Blood Orange Doughnuts – Dishing with Delaney

Light and fluffy sour cream blood orange old fashioned doughnuts made with a poppyseed filled dough and a tangy and bright blood orange glaze.

My two loves of baking and reality television are finally coming together with this recipe. All of my fellow wannabe fashion designers of the 2010s will know the iconic Christopher Palu Project Runway quote, “blood orange… she’s so pretentious, shut up it’s f**kin red”. When I cook with blood orange, my mind immediately reverts back to the quote. Needless to say it was in the back of my head the whole time making this recipe.

What are Old-Fashioned Doughnuts:

Old-fashioned doughnuts, also known as cake doughnuts, are what I refer to as a DSO or doughnut shaped object. They’re not yeasted like a cake doughnut, but still have the round cut-out center look and tenderness of a doughnut. Old fashioned doughnuts are perfect for someone craving a doughnut but who doesn’t have all day because there is no yeast and therefore no proofing time involved. The tangy sweet sour cream base pairs perfectly with the acidic but fruity blood orange glaze. Paired with a gorgeous poppy-seed garnish, these doughnuts are display case worthy!

Blood Orange Doughnut Ingredients:

• Cake Flour: Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, so the doughnuts stay moist and tender while still holding their own shape.
• Baking Powder: Since there is NO YEAST in this recipe, baking powder is essential for the leavening of these doughnuts.
• Salt: I promise salt does not make a doughnut salty, instead it adds even more balance to the sweet and acidic flavors in this recipe.
• Poppyseeds: I love the slight crunch and nutty balance between the citrus and poppyseeds.
• Blood Orange Zest: Between the orange zest and sour cream, this dough has a great tang to it.
• Sugar: Cream your butter and sugar until combined for 2-3 minutes, under-creaming will lead to a gritty batter.
• Butter: Be sure that your butter is perfectly at room temperature, not melted or cool. This is vital for the correct consistency batter. You may notice that not much butter is used during this recipe, this is because the sour cream also provides fat.
• Egg Yolks: This recipe only uses egg yolk for richness. If you want your whites to go un-wasted, make these meringues with the remaining whites.
• Sour Cream: Sour cream is the staple of cake doughnuts. These provide a tender texture while being thick enough to maintain a dough.
• Vegetable Oil: You can fry doughnuts in any neutral oil, but I like using vegetable oil because it is inexpensive and allergen friendly.
• Blood Orange Juice: Blood orange juice gives these old fashioned doughnuts their great color. I couldn’t find blood orange my first time making these doughnuts but discovered raspberry oranges also worked perfectly.
• Powdered Sugar: The amount of powdered sugar you may need is dependent on the climate (temperature and humidity). You want your final glaze to be thin enough to dip the doughnut in but thick enough to not run over the sides.
• Butter: The small amount of butter provides a richness to this recipe.

Frying Doughnuts:

Frying is intimidating, the oil is hot and doughnuts are sticky. It can be especially difficult to manage oil temperature as too cold of oil will dry out the doughnuts before a golden crust forms, while too hot of oil will leave the outside burnt and inside raw.

• I highly recommend investing in a candy thermometer to properly measure heat.
• In addition, keep a timer running as these doughnuts cook for roughly 2 minutes on each side.
• Work in batches so you don’t lose track of how long each individual blood orange doughnut has been cooking.
• Wear an apron to avoid oil staining your garment.
• Have a plate lined with a paper towel ready ahead of time so you have a place to transfer your cooked doughnuts to as soon as they are done.

Tips and Tricks:

• Give the orange doughnut dough all the time it needs to chill. This dough is very sticky and keeping the doughnuts cold is vital to being able to form neat circles.
• Read over all of my frying tips!
• Read the whole recipe before starting since cooling time and specific pieces of equipment are needed.
• Don’t strive for perfection. This is still something that I’m working on. I promise these doughnuts will be delicious even if the circles don’t have an equal radius all the way around or the poppyseeds aren’t perfectly placed.

Print

Blood Orange Old Fashioned Doughnuts

• 
  Author: Delaney
• 
  Prep Time: 30 minutes
• 
  Chilling Time: 1 hour
• 
  Cook Time: 15 minutes
• 
  Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
• 
  Yield: 8–10 doughnuts 1x
• 
  Category: Doughnuts
• 
  Method: Frying

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Description

Light and fluffy sour cream blood orange old fashioned doughnuts made with a poppyseed filled dough and a tangy and bright blood orange glaze.

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Ingredients

Units
USM

Scale
1x2x3x

Dough:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (250g)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon poppyseeds
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (30g)
• 2 egg yolks, room temperature (use the whites to make these meringues)
• 2/3 cup sour cream, room temperature (150g)

Frying:

Glaze:

• 1/4 cup blood orange juice (55g)
• 1 cup powdered sugar (120g)
• 1 tablespoon melted and cooled butter (30g)

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Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds. Whisk generously to aerate the flour and remove any clumps.
2. In a stand mixer or hand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment/beaters, beat together the butter and sugar until smoothly creamed (roughly 2 minutes).
3. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Scrape down the bowl between additions to ensure a smooth batter is forming.
4. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the stand mixer, mixing just until combined. Scrape down the bowl and mix in 1/2 of the sour cream. Add in another 1/3 of the flour and mix. Mix in the rest of sour cream before adding the rest of the flour. Scrape down the bowl regularly during this process.
5. Dump dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for 1 hour to overnight until firm.
6. Once dough is done chilling, place it on a clean surface that has been dusted with flour. Roll out the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle and punch out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or any two circular objects. Gently re-knead dough and punch out more doughnuts. Place doughnuts back into the fridge while you heat oil.
7. Heat 2-3 inches of oil to 325ºF in a large pot or dutch oven. Prepare a plate with a paper towel to drain doughnuts on.
8. Once oil is heated, remove doughnuts from fridge and place in oil 3 at a time. Fry for 2 minutes per side or until lightly golden before flipping and frying for another two minutes. Note: these doughnuts may sink at first but they should bob to the top within the two minutes.
9. Place fried doughnuts onto the paper towel plate to drain the oil and repeat with all doughnuts. Let cool.
10. While the doughnuts cool, whisk together all the glaze ingredients and set aside. You may to need to adjust the ratio of ingredients slightly depending on the climate of your kitchen.
11. Once cooled, dunk into the glaze and top with more poppyseeds. Enjoy!

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Notes

These doughnuts are best kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 doughnut
• Calories: 341
• Sugar: 27.4g
• Sodium: 192mg
• Fat: 9.9g
• Saturated Fat: 5.7g
• Carbohydrates: 58.7g
• Fiber: 1.1g
• Protein: 5.4g
• Cholesterol: 72mg

Keywords: blood orange, frying, old fashioned doughnuts, doughnuts