These Vanilla Bean Old-Fashioned Doughnuts will make your coffee break a special experience.
As a kid, I grew up with some very good doughnuts and some mediocre ones too. But you always knew where to find the good ones. And when someone would bring a big box of the fresh, sometimes still even warm, assortment to any gathering or to the office. People would stop whatever they were doing and clamor around the box to find their favorite ones. There was a genuine excitement to have a doughnut.
My three brothers all seemed to want the huge raise ones, the ones that would be big pillows of light dough, glazed with the perfect amount icing that coated them in sweet goodness. I liked those too, but my favorite is the glazed old-fashioned doughnut. In the west, you can find them in any assortment. They look like the kind of exploded. The best ones look like they have petals that you can pull off and eat working your way around till you have a ring that you can then eat. They can come unglazed, chocolate, or strawberry glazed, but the best, in my opinion, is vanilla glazed. The glaze soaks up in the nooks and cracks making the inside of the doughnut almost custard-like. Living here in the Northeast they are hard to find. In fact, the horrible big chain of doughnuts that invaded most of America (more on that in a minute) make a terrible version that most people don’t even eat. They don’t even call them old-fashioned they call them sour cream doughnuts, which is just plain wrong. It actually makes me angry. Probably someone high up in the corporation decided that they were not going to call them old-fashioned because it sounds like something “old” and who would want that? …Grrrrrrrr!
This month I am on a quest to figure out great doughnuts. I want to explore how to make homemade doughnuts or donuts as some of you call them. I think the art of making doughnuts got absolutely crushed by a certain predatory chain that has now even taken the name doughnuts off their brand. I don’t blame them their doughnuts are abysmal. The days of Mom and Pop doughnut shops are sadly gone. This chain would set up a shop near any local shop, advertise the heck out of themselves and out price whomever was there in the local market. Convincing people they had the best doughnuts and coffee, they didn’t. But unfortunately most Americans are lazy and easily convinced of things that just because you read or hear about it, it must be true. Oh, I have no doubt they started out having decent doughnuts, but they became a big corporation, with bean counters and executives in charge, not bakers and people who feel and breathe the art of food. Big businesses don’t see what they are doing beyond profit. 9 times out of 10 they end up ruining their own product, making bland, boring, cardboard tasting. My first post is on the my favorite The Old-fashioned doughnut.
I love these doughnuts, but I will say they are not perfect yet. Please make them, they are delicious. They just did not quite get the petals I wanted. I am going to have my work cut out for this month to try and perfect them as well as other actual great tasting doughnuts. The doughnut cutter I used is from Ateco you can find it on Amazon.
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander or nutmeg
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- ¾ cup sour cream
- vegetable oil for frying
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar 1 lb box
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons bourbon
- ¼ cup hot water
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in a small bowl, stir together the cake flour, salt, baking powder and the coriander or nutmeg. Set aside.
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In bowl of a mixer or by hand mix together the sugar and butter until they look like sand, about 1 minute.
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Beat in the egg yolks and the vanilla bean paste. For around 1 minute more.
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Add half of the flour mixture and beat just until combined.
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Add in the sour cream and again beat until just combined.
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Repeat with the remaining flour mixture.
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You will have a very soft dough. Scrape the dough into a small bowl, I used the bowl I had the flour in.
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Cover and let chill for at least 1 hour or preferably overnight to give the flour time to absorb some of the moisture.
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When you are ready to make the doughnuts, pat out the dough on a heavily floured work surface to about ½ inch thickness.
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Cut them out with a 3 -4 inch doughnut cutter, I used a 4 inch and got 9 doughnuts. You will get 12 with a 3inch.
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Heat around2 to 3 inches of the oil in a heavy large pot to 350°
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Fry just a few at a time letting them just float to the surface and counting to 15 seconds before flipping them.
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Let fry an additional 90 seconds to 2 minutes until the become golden brown around the edges. Flip them carefully and fry for a few seconds again to brown the bottoms.
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Let cool briefly on a rack over some absorbent paper towels. While you make the glaze
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Stir all the glaze ingredients together adding more water or bourbon if necessary to make a thin glaze.
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Dip the still warm doughnuts carefully into the glaze. Coating onlt the tops. They will be delicate so be careful.
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Let cool if you can stand not eating right away.
