Today I have a sourdough doughnuts recipe for you that will become your absolute favorite. If you are craving some comforting and scrumptious doughnuts. These sourdough doughnuts are sure to satisfy you. These donuts are delicious, chewy, fluffy, and yet they will melt in the mouth. And yep… these are eggless.
Table of contents
Doughnuts or donuts? who cares...
How are these sourdough doughnuts special?
- This sourdough doughnuts recipe yields the perfect yeast doughnuts, with a super puffy texture.
- Sourdough makes these doughnuts super fluffy, airy, and light!
- These sourdough doughnuts are chewy, for the first two chews and then they will just melt in your mouth.
There are numerous variations of doughnuts but yeast and cake doughnuts are two basic categories. I like both types. Baked doughnuts are great, be it old-fashioned or any other one, I like them all. But nothing matches the good old yeast Doughnuts. And here I have a donut recipe for you, made with sourdough.
And, this recipe uses no eggs. It has an overnight donuts recipe, which is optional.
Let's get started.
Sourdough starter’s role in making these Doughnuts delicious
You might assume that starter is merely used as a substitute for the commercial yeast in this sourdough doughnuts recipe. But that is not true. Sourdough does much more than being a sheer leavening agent. It does make these doughnuts much fluffier and lighter due to a longer fermentation period and more trapped air. But it also adds a mild sourness that helps to balance the sweetness from the dough and sweet toppings or glaze. And trust me these sourdough doughnuts taste pleasantly delicious.
Not sure how to start a sourdough starter, read my comprehensive guide to make a quick sourdough starter with minimum discard.
But please take care to use a freshly fed starter, that is not much sour. Use the starter right before it hits the peak. If the starter begins to decline, its pH starts to fall due to the production of lactic acids and makes the starter sour. So, whenever we are using sourdough starters in sweet recipes, we have to ensure that we use the starter much before it starts to decline. This is our best bet to keep the sourness in control.
Shaping ideas for the sourdough doughnuts
For this sourdough doughnuts recipe I am shaping mine in regular round-shaped doughnuts with a hole. The leftover holes can be made into mini hole doughnuts. If you do not want to make hole doughnuts, just combine the cutout holes with the leftover dough, roll, and cut the regular doughnuts.
If you plan to make round, cream, or jelly-filled doughnuts, do not cut the center holes. Fry like usual and fill with cream and glaze as your heart desires.
You can also shape them into diamond or rectangular shapes like beignets.
If you want to get more creative, divide the dough into strips and swirl them to make swirl sourdough doughnuts.
Donut topping ideas
You can dress these babies the way you like. I am keeping it pretty simple. I am just coating my sourdough doughnuts for this recipe with sugar and cinnamon. As far as glazed doughnuts are concerned, I like a very thin glaze, not those super thick ones. Let us put a few topping options in the pointers:
- The most basic and easiest donut topping is to roll them in a mix of sugar and cinnamon. Easy, delicious, and comforting!
- Glaze: For glazing follow this donut glaze recipe:
| 255 g | powdered sugar( about 2 cups) |
| 55 g | butter( 4 tbsp) |
| 1 tsp | vanilla extract |
| 4 tbsp | whole milk ( more or less depending on how thick or thin you like your glaze) |
If you like thick glaze, reduce milk quantity in the glaze recipe. You can always do multiple coatings to achieve a thick coating of the glaze if you like it that way.
- Coating with chocolate: Use sweet brown chocolate for glazing these sourdough Doughnuts, or use white chocolate. Use gel colors in white chocolate to make a colorful glaze. Top with sprinkles, chopped nuts, crushed cookies, or whatever your heart desires.
Ingredients
- Sourdough starter: To make sourdough starter Doughnuts, begin the recipe with a fed starter. If you keep your starter in the fridge, take it out way ahead and feed it. We want to ensure that we use it at its peak, way before it starts to fall or decline. The starter in the decline stage is much sour than the ripe starter.
You can also use a sourdough discard to make these Doughnuts. All you have to ensure is that you take it out of the fridge and feed it. Use it only when its activity at a peak or near the peak. Also, do not use very old discard. Avoid sour-smelling discard, for making sourdough discard Doughnuts.
A few of our favorite sourdough discard recipes are:
How to make Naan using the Sourdough Discard
How to make Eggless Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls from Discard
Fried sourdough starter to make your life easy: 5 recipes! - All-purpose Flour: I have used regular all-purpose flour in this sourdough donut recipe. Any kind of unbleached all purpose flour will work just fine. If possible choose an organic variety I have made them with a 50:50 combination of whole wheat and bread flour with satisfactory results.
- Whole milk: Since we are not using any egg yolks or I mean any eggs in this recipe, milk and a little butter are the only tenderizers. So, always choose to use whole milk only. Using skim or lower fat percentage milk is not an option here. Also, make sure that the milk is not straight out of the fridge. If needed, warm it up a little bit. The ideal milk temperature is around 75-85 0F. So, if you have an instant-read thermometer, it might be time to take it out.
- Butter: The sourdough doughnuts recipe uses unsalted butter. If you want to use salted butter, omit the salt from the recipe. Do not use low-fat butter.
Step by Step Instructions
- Start by feeding your starter. We want to use a ripe starter, just before it starts to decline. Use a rubber band to mark your starter and observe when it reaches double or triple( whatever that peak looks like for your starter).
2. Preparing the dough:
I like to keep it pretty simple. Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add room temperature whole milk. Now add the ripe sourdough starter and mix well in the milk to form a smooth paste. Now add the sugar and mix well. Further add in the vanilla extract, salt, and melted butter. Mix everything well. If you are going to add some nutmeg, go ahead and add some. Now add the flour. Combine with the help of a ladle or a fork.
3. Kneading the dough:
Now place the bowl on the stand mixer, and start kneading at low speed for 6-7 minutes. Now bump up the speed. And knead for additional 6-7 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and supple. It should leave the sides of the bowl completely. If it does not comes together and you feel that the dough is still very sticky, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour and knead again until the dough comes together and becomes smooth.
If kneading with hands, I suggest you let the dough rest after combining all the ingredients. Just mix enough to ensure that no patch of dry flour is left out. Cover and let the dough autolyze for 30 minutes. Then remove it onto a flour-dusted work surface. Knead using forward motion and then collecting it. Keep kneading till the dough becomes smooth.
4. Bulk rise:
Transfer the dough to a greased bowl with enough room for it to rise. Cover with a cling wrap or kitchen towel. And let it bulk rise at 70-85 0 F for 1 hour. Now put the bowl in a refrigerator for cold retard. Cold proof it overnight (for 8- 12 hours ). You can surely cold retard for longer, but it will increase the sourness in the dough, which is not desirable for this sourdough doughnuts recipe.
The benefit of cold retard:
For this sourdough doughnuts recipe, cold retard means more fluffy and light Doughnuts. And most importantly a dough that is much easier to handle and shape. As we all know that rich doughs can be difficult to roll, shape and cut.
5. Rolling the dough and shaping the Doughnuts:
Remove the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gather the sides and make a roundish ball. Now use your hands to flatten it. Switch to a rolling pin and start rolling the dough into a half-inch thick layer. Keep dusting some flour under it occasionally, so that it does not stick. Now cut the Doughnuts using a cookie cutter or a donut cutter. Use the smallest cookie cutter to make the central hole.
You can also shape them just as the round without holes. Carefully lift the Doughnuts and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment papers. A pro tip: dust a little flour on the parchment paper before placing the Doughnuts, as it will make it prevent them from sticking to the parchment paper when proofing and you could easily lift them for frying. Also transfer the holes, as we are going to fry them as well.
But if you do not want to make hole Doughnuts, just gather them and combine them with the leftover dough. Make a smooth round and roll again to form a sheet. Cut more Doughnuts and repeat the process until the entire dough is depleted.
6. Proofing the Doughnuts: Cover the sourdough doughnuts with a kitchen towel, and let the proof till they become puffier. I let mine proof for one and a half hours. The temperature in my kitchen was 82 0F. So depending upon how hot or cold your kitchen is, adjust the time. Refer to the image to see how much rise we need.
7. Frying sourdough donuts:
In a pan heat vegetable oil deep enough to fry the Doughnuts. Gently lift the Doughnuts and drop them into the oil. If your Doughnuts are struck to the parchment paper, even after dusting the parchment paper, just take scissors to cut the parchment paper around the Doughnuts, in a way that you could lift a donut with the parchment paper and drop it into the hot oil.
Use any neutral-flavored vegetable oil for frying. The oil temperature should be around 320-330 0F. If the oil is hotter than that, the Doughnuts will become brown from the outside very quickly and remain undercooked from the inside. Also, we need mild golden yellow color on these sourdough doughnuts. One batch of Doughnuts should take about 2-3 minutes to cook from one side. The key is to fry them over medium heat. Then, gently flip them and cook on the other side for the same time over medium heat
When fully fried from both sides, gently remove from oil and transfer on to a cooling rack or a plate lined with tissue paper, and continue with the rest of the donuts.
Doughnut holes will fry much faster than the bigger doughnuts. I like to fry my donut holes a little more as I love them more crispy from outside.
8. Topping or dressing:
If you are planning to just coat them in cinnamon sugar like me, so drop them into the sugar cinnamon when they are right out of the oil. Sugar sticks better that way.
Tips for making perfect sourdough donut recipe
- Use active neutral-flavored sourdough discard instead of an active sourdough starter. Also, bump up the volume of discard by 5 percent.
- Use one pack of yeast (¼ oz) of yeast to substitute the sourdough starter.
- If kneading with hands, I suggest you let the dough rest after combining all the ingredients. Just mix enough to ensure that no patch of dry flour is left out. Cover and let the dough autolyze for 30 minutes. Then remove it onto a flour-dusted work surface. Knead using forward motion and then collecting it. Keep kneading till the dough becomes smooth.
- Keep dusting flour underneath the dough while rolling with the rolling pin, else it will stick and Doughnuts will be very difficult to separate.
- Also, dust the parchment paper, so these sourdough doughnuts do not stick to it while proofing.
- Sometimes the Doughnuts get stuck to the parchment paper and their shape gets distorted as you lift and transfer them into the oil. In such a situation, take a pair of scissors and cut the parchment paper around the Doughnuts. Now lift the Doughnuts with the papers and gently drop them in the oil. Keep holding an edge of the paper when you drop the Doughnuts into the oil, they will separate themselves from the paper.
- If you are using this recipe to make filled sourdough Doughnuts, roll them a bit thicker and while proofing the rounds, let it proof till it becomes fuller (a little dome-shaped) before frying.
- For making sourdough doughnuts vegan, use vegan butter and coconut milk to replace milk and butter.
Storage instructions:
Storing the sourdough Doughnuts at room temperature:
These sourdough doughnuts will keep well at room temperature for about 3 days unless you are living in tropical parts of the world. If that is true for you, you should not store them at room temperature for more than a day.
You should store them in an airtight container, lined with tissue paper or parchment paper.
Sourdough doughnuts have the best keeping ability. The sugar-cinnamon doughnuts should be stored in a cool dry place in an airtight bag or container. As we all know that sugar is hygroscopic, so the sugar crystals should not come in contact with moist air.
When storing the glazed doughnuts, they do need some aeration, else the glaze tends to crack and break. So for storing glazed Doughnuts a usual container with a lid should suffice.
Store in a refrigerator:
For storing longer, you can Refrigerate the donut for almost 7-8 days. Place them in an airtight container and enjoy them for a week.
The cream-filled doughnuts should be consumed within 3-4 days.
Freezing the sourdough doughnuts:
Plain or unglazed donuts can be easily frozen. I am not sure about the maximum period they stay well, but I have frozen mine for about a month.
Frequently asked questions
You can also freeze the shaped and proofed donuts, and fry them later.
Yes, you can freeze the sourdough donut dough. Follow the shaping and cutting process from the post. Also, let the cut out donuts proof on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. When you see that they have puffed up, then, transfer them the freezer to freeze. Once they have hardened, remove them from the freezer. Now lift and pack them in a freezer safe plastic bag. Also, place a piece of parchment paper between two donuts. This will protect them from sticking to each other and making thawing easy.
I have success freezing them for a month. For frying, let them thaw at the room temperature for 3-4 hours, before frying.
If your oil is too hot, the donuts will become brown and hard. This is not the desired character in case of donuts. We want the donuts to be goldenish brown. Keep the oil temperature around 320-330 0 F. Take time to fry the donuts. They need to fry slowly. We want them to be cooked throughout and not just from the outside. If the oil is very hot, they will just brown from the outside and remain raw at the center.
Yes, you can use this recipe to make filled Doughnuts. Two things that will change are:
While shaping, roll it a bit thicker and do not cut the center of the round.
While proofing the round, let it proof till it becomes fuller (a little dome-shaped) before frying.
Also, while frying, do not use very deep oil. About 2.5- 3 inch deep oil should suffice.
For making these sourdough doughnuts baked, bake at 350 0 F after brushing generously with melted butter, and bake until a golden brown crust is formed.
Yeah.. you can easily use this recipe to make vegan sourdough doughnuts. This recipe does not use any eggs so all you need to do is replace butter and milk with similar plant-based substitutes. Use some vegan butter and coconut milk (because it has good fat content) and you should be good to go. Use any neutral-flavored milk if you do not want the coconut flavor.
Well, you can make these sourdough doughnuts baked. I have made them by baking (though they are just not the same).
There are some things that you can do to bake them closest to the fried ones. Start by pre-heating the oven to 350 0 F and brush the Doughnuts generously with melted butter. Place a try with a few ice cubes in the lower rack, so that the donut crust does not get hard. Also, consider spraying them with some warm water right before popping them in the oven. Also, ensure that you rotate the tray in between so that all the doughnuts are baked evenly and have an even coloring. And there it is… baked sourdough donuts!
These make great glazed doughnuts. I always glaze half the batch, as my kiddos love the glazed doughnuts over cinnamon sugar ones. My favorite glaze recipe:
255 g powdered sugar( about 2 cups)
55 g butter( 4 tbsp)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoon milk( more or less depending on how thick or thin you like your glaze)
But if you are planning to glaze them, transfer them to a cooling rack or plate lined with tissues and let them cool a bit before glazing them or coating them with chocolate, etc.
Let the donut cool a bit before applying the glaze. The donuts should still be warm, but not hot. If you let the donuts cool completely before glazing, they will soak the glaze in.
But if you like a very thin layer of glaze, do it the other way around. You should do it right on the hot doughnuts as most of the glaze will run off leaving just a thin layer of glaze on the doughnuts.
Yes, I make sourdough discard donuts all the time. I take out the discard and let it come to room temperature. You should see some activity in your discard. By activity I mean, there should be air bubbles in the discard. Do not use very old discard, as it is bound to be sour. So, I highly recommend using the fresh discard within 1-2 days of discarding.
Some of our favorite sourdough recipes:
- How to make Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread
- How to make Sourdough Brioche
- How to make sourdough hot dog buns from scratch?
- How to make Surprisingly Soft Oatmeal Sandwich Bread with Sourdough
If you found this sourdough doughnut recipe useful, do not forget to share it with your friends. I would highly appreciate a comment and a rating! It helps me create more resources like this.
Happy baking!
Sourdough doughnuts recipe card
Sourdough doughnuts recipe
Ingredients
- 175 g Active Sourdough starter room temperature
- 425 g All-purpose flour
- 220 g Whole milk
- 100 g Sugar
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 1 ½ teaspoon Vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- A pinch Nutmeg
- Vegetable Oil for frying about 3-4 inch deep
- Sugar-cinnamon for coating 100g sugar+ 2 tablespoon of cinnamon powder
Instructions
- Start by feeding the sourdough starter: Use active sourdough starter. Starter should be ripe. Use a rubber band to mark your starter after feeding, and observe when it reaches its peak. (Once it begins to decline, it starts getting sour, use it before that point)
- Preparing the dough: Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add room temperature whole milk. Now add the ripe sourdough starter and mix well in the milk to form a smooth paste. Add the sugar and mix well. Further add in the vanilla extract, salt, and melted butter. Mix everything well. If you are going to add some nutmeg, go ahead and add some. Now add the flour. Combine with the help of a ladle or a fork.
- Kneading the dough: Now place the bowl on the stand mixer, and start kneading at low speed for 6-7 minutes. It will look super sticky initially. Now, bump up the speed, and knead for additional 6-7 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and supple. It should leave the sides of the bowl completely. If it does not comes together and you feel that the dough is still very sticky, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour and knead again.
- Bulk rise: Transfer the dough to a greased bowl with enough room for it to rise. Cover with a cling wrap or kitchen towel and let it bulk rise at 70-85 0 F for 2 hours. Now place the bowl in a refrigerator for cold retarding the dough. Cold proof it for 8- 12 hours. It makes the dough much easier to roll and shape.
- Rolling the dough and shaping the Doughnuts: Remove the dough onto a flour-dusted work surface. Gather the sides and make a roundish ball. Now use your hands to flatten it. Switch to a rolling pin and start rolling the dough into a ½ inch thick layer. Keep dusting some flour under it occasionally, so that it does not stick. Now cut the Doughnuts using a cookie cutter or a donut cutter. Use the smallest cookie cutter to make the central hole.Carefully lift the Doughnuts and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Also transfer the sourdough donut holes, as we are going to fry them as well to make the hole donuts. A pro tip: dust a little flour on the parchment paper before placing the doughnuts, as it will prevent them from sticking to the parchment paper when proofing.Gather the leftover dough and repeat the process, cut more Doughnuts and keep repeating until the entire dough is depleted. This recipe will make about 24 medium sized donuts.
- Proofing the Doughnuts: Cover these sourdough doughnuts with a kitchen towel, and let them proof till they become puffier. It should take about 1 hour or longer if your kitchen is cooler. (Refer to the process image to see how much rise we need.)
- Frying: In a pan heat vegetable oil deep enough to fry the sourdough doughnuts. The oil temperature should be around 320-330 0F. Gently lift the doughnuts and drop them into the oil.Doughnuts should take about 2-3 minutes to cook from one side. Then, gently flip them and cook on the other side for the same time. Do not let them brown too much as the crust will become hard. Look for the golden brown color.If the oil is too hot, the donuts will brown from the outside much faster and reman raw from the center. So, do check your oil temperature.When done, gently remove from oil and transfer to a plate lined with tissue paper, and continue with the rest of the doughnuts.Donut holes will fry much faster than the bigger donuts.
- Topping or dressing: If you are planning to just coat them in cinnamon sugar like me, so drop them into the sugar-cinnamon when they are right out of the oil. Sugar sticks better that way. But if you are planning to glaze them, transfer to a plate lined with tissues and let them cool a bit before glazing them or coating with chocolate, etc. ( Refer to the notes for my fav. glaze recipe)
- Eat, share, and store.
Notes
Recipe Notes/ Tips
- Use active neutral-flavored sourdough discard instead of an active sourdough starter. Also, bump up the volume of discard by 5 percent.
- Use one pack of yeast (¼ oz) of yeast to substitute the sourdough starter.
- If kneading with hands, I suggest you let the dough rest after combining all the ingredients. Just mix enough to ensure that no patch of dry flour is left out. Cover and let the dough autolyze for 30 minutes. Then remove it onto a flour-dusted work surface. Knead using forward motion and then collecting it. Keep kneading till the dough becomes smooth.
- Keep dusting flour underneath the dough while rolling with the rolling pin, else it will stick and Doughnuts will be very difficult to separate.
- Also, dust the parchment paper, so these sourdough doughnuts do not stick to it while proofing.
- Sometimes the Doughnuts get stuck to the parchment paper and their shape gets distorted as you lift and transfer them into the oil. In such a situation, take a pair of scissors and cut the parchment paper around the Doughnuts. Now lift the Doughnuts with the papers and gently drop them in the oil. Keep holding an edge of the paper when you drop the Doughnuts into the oil, they will separate themselves from the paper.
- If you are using this recipe to make filled sourdough Doughnuts, roll them a bit thicker and while proofing the rounds, let it proof till it becomes fuller (a little dome-shaped) before frying.
- For making sourdough doughnuts vegan, use vegan butter and coconut milk to replace milk and butter.
Storage instructions:
- Storing the sourdough Doughnuts at room temperature: These sourdough doughnuts will keep well at room temperature for about 3 days unless you are living in tropical parts of the world. If that is true for you, you should not store them at room temperature for more than a day.
You should store them in an airtight container, lined with tissue paper or parchment paper.
Sourdough doughnuts have the best keeping ability. The sugar-cinnamon doughnuts should be stored in a cool dry place in an airtight bag or container. As we all know that sugar is hygroscopic, so the sugar crystals should not come in contact with moist air.
When storing the glazed doughnuts, they do need some aeration, else the glaze tends to crack and break. So for storing glazed Doughnuts a usual container with a lid should suffice. - Store in a refrigerator:
For storing longer, you can Refrigerate the donut for almost 7-8 days. Place them in an airtight container and enjoy them for a week.
The cream-filled doughnuts should be consumed within 3-4 days. - Freezing the sourdough doughnuts:
Plain or unglazed donuts can be easily frozen. I am not sure about the maximum period they stay well, but I have frozen mine for about a month.
You can also freeze the shaped and proofed donuts, and fry them later.
Nutrition Facts
Priscilla
I am wondering if these donuts could be baked rather than fried? I have the dough made up and would rather bake than fry them. Thank you so much!
Meenakshi
Hey Priscilla,
This is not a baked donuts recipe. You need a rich, cake-like batter for that. If you bake this dough, it will become a rich bread, not donuts.I hope it helps.
Chris
I have been searching for a good sourdough recipe for sometime and I don’t need to look any further. I made these and everyone declared they were the best donuts they have ever eaton. Now for a double batch next time. Thank you for sharing.
Vinita Jain
Tried this recipe and they came out amazing .. thank u so much for this wonderful recipe n such detailed instruction about each n everything
Michaela
These sourdough donuts look fabulous! Can't wait to try them out.
Meenakshi
They taste fabulous too. I am sure you will enjoy them.
Liz
My husband is a donut fanatic and I've been looking for a sourdough recipe we could make! This is perfect!
Meenakshi
Glad you liked it.
AISilva
I'm not sure my family has had many sourdough donuts, but they certainly love cinnamon. I can't wait to try these donuts. Thank you!
Sharon
These sourdough doughnuts are a total breakfast upgrade! This is one of the best doughnut recipes out there.
Meenakshi
Thanks a lot Sharon.
Anjali
I love sourdough donuts but never knew how to make them at home! Can't wait to try your recipe soon - these donuts look especially delicious!
Jill
These look fantastic! I think I was one of the few who didn't attempt a sourdough starter last year. Now I want to try making sourdough just so I can make these doughnuts!
Meenakshi
Oh! You will love them!
Liz
Our favorite sourdough donut truck hasn't been coming to the farmer's market anymore so I was thrilled to be able to make them at home! YUM!
Julie
These homemade donuts look so light and fluffy. I like that you get bonus donut holes with these.
Angela
This is such a great post. So much information. They came out perfectly.
Meenakshi
So glad you like it, Angela.
Jessica Formicola
I don't think I've ever had a sourdough donut, but these look amazing! I can't wait to try making them!