Soured cream sage doughnuts

Soured cream sage doughnuts

Food writer Benjamina Ebuehi loves to experiment with flavour, and she’s given these soured cream doughnuts a deliciously unexpected herbal note. They’re impossible to resist – especially the little ones.

Soured cream sage doughnuts

Recipe taken from A Good Day to Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi (Quadrille £22) and tested by delicious.

Looking for classic jammy doughnuts? Step this way

  • Serves icon Makes 8-10, plus the doughnut holes
  • Time icon Makes 8-10, plus the doughnut holes. Hands-on time 40 min, plus chilling and setting

Food writer Benjamina Ebuehi loves to experiment with flavour, and she’s given these soured cream doughnuts a deliciously unexpected herbal note. They’re impossible to resist – especially the little ones.

Recipe taken from A Good Day to Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi (Quadrille £22) and tested by delicious.

Looking for classic jammy doughnuts? Step this way

Nutrition: per serving

Calories
372kcals
Fat
11.3g (3.9g saturated)
Protein
4.5g
Carbohydrates
62.5g (37.7g sugars)
Fibre
1.2g
Salt
0.5g

Ingredients

  • 300g plain flour, plus extra to dust
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 16 sage leaves, finely chopped
  • 3 medium free-range egg yolks
  • 20g unsalted butter, softened
  • 150g soured cream
  • 1 litre vegetable oil to deep-fry

For the glaze

  • 250g icing sugar
  • 50ml whole milk, plus extra if needed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Specialist kit

  • Doughnut cutter (or 1 large and 1 small round cutter)
  • Digital thermometer
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Method

  1. Mix the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
  2. Put the sugar and sage in a large bowl and use your fingertips to rub the sage into the sugar until fragrant. Add the yolks and butter and whisk until pale and smooth. Pour in the soured cream and beat for another minute to combine.
  3. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, stirring gently after each addition so it comes together into a dough. Once all the flour has been added, tip out the dough – it’ll be quite soft and a little sticky – wrap well and chill for 1-2 hours (or overnight) until it has firmed up.
  4. Once chilled, generously dust the worktop with flour. Roll out the dough to 1cm thick. Dip a doughnut cutter in flour and cut out as many doughnuts as you can (keeping the little centres, known as doughnut holes), then re-roll and cut again. Put the doughnuts and doughnut holes on a baking sheet in the fridge.
  5. Pour 5cm oil into a heavy-based saucepan, then heat to 170°C. Fry 2-3 doughnuts at a time for about 2 minutes on each side, keeping an eye on the temperature and adjusting the heat when necessary. The doughnut holes will take about half the time to cook. Put the cooked doughnuts on a plate lined with kitchen paper and let them cool for a few minutes.
  6. To make the glaze, whisk all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth. The glaze should be quite runny, so add a little more milk if it’s too thick. Arrange a wire rack with a tray underneath, dip the doughnut holes and the top of each doughnut quickly in the glaze, then put them on the rack. Let the glaze set for 15 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories
372kcals
Fat
11.3g (3.9g saturated)
Protein
4.5g
Carbohydrates
62.5g (37.7g sugars)
Fibre
1.2g
Salt
0.5g

delicious. tips

  1. Cornflour absorbs moisture, helping create a crisper crust and a fluffy texture within. Next time you make your favourite bread or cookie dough, replace 1 tbsp plain flour with cornflour to give it a denser, fluffier crumb. Make sure your doughnut or ring cutters are sharp – if the cut isn’t clean it can create a craggy, cracked doughnut.

    Easy swaps: This recipe is a great base for diverse flavours – if you don’t like sage try a different herb or leave it out.

  2. “These are based on the old-fashioned soured cream doughnuts I’d buy multiple times a week as an exchange student in Canada. The dense, cakey interior and signature scraggly crust are completely opposite to a more traditional yeasted doughnut, but these draw me in again and again. I’ve flavoured them with sage, one of my favourite herbs, which doesn’t get much use outside of Christmas but works so well in sweet recipes, bringing an aromatic, earthy tone.” Benjamina Ebuehi

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Recipe By:

Benjamina Ebuehi

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