Sourdough donuts

 

Sourdough donuts

 

Thank you for prompting me to write this down. I never remember to do it, even when the results are good - and I will want to make these again!

 

Context: when I make bread I generally start on a Friday or Saturday night by making a sourdough ‘sponge’ and leaving it overnight.  Start that far in advance, and make less bread than usual, and you can have donuts for tea the next day.

 

 

So for a generous plate of donuts and a loaf you need:

Sourdough starter – a ladleful

Water - 600ml

Strong bread flour - 1kg

Caster sugar – about 100g [plus extra for dredging)

Egg - one

Fat (I used ‘block Stork’, because half the household are dairy-free, but butter would obv. work) – about 50g, melted

Salt

Cinammon

Vanilla extract

Mixed spice

Oil to fry

 

[Halve these quantities if you are only making donuts, and don’t want a loaf as well. Or make twice as many donuts].

 

So Step 1, Day 1:

 

Add a generous ladleful of starter to 500g strong flour and 600ml warm water, give it a good stir, cover, and leave overnight (obviously also, chuck a handful of flour and splash of water into the starter to replenish it, and put that away).

 

Step 2, Day 2, early in the morning:

 

Split the sponge up between two bowls.

 

[Add 250g flour and  however much salt you like to one, mix it, knead it, and later on that’s your loaf. Do whatever you normally do with that. ]

 

Add 250g flour to the other half, plus the beaten egg, 100g caster sugar, melted butter/marg, ½ teaspoon mixed spice, ½ teasponn cinnamon, splash of vanilla, pinch of salt. Mix it.

 

I used an electric mixer, adding the melted fat last. It can be done by hand, but you’re going to get very messy.

 

The result is a pretty wet, and not very workable, reinforced dough. Scrape it into a clean bowl, and cover the bowl.

 

Step 3, Day 2, rest of the morning:

 

Every 30-40 mins, take the lid off, and  with lightly-foured hands, fold the edges in to make as tight a ball as you can. It’s not very co-operative to begin with. After a few folds-and-rests, it starts to get a bit more workable, and you can flip it over,  and form a tighter ball. – which will then slowly collapse again.

 

Step 4 Day 2, rest of the afternoon:

 

After a few hours of rest-and-fold, you should have a dough that is still a bit too sticky and a bit too warm to work easily, but that is progressing nicely. You know it’s progressing because now it wants to ‘be with itself’ more than it wants to ‘be with the bottom of the bowl’ you put it in. You can turn it and fold it more easily than you could.

 

Enclose the dough in some food wrap, or a container with a lid [one which will permit some expansion of the dough] and leave it inside the fridge for a few hours. I actually left mine overnight, but I noticed it was looking ready by early evening on Day 2.

 

Step 5 Day 2 (or Day 3, if you are thinking about breakfast), about 15 minutes before you want to eat them (I know! We’ve been very patient.):

 

The dough will obviously cool in the fridge. It will also rise a bit. Take it out, but don’t mess about with it. It doesn’t need kneading, you just want it to be in it’s new cool and sleepy state!

 

Heat the oil that you’re going to fry it in. I have a small deep fat fryer, and that’s what I used, but you could do this in an accommodating frying pan, because the donuts float, and need to be flipped during cooking anyway, meaning that you’re only really using the top 3cm of the oil to cook anything.

 

Dust a clean surface with some flour. Place the dough on the flour, dusting both sides lightly, and then roll it out lightly with a rolling pin. I think I ended up with something that was about 25cm each side, and about 2-3cm thick.

 

Cut circles from the dough. I used a plastic beaker (because it had quite a fine edge around the brim) about the size of large coffee mug.

 

Cut holes from the middle. I used a tiny shot glass that has been living in our cupboard for as long as a I remember, just waiting for a moment to be useful. Had I been less pleased to finally find a use for this glass, I’d have dug out a cookie-cutter.

 

So now you have some donut holes, some donuts, and some edges. Ready a dredging plate with a mix of caster sugar and cinnamon. And then add a bit more cinnamon, because everyone in our house agreed that generosity paid off here.  Also have a second plate ready.

 

You can fry a couple of donuts at a time. When the oil is very hot, add them carefully, and keep a close eye on them. Once they begin to brown underneath, flip them over. They expand quickly as they cook.

 

When both sides are brown, lift them out of the oil, dredge both sides in sugar, and let them rest for a minute on the second plate. They are best eaten warm.