Buttermilk Donuts
Soft thick donuts made with brown butter and buttermilk; topped with a buttermilk vanilla bean glaze.
Servings 16 small donuts
Ingredients
- 240g or 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 packet instant yeast 7g (can sub with active dry yeast)
- 113g or 1/2 cup butter unsalted
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 50g or 1/4 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar light or dark
- 500g or 4 cups bread flour, spooned and leveled 500g
- canola or vegetable oil for frying
Glaze
- 1 TB brown butter optional, if you have leftover
- 260g or 2 cups organic powdered sugar
- pinch fine sea salt
- 2-3 TB buttermilk or whole milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Brown the butter: In a small frying pan, cook on medium heat until the butter foams, sputters and separates. Once it goes quiet and you can smell nuttiness and see specks of brown at the bottom of the pan, pour it into a heatproof bowl.
- Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, place buttermilk and yeast and whisk together. Add the sugar on top and whisk. To the bowl add the eggs, melted or browned butter, vanilla and salt. Stir to combine. Add the flour and knead until dough comes together in a ball. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set it in the fridge overnight or on the counter for about 2 hours.
- After the first rise: Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Turn the dough onto a well floured surface. Cover the dough in a thin layer of flour. Roll it out to ½ an inch thickness. Use donut cutter (or a biscuit cutter and a piping tip) to punch out donut shapes. Place the donuts on the parchment and set aside in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes (longer if the dough was cold).
- Fry the donuts: after about an hour the dough should be room temperature and slightly puffy. Heat a dutch oven deep pot filled with oil (the oil it should reach ⅔ of the pan’s height) to 360 F. Line a cookie sheets with paper towels. Carefully place donuts into the oil and, 3-5 at a time fry them. Using a metal spatula, turn them over a few times until you have a medium brown on both sides (a minute or two per side). Once done, place the donuts on paper towels to remove excess oil.
- To make the buttermilk topping: whisk ingredients together in a small bowl, when donuts are cool, dunk them face down into the glaze.