Egg-Free Fried Donuts with Sourdough, delicious soft donuts to enjoy on their own or decorated with royal icing to turn them into fantastic donuts.
A really simple recipe to make with relatively short rising times despite using sourdough, for a natural leavening that gives a unique taste.
The dough can easily be made by hand, but for convenience, you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook.
The first rise does not require the dough to double; 2 hours at room temperature around 64/68°F will suffice, then cut them out and let them rest for about another 3 hours.
During cooking, you’ll see them grow significantly, resulting in a donut that is crispy on the outside with a super soft center. They keep well for a couple of days at room temperature covered in a box with a lid; you just need to microwave them for a few seconds to enjoy them as if freshly cooked.
Alternatively, you can freeze the excess once they cool completely and bring them back to room temperature when you want to enjoy them. I take them out of the freezer the night before going to bed and enjoy them crispy the next morning for breakfast.
These are simple tips for those who want to preserve them, but I assure you they’ll be gone as soon as they’re fried because they’re irresistible when warm and freshly cooked.
For sourdough enthusiasts, I also remember
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 5 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 10 medium
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 531.49 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 21.79 (g) of which sugars 3.51 (g)
- Proteins 3.38 (g)
- Fat 48.96 (g) of which saturated 8.17 (g)of which unsaturated 39.30 (g)
- Fibers 0.66 (g)
- Sodium 47.08 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 62 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz sourdough starter
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup milk (warm)
- 2 tbsps sugar
- 1 lemon zest
- 2 tbsps butter (soft)
- as needed vegetable oil (for frying)
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Whisk
- 2 Cookie Cutter
- 1 Fryer
Preparation
The dough preparation is very simple and can be done by hand or with a mixer.
Warm the milk in the microwave and crumble the sourdough starter into it, allowing it to hydrate and activate due to the temperature. Meanwhile, place the flour, grated lemon zest, and sugar in a bowl and, while mixing, add the milk and sourdough starter. Mix coarsely and add the soft butter, knead a bit using the dough whisk to avoid getting your hands dirty, then transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and continue kneading until you get a smooth dough ball.
Once you have a compact dough, form a ball, place it back in the bowl where you mixed it, score the surface with a cross, and let it rise covered with plastic wrap in the turned-off oven for two hours.
After two hours at a temperature around 68°F, you’ll find the dough has moved as you see in the photo, the alveolation can be seen from the cross, it doesn’t need to double but should still be risen.
Transfer the dough onto a lightly (a little) floured work surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of about a scant half inch. Cut out your donuts with round cookie cutters. You can decide to cut out all donuts, re-kneading the cut-out rounds, or cook them as they are to obtain small balls to fill.
Heat the oil well and fry the donuts covered for faster frying, turn them only once when the base is well golden and let the other side brown too. Drain them on a rack, not on absorbent paper.
As you drain them, roll them in granulated sugar. Roll them while they’re still hot so the sugar sticks better.
NOTES
These donuts are really delicious and, not containing eggs, you can make them suitable for vegan cooking by substituting with soy milk and margarine for the butter.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can they be oven-baked?
For me, these donuts must be fried because it’s a very quick fry and they remain truly dry when eaten.
