Orange Cardamom Glazed Sour Cream Donuts

I had never made donuts before I made these. I eat plenty of them, but that’s mostly because BoSa shares a parking lot with the grocery store and the girls dig their $1/12 donut holes.

HOWEVER. I wanted to try my hand at it. How hard can it be, right? I’ve made plenty of dough and fried plenty of things; I just needed to combine those two skills. And thus was born this batch of orange cardamom glazed sour cream donuts.

I realize that name–orange cardamom glazed sour cream donuts–makes them sound super fancy. Making them star-shaped probably doesn’t help that impression. They’re not. Fancy, I mean. Or difficult. They’re delicious, but I was delighted at how quickly they came together. Plus, I don’t have a circle cookie cutter. I have a baby bottle, like thirty five hearts, and a foot, but no circle. It’s probably time to Konmari my drawer of baking tools.

I keep seeing orange paired with cardamom in recipes on Pinterest. The flavor combo just sounds so good and I’ve been itching to try it. An old-fashioned sour cream donut seemed like just the right vehicle for that.

(Full disclosure: I also tried adding cardamom to my great-grandma’s orange roll recipe, but it didn’t do much for me. I’m pretty sure that recipe can’t be improved upon anyway. I should share it with you one of these days because it’s goooooood.)

I did bake a few, just to experiment with a slightly healthier option, but I cannot lie: baked was bad. Fried was gooooood. Sorry arteries.

Anyway, you should make them. I’ll stop talking now so you can get on that.

Orange Cardamom Glazed Sour Cream Donuts

Sour Cream Donuts

adapted from Tastes Better From Scratch

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sour cream
zest from one orange (reserve 1-2 tsps for glaze)
canola oil (for frying)

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, beat together butter and sugar until grainy but well combined. Beat in egg and yolk. Add half the dry ingredient mixture and mix well. Stir in sour cream, then add remaining dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Stir in orange zest until uniformly distributed. Scoop dough into a plastic bag or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

On a well-floured surface, roll out chilled dough to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into shapes (obviously rings are traditional, but I kinda dig my little stars, even if they did end up a smidge doughy in the middle).

Fill a skillet with 1-2 inches of oil and heat to between medium and medium-high. Whisk together glaze (see below) while oil heats. Fry donuts two or three at a time (leave space between them so they cook evenly) until golden brown on one side; gently flip and fry until done. (This happens faster than you might think…a couple minutes tops.) Set on paper towels to drain off excess oil, then place on a wire rack with parchment underneath. Drizzle with glaze (see below).

Orange Cardamom Glaze

Ingredients
2 cups powdered sugar
4 Tablespoons orange juice
1-2 teaspoons orange zest
2 teaspoons cardamom, or to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk ingredients together until smooth. Drizzle over warm donuts. Garnish with any extra orange zest if you want to be extra fancy. Serve immediately; these are best warm. Store leftovers in an air-tight container at room temp for up to 3 days.

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Orange cardamom glazed sour cream donuts. Happy happy happy. Who knew?

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