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Sour-Milk Doughnuts
1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon sour cream 2 eggs 1 cup sour milk 1/2 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg Flour Mix the sugar with the cream and add the beaten eggs and sour milk. Sift the soda, salt and spices with one cup of flour and add to the first mixture. Add additional flour to make a dough just stiff enough tc handle. Toss on a floured board, roll out, and cut. Fry in deep fat. Test temperature of fat as in sweet-milk doughnuts. Drain on unglazed paper. When cold, roll in powdered sugar.
A plain cake doughnut leavened by the reaction between soda and soured milk. The recipe leans on a companion entry for the frying temperature, so that is the first thing to settle.
- Fat temperatureThe original sends you to the sweet-milk doughnut entry for the test, which is not reproduced here. Use a thermometer instead: 365-375F. Below that the rings soak fat, above it they colour before the centre sets.
- Sour milkThis means milk deliberately soured or left to turn, and the acid is what matters. Buttermilk is the usual stand-in; a cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred in and left ten minutes also works.
- The tablespoon of sour creamIt is there for fat and tenderness rather than flavour. Modern full-fat sour cream at the same volume is fine; melted butter is an acceptable substitute.
- SodaHalf a teaspoon of soda to a cup of soured milk; the acid in the milk is what activates it. Some modern recipes add baking powder as well.
- Flour quantityUnspecified by design, but budget roughly 3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose total, including the first cup sifted with the leavening. Stop as soon as the dough can be handled; every extra spoonful makes the finished doughnut tougher.
- Rolling and restingRoll about 3/8 inch thick. A soft sour-milk dough is easier to cut if it chills for 20 to 30 minutes first, and the scraps should be patted rather than rerolled hard.
- Draining"Unglazed paper" meant butcher's or brown paper, which absorbs. A wire rack set over a sheet pan does the job better and keeps the undersides from steaming.
- SugaringRoll in powdered sugar only when fully cold, as instructed; on a warm doughnut the sugar dissolves into a damp film. Granulated sugar mixed with cinnamon must go on while warm, so choose one approach or the other.
- YieldAbout 18 to 20 doughnuts with holes, depending on cutter size. They are at their best the day they are fried.