Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Cake Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup full-fat sour cream
• 8 cups vegetable shortening or canola oil, for frying
• 2 cups powdered sugar, for the glaze
• 1/4 cup whole milk, for the glaze
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Before you cook

• Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together and set the bowl aside.
• Bring the butter, egg yolks and sour cream to room temperature.
• Cut two dozen four-inch squares of parchment paper.
• Set a wire rack over a sheet pan.

Steps

1. Beat the granulated sugar and butter together in a mixer until sandy, about one minute.
2. Add the egg yolks and beat for two minutes, until the mixture is pale and thick.
3. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the sour cream and mixing on low.
4. Stop as soon as a soft, sticky dough forms.
5. Scrape the dough onto plastic wrap, flatten it into a disk, and chill it for one hour.
6. Roll the cold dough on a well-floured counter to a thickness of a half inch.
7. Cut rings with a floured three-inch doughnut cutter and set each one on a parchment square.
8. Gather and re-roll the scraps once to cut the last doughnuts.
9. Heat the frying fat in a heavy Dutch oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Lower two or three doughnuts into the oil by inverting their parchment squares.
11. Fry for 90 seconds, until the doughnuts float and the bottom cracks open and browns.
12. Flip them and fry the second side for another 90 seconds.
13. Lift the doughnuts onto the wire rack and let the oil return to 325 degrees before the next batch.
14. Whisk the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla into a thin glaze.
15. Dip each doughnut face down into the glaze while it is still warm.
16. Set the doughnuts back on the rack until the glaze sets, about 15 minutes.