Fermented overnight for the softest, fluffiest texture, these irresistible sourdough donuts are fried in coconut oil until perfectly crispy and dipped in a sweet, vanilla glaze.
Homemade donuts win breakfast every time. Growing up, these delightful treats were generally saved for special occasions. They always left our fingers covered in powdered sugar and wishing there were just a few more. Perhaps we all savor our memories of homemade donuts, whether cut out of canned biscuits or made from scratch.
This recipe introduces sourdough fermentation for the best sourdough donuts. If you didn’t think donuts got better, prepare for a new favorite recipe.
Fermenting the donut dough results in a tender, airy crumb, as well as a rich sourdough tanginess. Frying them in a cast-iron skillet until golden brown enriches that flavor even more, and dipping in glaze or dusting with powdered sugar takes them over the top.
While donuts never claimed to be healthy, we might argue that these sourdough donuts come as close as possible. With fermented grains, healthy fats, and zero additives, I don’t feel bad at all about feeding these pillowy little treats to my family.
As you can see, sourdough isn’t only for bread recipes. From these sourdough donuts to sourdough croissants, an easy lemon sourdough cake, and even sourdough peanut butter cookies, we love working sourdough into our favorite things. If this piques your interest, head to my blog to learn how to make your own sourdough starter, how to use sourdough starter, and how to keep it going for years to come.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Flavorful and delicious – The rich ingredients and slight sourdough tang work harmoniously to create the best donuts – lightly sweetened, lightly tangy, and absolutely nostalgic.
Pillowy and crisp – Fried until golden brown, these donuts develop a mouthwateringly crisp exterior that, once broken into, reveals a light, fluffy crumb.
Simple and fully fermented – Only simple ingredients in this recipe. The batter is fermented for up to 24 hours for a more digestible and nutritious treat.
Ingredients
Milk – Preferably whole milk, as it achieves a better texture for the donuts and a good consistency for the glaze.
Sugar – Organic, unrefined.
Flour – I like to use all-purpose flour for this recipe. You could also use freshly milled whole grain, though the texture will be a little different and not as fluffy.
Sourdough starter – This should be a fed and active sourdough starter that is nice and bubbly.
Oil – For frying donuts, I suggest tallow, lard, avocado oil, or coconut oil. These are healthy, unrefined oils with higher smoke points.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How to Make Sourdough Donuts
Step 1: Feed your sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting the dough. Warm the milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan over low heat, whisking to dissolve the sugar.
Step 2: Add the melted butter mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Add two cups of flour to the mixer bowl and combine on low. I like to do this to make sure the milk mixture has cooled down enough before adding my starter.
Step 3: Add starter, eggs, the remaining flour, and salt. Knead on low until smooth and elastic. This took about 10 minutes for my dough to finally come together and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Step 4: Cover the dough with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise for 5-6 hours. After rising, place the dough in the fridge overnight.
Step 5: The next day, take the risen dough out of the fridge and roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin to 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch thickness. Only use as much flour as necessary. Too much flour can cause the donuts to become dense and bready.
Step 6: Cut the donuts out. I usually use a cup or a large biscuit cutter and a smaller bottle-type cap to cut the center, since we don’t have a donut cutter.
Step 7: Place the cut donuts on a baking sheet and cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap. Let them rise for 1½ to 2 hours at room temperature. A warmer or cooler location will determine how long the rise takes.
Step 8: Add about 1/2 inch of frying oil to a cast-iron skillet. Heat the oil over medium heat until it sizzles when something is added.
Step 9: Fry each donut for 2 to 3 minutes, then flip them and fry another 2 to 3 minutes on the other side until puffy and golden. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan. Place the donuts on a wire rack over parchment paper to cool for a bit before glazing.
Step 10: Add butter, milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar to a small saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until fully melted and combined. Dip each donut in the glaze and return to the cooling rack to set. Serve fresh!
Tips
- If you are sensitive to wheat, try fermenting the dough for up to 24 hours. This can really help make those grains easier to digest.
- Placing the dough in the refrigerator overnight is essential. This helps develop the flavors while slowing down the fermentation process so it doesn’t over-ferment.
- When deep frying, test one in the hot oil before frying the whole batch. The temperature may need adjustment.
- You don’t need fancy equipment to cut out the donuts. I usually just find whatever objects we have on hand. A wide-mouth mason jar and a bottle cap for the holes will work perfectly fine.
- For this recipe, I dunked the donuts in a simple glaze, but you could also top them with powdered sugar or a cinnamon sugar topping.
- Want to add some fun flavors to the glaze? Add a spoonful of your favorite jam to give it a fruity flavor.
- Fry up the donut holes, as well!
Recipe FAQs
The longer the grains ferment with the active sourdough starter, the more easily digestible they become. People sensitive to wheat or gluten often tolerate sourdough products better when the grain has been fermented for 24 hours. The flavor also deepens during fermentation, resulting in a tangy, sour taste that complements the deep-fried coconut oil flavor and sweet glaze.
If somehow you have a few leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container (or bag), or wrap them in a napkin and place them in a paper bag – fold over the top. I like to add a napkin to help absorb any extra oil and keep them fresh longer.
I like to pop them in the oven for a few minutes to warm them up without drying them out.
In this case, yes. This recipe uses simple ingredients, employs the benefits of sourdough fermentation, and contains zero additives or preservatives.
These donuts can be fermented for 8-24 hours, so how long they take depends on your schedule and preferences. With prep time running around 15 minutes, you could start the shaping and frying anywhere from 8 to 24 hours after assembling the ingredients.
More Breakfast Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Waffles with Freshly Milled Flour
- Homemade Sourdough Pop Tarts
- Easy Sourdough Crumpets
- Freshly Milled Dutch Baby Pancake
- Sourdough Coffee Cake
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Donuts
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups milk, 305 grams
- 1/2 cup sugar, 96 grams
- 1/4 cup butter, 57 grams
- 4 cups flour, 560 grams
- 1 cup active starter, 200 grams
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt, 5 grams
- Oil for frying, such as coconut, avocado, or lard
Glaze
- 1/4 cup butter, 57 grams
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 10 grams
- 2 cups powdered sugar, 240 grams
Instructions
- Feed your sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting the dough. Warm the milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan over low heat, whisking to dissolve the sugar.
- Add the melted butter mixture to a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Add two cups of flour to the mixer bowl and combine on low. I like to do this to make sure the milk mixture has cooled down enough before adding my starter.
- Add starter, eggs, the remaining flour, and salt. Knead on low until smooth and elastic. This took about 10 minutes for my dough to finally come together and pull away from the sides.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise for 5-6 hours. After rising, place the dough in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch thickness. Only use as much flour as necessary. Too much flour can cause the donuts to become dense and bready.
- Cut the donuts out. I usually use a cup or a large biscuit cutter and a smaller bottle-type cap to cut the center, since we don’t have a donut cutter.
- Place donuts on a baking sheet and cover with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap. Let them rise for 1½ to 2 hours at room temperature. A warmer or cooler location will determine how long the rise takes.
- Add about 1/2 inch of coconut oil to a cast-iron skillet. Heat the frying oil over medium heat until it sizzles when something is added.
- Fry each donut for 2 to 3 minutes, then flip them and fry another 2 to 3 minutes on the other side until puffy and golden. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan. Place the donuts on a wire rack over parchment paper to cool for a bit before glazing.
- Add butter, milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar to a saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until fully melted and combined. Dip each donut in the glaze and return to the cooling rack to set. Serve fresh!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These came out amazing!!!
Made these but strawberry, this is my 1st time making donuts and the recipe is perfect and so easy to follow! I don’t have proper donut cutting set, so I used a cup and the back of a pipping tip, and this worked but made smaller donuts as I ended up with 23! With only the one kid I will be freezing some, this was deff a trust the process for me though as I was worried they were going to stay flat, they didn’t rise much after the 2 hours but this would be a fault In my starter as he is t the healthiest at the moment but Passed the float test, and that was good enough for me to give it ago, they still more then doubled in the fryer and came out big, so was really impressed (I don’t fry things so this was new for me too) but over all really great!
Can you make these donut holes?
Sure!
Those were my first donuts ever and I can’t believe I nailed your recipe with soft wheat…I had to put in way more than 4 cups of flour and kneaded by hand until I felt it was the right consistency…they are the best…thank you so much. I also rocked your pizza dough with Italian soft wheat……up to now I have made 7 of your sourdough recipe after starting my starter and I will keep going. Once you go sourdough you never go back LOL. Bless you!
Oh my goodness I use soft wheat flour too! Would love to know how much flour you used! I think I used maybe another cup and a half! I don’t know many people who use soft wheat, but that’s the only wheat my husband and I can consume
I had to add more flour until it reached the right consistency
These turned out super yummy. My family gobbled them up.
Did it really only take 10 minutes? Mine’s been going for a good half hour and still looks almost soupy.
It can depend on the motor in your Kitchen Aid mixer. It may need to go for an additional ten minutes.
You may need to add more flour. That’s what I did.
I’ve tried this recipe twice and each time the donuts are dense and not light and fluffy like donuts should be. What am I doing wrong?
These turned out yummy but the dough was incredibly sticky and hard to handle, I’m assuming because the recipe is by cups and not by weight. By the time I had cut out the donuts and re rolled the rest of the dough to make more a couple times the dough finally would almost hold shape because of having to flour the counter and top of the dough for rolling. A recipe in grams would be so nice but I couldn’t find any which is so unusual for sourdough.
When the dough feels too soupy I just add more flour til it looks and feels right.
I don’t have a stand up mixer so what would you suggest instead? Also, I have a mini donut maker I would like to use instead of frying them. These will be for my grandchildren who are under 2. Also don’t want to use all the sugar. Can it be reduced or maple syrup instead?
I would knead by hand if you don’t have a stand up mixer. You could use a mini donut maker. I also have a recipe that calls for baking the donuts. You may prefer those. Sugar can be reduced for maple syrup.
Can you reuse the coconut oil multi times?
I wouldn’t.
Yes You can reuse coconut oil multiple times.
I’ve been making homemade donuts for Halloween for about a decade now and tried these with my sourdough starter instead of active yeast donuts and oh my goodness they turned out amazing!! Don’t be afraid of the dough being a little sticky. They were the fluffiest I’ve ever made!