I rarely make donuts at home. You need a really good recipe, one that gives you donuts that make you forget about the calories, at least long enough to have a couple of donuts! I've been mulling over the idea of a sourdough donut for a while now. Being a huge baking geek, I’m always thinking of the possibilities beyond bread-baking. I just knew that sourdough starter would be a great base for a yeast donut–if I could create a well-balanced recipe.
Today’s recipe is no exception.With both yeast from the sourdough starter and baking powder, these donuts are sort of middle ground between cake doughnuts and yeast ones. They are the best of both worlds if you will. So no matter what doughnut camp you’re in, give these a try. I think you will love them!
These donuts are light, airy and fluffy with the slightest crunch on the crust. Stopping at one will really test your self control. I wanted to make a recipe that was not super time consuming but still took advantage of the fermentation. I also wanted to do a baked recipe rather than fried. These donuts can be started in the morning and baked at night for dessert or left to rest overnight and eaten for breakfast the next day. You can also start them the night before and bake them in the morning. I experimented with both and they worked equally well.
These are true sourdough donuts, made without any commercial yeast. a slow fermentation gives these donuts a spectacular flavour and texture. They’ are like no donuts you’ve ever tasted. Making donuts with the natural yeast of a sourdough starter takes them into another stratosphere. Seriously, these donuts are goooooood.
Sourdough starter gives these doughnuts an extra depth of flavour and balances with the baking powder for a texture that is somewhere between cake doughnuts and yeast ones. Because the starter doesn’t get a boost with commercial yeast, the recipe is a 2 day process. Don’t worry though, the vast majority of time is hands-off.
Using a sourdough starter adds a certain depth to recipes, a layer of flavour that is not necessarily sour. At times you can’t detect any tang but still the addition of the sourdough starter improves the texture and flavour so much that now even my friends say that any recipe gets extra points if it contains the starter.
When baking with sourdough I like the fact that it’s easy to do a very long but gentle rise of the dough. All you need really is patience and time, the micro organisms do the work for you. During these long rising periods flavours get developed and even though sourdough might suggest a sour dough, it’s not. The sourdough starter might smell sour but the final product really isn’t. As a results, these donuts aren’t sour at all, nor are they highly sweet. On the contrary, it does have a depth of flavour that my other donut recipe didn’t. If you are like me and like a sturdier, firmer donut, instead of a very light and fluffy one, this is the one to try.
You basically want them to be lightly browned and for a toothpick inserted into them to come out clean, then you know they’re cooked. Remove them from the donut tray and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before dipping in melted chocolate and sprinkles.
These donuts are best enjoyed the day they are made but I do have to say these were still pretty darn good on the day 2. You can also freeze the plain doughnuts (pre-glaze stage) and then reheat them in the oven at a later date and then glaze/coat/fill them. If you’ve been longing for a real old-fashioned donut that is vegan friendly, the time is here my friends!
IF YOU EVER GIVE THIS RECIPE A TRY, DO LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND/OR TAG @FRUITYEMZ AND HASHTAG #FRUITYEMZ ON YOUR INSTAGRAM POST! 🙂
Comments