Easy Homemade Sourdough Donuts

I love baking with sourdough! These easy homemade sourdough donuts have been such a fun treat to make for my family!

I have been wanting to make sourdough donuts for quite awhile now, but they seemed intimidating. Finally I searched online for some recipes online and found a few to try. After trying some, tweeking and combining them, and using my own no fuss method, I now have a easy, go-to sourdough donut recipe!

Light and Fluffy

These donuts turn out light and fluffy and a bit like old fashioned donuts. There are endless varieties of icing flavors and toppings you can add to these donuts to dress them up. I have done, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and lemon icing. You could also add sprinkles or simply roll them in powedered sugar or cinnamon sugar.

Great for Summer

I love making these homemade sourdough donuts during the hot summer months because they do not use the oven and I can fry them in the morning before the house gets hot. I simply mix up the dough the night before I want fresh donuts for breakfast. Then in the morning I shape the dough, let them rise a bit, and fry them.

What Kind of Oil to Use

I like to fry my donuts in a combination of beef tallow and coconut oil, but any quality cooking oil with a higher smoke point will work. I also don’t use a thermometer to moniter the exact temperature of my oil, but I keep a very close eye on it to keep it at an even medium heat.

How to Make the Donut Dough

The dough for donuts has a few more ingredients and is richer than a typical bread dough, so it takes a few extra minutes to mix up but it is worth it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 cups flour

Mix all ingredients except flour together well. Slowly add flour until a soft, workable dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let sit overnight.

Shaping the Donuts

The next morning roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick. Use a donut cutter to cut out the donuts. Allow to rest for 10- 2o minutes.

Frying the Donuts

I fry my donuts in my enamel Dutch oven and it works very well. I can fit 3 donuts in a time.

Add about 1 inch of preferred frying oil into bottom of pan.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Test the oil with a small piece of dough, it should sizzle nicely, but not brown too quickly. If you are using a thermometer the ideal temperature for donuts is between 365- 380F.

When the oil is the right temperature carefully place donuts in the hot oil. Fry about 2 minutes on each side. be careful not to overcrowd the pan.

Place donuts on a wire rack to cool for a few minutes before icing.

Making the Icing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 Tbsp milk

Other flavor ideas

• replace part of the powdered sugar with cocoa powder for chocolate icing
• add a bit of lemon zest and lemon juice for lemon icing
• make a concentrated strawberry juice by boiling a few strawberries with a bit of water. Strain and replace the milk with the juice for strawberry icing.
• replace the milk with maple syrup for maple icing

Melt butter in a saucepan large enough for dipping the donuts. Add all other icing ingredients and mix well.

Dip the donuts in the icing and set on the wire rack to dry for a few minutes.

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