Old Fashioned Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts
My first month as part of the Daring Bakers and guess what, the challenge was doughnuts! I found it extremely humorous that I waited to so long to make homemade doughnuts, and here I was going to make them twice within such a short amount of time!
For my second doughnut attempt, I chose the Old Fashioned Buttermilk Cake Doughnut, by Nancy Silverton. Dave has always wanted me to try this since these are his favorite whenever we pick them up.
I chose this recipe since it sounded pretty easy and who couldn’t pass up a doughnut recipe that from beginning to end would take only and hour. I made these after Dave put the kids to bed so they would be ready for Monday morning to take to work.
Time to Make the Doughnuts!
I warmed the sour cream over a pot of boiling water and gently mixed the dry ingredients together. I placed the yeast into the well I made in the center of the flour, and gently added the sour cream on top to soften the yeast.
While I waited for the yeast to soften, I started heating the oil. Then I measured buttermilk, vanilla and eggs (tip: break the yolks up!) into a glass measuring cup. When I thought the yeast should be soft, I added the liquid to the well. With one hand, draw in more flour into the liquid well. The dough should be smooth before you add more flour. Side note: Not entirely sure I did this part right.
The dough was extremely sticky, like the recipe indicated. (I would have taken pictures if I could have gotten all the dough off my fingers!) I spread quite a bit of flour on the counter and put the dough on top and patted it out to about 1/2″ thick. Again, using lots of flour on my hands and on the dough to keep it from sticking. I really wanted to make some cute mini doughnuts, but every time I cut the dough it fell apart so I went back to my regular biscuit cutter. Till now, things were pretty good.
In the middle of frying I decided to make a chocolate glaze to add to the top, since I LOVE chocolate iced doughnuts. I found an Alton Brown recipe and used it as a guide in making my own since I didn’t need a large amount of it. I added some powdered espresso to the milk/butter as it warmed on the stove for the extra kick.
Still I wait and wait and wait for my oil to come to temperature. I did some test drops and it still didn’t seem like the right temperature (almost 100 degrees below what I needed.) I finally just decide to drop a doughnut in – YIKES superfast frying, and since the dough was really stick and soft they were coming out all oddly shaped. After a few burned fingertips and overcooked oil I had a passable and definitely homemade looking dozen of doughnuts. I used about half the dough and froze the rest. Note: I think I need a new thermometer, this is the second time I’ve had problems with the oil.
Happy Birthday to Me!
In compiling my final shot I decided to use the doughnut holes sort of as reminder to how my whole blog experience started one year ago this month with my pumpkin cake pops. I wish I could have thrown my a proper birthday this year, but maybe I’ll catch up with a belated present here in the next few months now that we’re entering my favorite time of year….the holidays!
