Remember the Dunkin’ Donut’s commercials in the 80s when the baker would get up early to go in to the store to make donuts mumbling in his sleepy stupor “we’ve got to make the donuts.”

During the Christmas break, Miss Bee put on her bucket list “Make Homemade Donuts.”  I went to trusty Pinterest and found this recipe for Sour Cream Donuts from Tastes Better from Scratch, a delightful blog featuring wonderful recipes.  Sour cream donuts just happen to be my favorite, too.

The recipe is not hard, but does require about an hour of chilling before you can roll out, cut and fry your donuts so be sure to plan ahead.

Tip:  If you don’t own a Silpat baking mat which is the silicone mat you see above, get one.  They run about $25.  I use mine to roll out dough because it’s non-stick and keeps the clean up to a minimum.  Since they are oven safe to 500 degrees, you can also put it onto cookie sheets and use it as a surface to bake on instead of using parchment paper.  They make one with perfectly spaced circles for baking cookies (here).  

Once you have your donut shapes cut out you lower them into a pan of oil heated to 325 degrees (use a candy thermometer or deep fryer to ensure your temperature remains consistent.  Please use caution to make sure to set the pot way back from the edge of the counter away from tiny hands and do not let children do this unattended.  The end).

It only takes about two minutes for the donuts to turn golden brown.  As soon as they come out of the oil, place them on a paper towel lined plate. We dipped most of the donuts into the icing, but we reserved a few with just a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.  Let set on a cooling rack.

It goes without saying these are best eaten warm.  But, I did enjoy one the next day with coffee.  They are super rich which means these will likely be a special treat every once in a while.  The recipe made about 12 donuts and the same number of donut holes.  I knew we couldn’t eat all of them, so I packaged up a few boxes lined with waxed paper and delivered them to Joan (from Joan’s School of Yum), and a loyal blog follower and friend Jacqui.

I popped into World Market a few days ago and picked up this book to broaden my donut-making skills.

What’s your favorite donut?