It's good to return to BAKED Sunday Mornings! This week we're making Farm Stand Buttermilk Doughnut, a classic cake doughnut leavened with baking powder, baking soda, and buttermilk. Or in my case, round 2 of Battle Of The Doughnut (check out round 1's double ginger yeast doughnuts)!
I know there are plenty of fans out there for yeast doughnuts but I must admit that I much prefer cake doughnuts. The texture of deep fried cake is really appealing to me. As a novice to deep frying, I approached this recipe with trepidation. I had visions of splattering hot oil and lingering smell of burnt grease. To much of my surprise, deep frying was easy. As long as the oil remained at the specified temperature range, there was no smoke nor splatter. Why did I wait so long before attempting to deep fry? Just think of all those years of missed calories!
Since I made both yeast and cake doughnuts at the same time, it was rather interesting to observe how different they behaved. For the yeast doughnuts, all the leavening happened before the dough hit the hot oil. The fermented and shaped dough were light and delicate. As for the buttermilk doughnuts, as soon as it dipped into the oil, the transformation was dramatic. The dough sunk briefly to the bottom of the pot before rising lazily to the top all puffed up. It turned from 2D to 3D!
The subtle spices in this buttermilk and sour cream enriched doughnut is spot on. I love the mix of cinnamon and nutmeg. The recipe offered three variations for topping: vanilla glaze, chocolate glaze, and cinnamon sugar. I used the cinnamon sugar to coat the impossibly cute doughnut holes (I'm still a patriotic Canadian but sorry Tim Hortons, your Timbits don't even compare to my freshly made version). The cinnamon sugar really highlights the sweet spices and tangy dairy taste of the doughnut holes. As for the full size doughnuts, I topped them with maple coffee glaze. Since I made Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls recently with this glaze, the harmonious pairing of maple and coffee left a big impression on me. They are both bold flavours yet instead of clashing, they enhance and complement each other. Besides, when was the last time you saw Maple Coffee Glaze doughnuts at your local doughnut shop? This is the perfect doughnut to enjoy with a mug of strong coffee. These doughnuts garnered me so much praise from my tasters it was almost unreal. "They taste just like what my aunt used to make at the farm!"
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Recipe is available at BAKED Sunday Mornings. Follow the link and you can see the doughnuts made by other members too. Now that I'm no longer afraid of deep frying, I hope I don't get myself into trouble. I can just imagine waking up early on weekend mornings and whip up a batch of buttermilk (or apple cider or chocolate cake) doughnuts just because!
