Sourdough Doughnuts with Strawberry and Apple Pie Cream

Whether you call them sourdough doughnuts, Berliners, bomboloni, paczki or something different – wait no more, the recipe awaits – worth every minute, I promise.

The Softest Sourdough Doughnuts
Ingredients for these Sourdough Doughnuts
How to Bake Sourdough Doughnuts
FAQs

Sourdough Doughnuts with Strawberry and Apple Pie Cream

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Total Time: 23 hrs 32 mins
Yield: 15 doughnuts 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Starter

90 g white wheat flour (bread flour)
20 g powdered brown sugar
25 g active sourdough starter
40 g water

Dough

500 g white wheat flour (bread flour, 100%)
all of the above starter (appr. 175g)
3 eggs (appr. 165 g)
60 g brown sugar (12%)
10 g rum (appr. 1 tbsp) (2%)
10 g salt (2%)
110 g milk or water (22%)
pinch of vanilla
lemon zest of one lemon
120 g softened butter (24%)
oil for frying
sugar for coating

Filling

strawberry crème légère
apple pie cream

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Instructions

In the morning, prepare your sourdough starter. The starter will be stiff, more like a dough. Leave it to ferment until risen, puffed, and active. This may take from 4-12 hours, depending on the temperature and strength of your starter.
In the evening/late afternoon, mix the dough. First, dissolve your entire starter in 110 g of milk. Add all other ingredients, except for the butter. Mix everything together. If the dough feels dry, don’t be tempted to add too much of additional liquid – mixing in the butter in the following phase will soften the dough (experiment with the softness of the dough) – but do add the liquid if the dough is too stiff. Knead the dough for 5-6 minutes and then leave it to rest for 15-20 minutes.
Next, knead in half of the butter quantity. Once completely integrated, add and knead in the other half. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes (it is advisable to use mixer) until smooth. Shape the dough into ball and place it into clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to ferment at the room temperature for 3-4 hours until the volume increases by half of the initial state, then put the bowl into the fridge overnight.
In the morning, take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 15 pieces, each weighing 70 g. Shape each piece into a ball and place it on slightly floured tray lined with parchement paper. Cover the tray with clingfilm – this will prevent the dough from drying out. Leave the balls to rise until passing the poking test (appr. doubled in volume) – make an indent – if the indent comes back quickly, leave them to ferment a little bit more. Final rise may take 4-7 hours, it’s temperature depending.
When the balls are risen enough, prepare the frying oil. Heat to 175-180°C/347-356°F. If the oil isn’t hot enough, the doughnuts will soak the oil and be greasy. If the oil is too hot, the doughnuts will cook very fast on the outside, but will be unbaked inside, so make sure it’s at the right temperature. It is advisable to sacrifice one doughnut to see how it bakes. Also, keep in mind that at the end of frying the oil becomes hotter.
Fry each doughnut for 2-3 minutes on one side (or until nicely brown) and 2 minutes on another side. When fried, transfer them onto a plate lined with a napkin, so they soak up the excessive fat.
Dust the doughnuts with powdered sugar (or roll them into sugar), then leave them to cool down before filling them.
To fill the doughnuts, make a short incision with the knife, then use a pastry bag to fill them with the filling of your choice.

Notes

The dough for these sourdough doughnuts was mixed in the afternoon, left to rise for 3-4 hours at room temperature to increase the volume, put in the fridge overnight, shaped in the morning, left to rise and fried in the afternoon of that day.
Baker’s percentages are put in brackets if you would like to scale up or down the formula.
Please feel free to add more liquid (20-50 g) more, if you feel the dough is too stiff and your flour can absorb more liquid. The dough should be soft, not runny but also not too stiff.

Author: Natasha Krajnc
Prep Time: 23 hrs 26 mins
Cook Time: 6 mins
Category: dessert

The Softest Sourdough Doughnuts

Yields: 15 doughnuts

The dough for these sourdough doughnuts was mixed in the afternoon, left to rise for 3-4 hours at room temperature to increase the volume, put in the fridge overnight, shaped in the morning, left to rise and fried in the afternoon of that day.

Ingredients for these Sourdough Doughnuts

Note: Baker’s percentages are put in brackets if you would like to scale up or down the formula.

Starter

90 g white wheat flour (bread flour)
20 g powdered brown sugar
25 g active sourdough starter
40 g water

Dough

500 g white wheat flour (bread flour) (100%)
all of the above starter (appr. 175g)
3 eggs (appr. 165 g)
60 g brown sugar (12%)
10 g rum (appr. 1 tbsp) (2%)
10 g salt (2%)
110 g milk or water (22%) – I used milk**
pinch of vanilla
lemon zest of one lemon
120 g softened butter (24%)

**Please feel free to add more liquid (20-50 g) more, if you feel the dough is too stiff and your flour can absorb more liquid. The dough should be soft, not runny but also not too stiff.

oil for frying
sugar for coating

Filling

strawberry crème légère – I used this recipe
or apple pie cream (for this, I first cut apples into small pieces and sauteed them on the butter until soft. I then added cinnamon, vanilla powder, brown sugar and little bit of lemon juice. Next, I blended everything in a blender and let the batter cool down completely in the fridge. When cooled I mixed it into the whipped cream and seasoned to taste with additional cinnamon and vanilla powder)

How to Bake Sourdough Doughnuts

Sourdough Starter

In the morning, prepare your sourdough starter. The sourdough starter will be stiff, more like a dough. Leave it to ferment until risen, puffed, and active. This may take from 4-12 hours, depending on the temperature and strength of your starter.

Dough

In the evening/late afternoon mix the dough. First, dissolve your entire sourdough starter in 110 g of milk. Add all other ingredients, except for the butter. Mix everything together. If the dough feels dry, don’t be tempted to add too much of additional liquid – mixing in the butter in the following phase will soften the dough (experiment with the softness of the dough) – but do add the liquid if the dough is too stiff. Knead the dough for 5-6 minutes and then leave it to rest for 15-20 minutes.
Next, knead in half of the butter quantity. Once completely integrated, add and knead in the other half. Knead the donut dough for 8-10 minutes (it is advisable to use mixer) until smooth. Shape the dough into ball and place it into clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to ferment at the room temperature for 3-4 hours until the volume increases by half of the initial state, then put the bowl into the fridge overnight.
In the morning, take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 15 pieces, each weighing 70 g. Shape each piece into a ball and place it on slightly floured tray lined with parchment paper. Cover the tray with clingfilm – this will prevent the dough from drying out. Leave the balls to rise until passing the poking test (appr. doubled in volume) – make an indent – if the indent comes back quickly, leave them to ferment a little bit more. Final rise may take 4-7 hours, it’s temperature depending.

When the balls are risen enough, prepare the frying oil. Heat to 175-180°C/347-356°F. If the oil isn’t hot enough, the doughnuts will soak the oil and be greasy. If the oil is too hot, the doughnuts will cook very fast on the outside, but will be unbaked inside, so make sure it’s at the right temperature. It is advisable to sacrifice one doughnut to see how it bakes. Also, keep in mind that at the end of frying the oil becomes hotter.

Fry each doughnut for 2-3 minutes on one side (or until nicely brown) and 2 minutes on another side. When fried, transfer them onto a plate lined with a napkin, so they soak up the excessive fat.
Dust the doughnuts with powdered sugar (or roll them into sugar), then leave them to cool down before filling them.
To fill the doughnuts, make a short incision with the knife, then use a pastry bag to fill them with the filling of your choice.

Store sourdough donuts like you would regular doughnuts!

You’ll have to excuse me for not having a crumb photo and trust me that the crumb is super super soft and airy at the same time. The reason for not having a crumb photo is because I gave some doughnuts away to friend and other were eaten before having a chance to bring them in front of camera.

UPDATE: I made another batch of these delicious doughnuts (with white chocolate cream with grated dark chocolate and orange zest) and I managed to take a photo of the crumb before eating them 🙂

Enjoy this sourdough doughnut recipe! What is your favorite doughnut filling? Do you enjoy making homemade donuts?

Here are some more fluffy sourdough recipes

Don’t forget to share the experience if you try this sourdough donuts recipe – tag me with @yourdailysourdoughbread or let me know 😉

FAQs

What are sourdough donuts made of?

Sourdough donuts are made from a dough that contains a sourdough starter, which is a fermented mixture of flour and water that contains natural yeasts and bacteria. In addition to the starter, the dough typically contains flour, granulated and/or powdered sugar, eggs, butter or oil, milk or water, and salt.

Is sourdough donut the same as regular?

Sourdough donuts are not the same as regular donuts. The main difference between the two is that sourdough donuts are made with a sourdough starter, which is a fermented mixture of flour and water that contains natural yeasts and bacteria. This gives the dough a distinct tangy flavor and makes it more resilient and elastic. Regular donuts, on the other hand, are made with a standard dough that typically contains yeast, sugar, eggs, and butter or oil. Sourdough donuts can also have a different texture and consistency than regular donuts.

Sourdough Doughnuts with Strawberry and Apple Pie Cream

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