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I am guilty of following the National Day Calendar craze and look up all sorts of random national, mostly food, holidays. I do it mostly as an activator to get my mind thinking about recipes and things to make, since most of the holidays aren’t really all the legitimate. National Doughnut Day, however, is and writing this post led me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole as I tried to figure out if making it the first Friday after memorial day was planned or not (Result: can’t actually tell, but Memorial Day existed before National Doughnut Day, which has been celebrated over 70 years…but I won’t bore you).

Since moving to Colorado I have started to make sourdough bread. Our starter sits on top of the fridge. I have not yet named it but I do feel sad every time I dump some of it down the drain because there is too much. As a result I have started researching recipes that use sourdough starter for baked goods other than bread. National Doughnut Day seemed like the perfect excuse to try another! (Also bonus: Sourdough breaks down gluten and other stuff and makes baked goods easier to digest, win!)

I wanted to make a recipe that was not super time consuming but still took advantage of the fermentation. I also wanted to do a baked recipe (since I have the pans and all…and my rule is if you have it, you better use it) rather than fried. These doughnuts can be started in the morning and baked at night for dessert or left to rest overnight and eaten for breakfast the next day. You can also start them the night before and bake them in the morning. I experimented with both and they worked equally well.

I also experimented with different leavening agents at the end of the process. I baked the doughnuts with no leavener, baking powder, and baking powder + baking soda.

Before this experiment I did not really know the difference between baking powder and baking soda. I was guilty of following recipes but not really understanding, but now thanks to The Kitchn I feel so much more enlightened. Go read the article if you have the time. I can only guess, based on my results, that the yeast created an acidic environment because the baking soda was super effective at first but lost its effectiveness after it sat for 30 minutes. When the baking powder alone sat for 30 minutes the same result did not happen.

Why 30 minutes? I have one doughnut pan that makes 6 doughnuts but I managed to make a recipe amount ideal for 10 doughnuts (sorry…odd number I know…). This meant that I had to wait for the doughnuts to bake, then cool, then clean the pan, then oil again before I could put in the next batch. In the time that I waited, the baking soda seemed to die…so lessoned learned! If you are making this recipe with baking soda, use the batter immediately. I probably would not make these with baking soda because I like a denser doughnut, but I wanted to show that result to you so you can make your own decision. Numbers go top to bottom:

1. Baking Powder or (Baking Powder + Baking Soda sat for 30 minutes before cooking): more like a cake doughnut. These were a little denser. I would suggest these in general if you are looking for that cake doughnut!

2. Baking powder + baking soda: very cake like and less doughnut like. I lost two of the doughnuts in the process of taking them out of the pan because they were so cake like. Should you choose to use these leaveners and want something more doughnut like, let them sit for a few hours and they will get a little more dense.

3. Natural Yeast/No Leavener: The densest of them all. They still had some air bubbles though and reminded me a lot of brownies. As far as flavor they were probably our favorite.

   Chocolate Sourdough Doughnuts

Inspired by The Pastry Affair and King Arthur Flour
Makes 10 regular sized doughnuts

½ cup (150 g) “fed” sourdough starter*
½ (120 g) milk
1 cup (130g) all-purpose flour
¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (30 g) unsweetened baking cocoa
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (78 g) coconut oil
½ teaspoon (2 g) salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder (dissolved in 1 tablespoon water)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional: ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda (See Notes Above)

1. Combine starter, milk, and flour in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl. Allow to autolyse 30 minutes to one hour (picture below).¹If you want to save time, you do not have to do the autolyse period. I like to do this when I bake with my sourdough starter but you can always combine steps 1 and 2 together into one step and immediately let rest overnight.
2. Add sugar, baking cocoa, coconut oil, and salt. Mix until dough comes together. It will be very wet (picture below).
3. Cover with plastic wrap (I use a plastic bag I tuck under the bowl) and a towel and leave the batter out at room temperature 4-12 hours. I left it overnight. Don’t freak out if it doesn’t rise much or at all!
4. Preheat oven to 375° Grease doughnut pan.
5. Combine espresso (and water), egg, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Beat until egg is well mixed. Add to proofed mixture with baking powder/baking soda if using. Mix until incorporated.
6. Using a cup, spoon or spatula transfer mixture into pastry (or kitchen bag then snipe off corner). Fill in prepared pan depressions until 2/3^rd
7. Bake 15-17 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let sit in molds 5-10 minutes then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

   
Vanilla and Raspberry Glaze**
1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ to 2 tablespoons milk

6 large raspberries
½ cup (60g) powdered sugar

1. Once doughnuts are cooled, in a small bowl stir together 1 cup powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. If the glaze is too think, add more milk until desired consistency.
2. Place doughnuts on cooling rack and spoon vanilla glaze over the doughnuts. Smooth with a knife and allow excess to drip off. Allow glaze to set for 15 minutes.
3. In another small bowl smash raspberries until liquid. Add ½ cup powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Add milk or powdered sugar to reach desired consistency.
4. Spoon raspberry glaze over doughnuts, smooth with a knife and allow excess to drip off. Allow glaze to again set for 15 minutes.

 Notes:
* If you don’t have a sourdough starter, no problem! The Kitchn has a great introduction. I also love The Clever Carrots’ explanation

**Top the doughnuts anyway that you wish! You can see in the pictures I experimented with a lot of glaze versions. The vanilla and raspberry layered glaze was my favorite with the chocolate flavors.
A note on timing – it does take about 2 hours from start of baking to complete glazing. So don’t start them in the morning and think they will be done quickly. Now if you don’t do the glaze and just stuff them in your face (guilty!) you only need 30 minutes.

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