Night Supper Club, Hearth ‘n Soul, Tuesdays at the Table and Delicious Dishes at It’s a Blog Party

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

This challenge was so fun I don’t even know where to begin. Think about entering a coffee shop, and the row upon rows upon rows of doughnut behind the counter. With the recipes from this month’s challenge, you can literally make all of them! I may be 300lbs the next time anyone sees me!

These doughnuts are the final birthday party item I didn’t post about yesterday! Surprise!

There yeast doughnuts, old fashioned buttermilk cake doughnuts, bomboloni (German style with a fruity filling) and pumpkin. I went with the old fashioned buttermilk cake doughnuts and no lie, they taste exactly like the Tiny Tom carnival doughnuts!

So first, here’s the recipe I used!

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts:
Sour Cream 1/4 cup
All Purpose Flour 3 1/4 cup
White Granulated Sugar 3/4 cup
Baking Soda 1/2 teaspoon
Baking Powder 1 teaspoon
Kosher (Flaked) Salt 1 teaspoon (If using table salt, only use 1/2 teaspoon)
Nutmeg, grated 1 1/2 teaspoon
Active Dry Yeast 1 1/8 teaspoon
Buttermilk 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoon
Egg, 1 large
Egg Yolk 2 large
Pure Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon
Powdered (Icing) Sugar 1/4 cup (used for decorating and is optional)

 

First heat the sour cream in a stainless steel bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Then turn your oil on. 😉

Over a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg; make a large well in the center. Place the yeast in the well; pour the sour cream over it. Allow it to soften (if using packed fresh yeast), about 1 minute.

Pour the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract into the well. Using one hand, gradually draw in the dry ingredients. The mixture should be fairly smooth before you draw in more flour. Mix until it is completely incorporated. The dough will be very sticky. Wash and dry your hands and dust them with flour.

If I’m honest here, I’d admit that I love mixing food by hand. Loooove it.

Now comes the really fun part!! Shaping them! For the traditionally shaped doughnuts, I used a drinking glass and a very teeny shot glass, though I am aware there are actual doughnut cutters out there! Now that I know how to make them, I have those cutters on my wish list.

Be sure to seriously flour up your counter and work fast!

 

They really don’t take long at all, maybe 30 seconds a side, and really the second side is a little less. They’re super fun to make and, as usual, I was in the kitchen, dancing around and listening to my music louder than I probably should when all the kids are in bed and I was almost done the whole batch before I knew it.

 

Once my husband came in the room and saw what I was doing, he raided the cookie cutter cabinet (yes I have a cabinet full of cookie cutters), and cut out angel and heart shaped doughnuts. He is hilarious. We ended up making another batch and made all silly shapes! The kids loved them the next day – I wonder if it’s weird that their parents stayed up and made funny doughnuts while they were sleeping? Ha!

 

Ok, back to our regular doughnuts. Since they were really hot and we were working fast (because the recipe told us to!) we hadn’t tried them yet. So as soon as the doughnut holes were ready we had one. Oh. My. Goodness. When we realized that they tasted exactly like the Tiny Tom mini doughnuts, we immediately bathed them in cinnamon and sugar and nom nom nomed half a tray of them.

Eventually, we restrained ourselves long enough to whip up a sour cream glaze (!!) for the remaining doughnut holes. Man, they were good!

Sour Cream Glaze – found on an index card in my kitchen
3/4 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon water

 

Just stir the sugar and sour cream in a small pot over low heat till it’s melted and almost smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla an water. Voila!

The glaze is really shiny and almost see through on the first coat. Once it’s a little dry and duller, you can dip it a second time – or more if you prefer. I found that two coats gave it that perfect coffee shop shell, you know? Watch out for cavities!

I can hardly wait for next month’s Daring Baker challenge!! Stay tuned!

17 Comments

15 Comments

  1. Shelley C  •  Oct 27, 2010 @12:22 pm

    I love all of your shaped donuts, and they seem to have held their shapes really well through the frying process. The sour cream glaze sounds fantastic – I may have to give that a try. Great job!

    Thanks Shelly! I was honestly surprised they held their shape. I thought I knew better and they worked so that showed me. Ha! The glaze is fantastic and way too easy not to try!

  2. MutantSuperModel  •  Oct 27, 2010 @3:06 pm

    How’d you fry them? Do you have a deep fryer? I’ve been dying to make donughts for a while now.

    Great question! I totally should have mentioned, I made them in my wok. I have a pretty deep wok, and if you don’t have one they are soooo much cheaper than a deep fryer.

  3. Audax Artifex  •  Oct 27, 2010 @3:57 pm

    Your enthusiasm is obvious in your posting. It sounds like you have fabulous FUN doing this challenge and even better doing it with your partner. Superb work on this challenge. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

    Thanks! I’m so glad my excitement made it through the post because it really was fun. Playing in the kitchen is hands down my favorite activity. 🙂

  4. Christy  •  Oct 27, 2010 @7:30 pm

    May – I think staying up late and making donuts is utterly romantic! What a great surprise your kids woke up to! Homemade donuts are out of this world delicious! One of my daughter’s is making donuts as we speak for her Spanish class tomorrow – I wish we had seen this recipe before she started – I am going to suggest the sour cream glaze! Thanks for sharing this with us at the hearth and soul hop!

    Thanks for commenting! I really like your blog. 🙂 My husband is hilarious and often has a hand in my late night kitchen adventures. I love tha your daughter just happens to be making donuts!! 🙂

  5. Marla  •  Oct 27, 2010 @10:21 pm

    Those look delicious! The sour cream glaze was really inspired. I have to try that!

    Thanks!! Sour cream glazed is my hands down fave!

  6. Basht  •  Oct 27, 2010 @11:22 pm

    wow, they look so yummy… 🙂 mmm good job!

    Thanks! It was a fun challenge!

  7. Alpineberry Mary  •  Oct 28, 2010 @12:16 am

    Wonderful job on your donuts. I’m going to bookmark your sour cream glaze. My sour cream loving friend would die for it.

    It was way easier than I thought it’d be and sooooo good!

  8. Nicola  •  Oct 28, 2010 @3:38 am

    They look delicious – well done! I really have to try making cake doughnuts (I made the Alton Browns) to find out what the difference is between yeast doughnuts and cake doughnuts!

    I have to try making Alton Browns! 😛

  9. Valerie  •  Oct 28, 2010 @10:27 am

    Oh, you did the cake doughnuts! I was curious as to how they were. They look beautiful, and I love the glaze!

    They are way too good lol. I’m going to be 300lbs if I make these again 😛

  10. Alex@amoderatelife  •  Oct 28, 2010 @4:15 pm

    Hi May and welcome to the hearth and soul hop! I am now following you on twitter. I wanted to let you know that I will be sharing this great recipe for donuts on my thoughts on friday link love at a moderate life, so please stop by and say hi! Alex@amoderatelife

    Wow that’s so great! I will be stopping by for sure!

  11. Samantha  •  Oct 28, 2010 @8:48 pm

    Yummy 🙂

    How are you not 400lbs?!

    I had an uber crappy day. Just supremely awful, but you all maternal-like makes me feel warm and fuzzy 🙂

    I’m so sorry you had a crappy day, but I’m glad I made you feel better! If you lived near me I’d totally bake for you! I would be 400lbs if I didn’t work out!

  12. Erin  •  Oct 28, 2010 @9:39 pm

    WOW!! Those look delicious and it looks like you two had a lot of fun making funny shaped doughnuts. I love the angel one! lol. Cute. Great job on the challenge. 🙂

    Thanks so much!

  13. christy  •  Oct 30, 2010 @3:12 pm

    oh no! i am the BIGGEST donut addict in america….these look amazing. I hope they were yummy…they sure do look it! thank you for linking up to tuesday night supper club

    Haha, uh oh! Don’t make them! You’ll be doomed! 😛 I love Tuesday Night Supper Club – what a neat idea!

  14. Faery  •  Oct 31, 2010 @7:07 pm

    They look delicious, I wanted to make buttermilk doughnuts but there was not a single bottle in the store 🙁 .
    I love the angel shaped doughnut and that perfect coat looks beautiful and yummy :9

    Next time, if you can’t find buttermilk you can make your own by adding vinegar to regular milk. 😉 Thanks so much!

  15. Nadia  •  Nov 2, 2010 @1:27 am

    wow they look amazing and what a nice family u have!

    Thank you so much!

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