Sour Cream Donuts
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Sour Cream Donuts. An old fashioned cake donut recipe with the richness of sour cream and a hint of fragrant nutmeg. Donuts to bring back memories.
I will confess, that making homemade donuts was not a thing when I was growing up in Newfoundland. In fact, I never heard if anyone making them at home.
Donuts back in those days were most likely to be cake donuts, packaged in two rows in a plastic bag, bought at the local corner store or grocery store. I ate many, many of those with tall glasses of cold milk, I can assure you.
They would have come, most likely, from one of the two larger commercial bread bakeries in St John's. Walsh's Bakery & Mammy's Bakery probably provided most of the commercially produced baked goods on store shelves across the island back then.
Yeast raised donuts were practically unknown to me as a young child. Early memories if those would have come from trips to St. John's, ans a little later when the Caravan family opened The Breadland Bakery in Bay Robert's.
A pivotal change.
Tim Hortons came to St, John's in October of 1977. I remember well visiting the first location, next to Hickman Motors in Kenmount Road. There was absolutely no way that a visit to St John's from around the bay, didn't usually end with a stop there on the way out of town.
That was especially true when any of us kids were lucky enough to get there on a weekend excursion. Other times if my parents were going "to town" while we were at school, we would eagerly await their return with those tempting treats.
Tim Horton's donut offerings these days are a mere shadow of what they were back then. I lament the time when dough was handmade, cut and fried on the premises for products that just felt more substantial and hand crafted.
In truth, I never go there at all now. The products are all factory made, partially cooked in large central facilities and shipped, to be finish baked in-store now. It is not nearly the same as the days of Raisin Dutchies, Apple Fritters, Long Johns and the cream and jam filled huge donut Wedges I once loved.
Sour Cream donuts, a family favourite!
Oe donut that partially escaped the revolution, was the craggy edged sour cream donut, which we all loved. My grandmother Belinda of our Perfect Newfoundland Snowballs Recipe fame, loved them in particular.
If anyone was visiting her she would sometimes request a stop at Tim's for a delivery request. I wonder if they are the same now as then?
When I posted photos of these recently on my personal Facebook Page, my Mom, her twin sister and several other family members echoed a love of the humble sour cream donut.
The flavour is quite hard to replicate in a homemade version. I suspect the unique tangy flavour likely came from artificial flavouring and not real diary sour cream. Still, friends that we shared these with declared them quite delicious and happily carried a couple home for later.
Try them for yourself and taste a little nostalgia with a nice cup of tea or coffee. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Like yeast raised donuts as well as sour cream donuts?
Be sure to check out this very early recipe from our archives for either Filled or Chocolate Glazed Donuts!
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Sour Cream Donuts
Ingredients
For the donut dough
- 4 cups cake flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 egg yolks (large or extra large eggs)
- 1 ⅓ cups sour cream
- 2 tablespoon canola oil
For the Vanilla Glaze.
- 2 ½ cups icing sugar
- 4-5 tablespoon milk. Depending how thick you want your glaze.
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Glaze
- ½ cup butter
- ¼ cup warm milk
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 ounces semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
- 2 cups sifted icing sugar
Instructions
Some recipe tips do appear in the photo captions in the post above.
To prepare the dough.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
- Cream together the sugar and butter well.
- Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla.
- Mix in the sour cream.
- Fold in the dry ingredients just until a soft dough forms.
- Cover the dough in a bowl and chill for at 2 hours or more.
To fry the donuts.
- Heat the oil to 340 degrees F.
- Try to keep the oil in the range of 330-340 degrees as you fry the donuts in batches.
- This temperature keeps them from absorbing too much oil while not browning too quickly before the inside is fully cooked.
- Roll the dough to ½ inch thickness and cut out 3 ½ inch circles with 1 inch holes cut in centre. A set if cookie cutters is best for this.
- Fry the donuts for approximately 2-3 minutes per side until evenly golden brown.
- Drain in a wire rack and let cool to room temperature before adding any glaze.
To prepare the vanilla glaze.
- Whisk together all ingredients until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the donuts in the glaze and drain on a wire rack over a cookie sheet until the glaze dries.
To prepare the chocolate glaze.
- In medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat combine the butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla until butter is melted.
- Turn off the heat and add chocolate chips stirring until the chocolate is melted.
- Add the icing sugar and whisk until smooth. If you are glazing a lot of doughnuts you may need to keep the glaze warm in the top of a double boiler.
- Let the glaze set up for 30 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1 unglazed donutAmount Per Serving Calories 536Total Fat 19gSaturated Fat 9gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 101mgSodium 296mgCarbohydrates 84gFiber 2gSugar 17gProtein 9g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
