Sour Cream Doughnut Holes with Sunshine Glaze

I really have no idea what to call these things. They’re doughnut holes made with cake flour and sour cream, pan-fried in olive oil, covered in my homemade “sunshine glaze”.

You won’t find any grass growing under my feet. When I awoke this morning- migraine free- I realized that I was going to be spending some quality time in the kitchen. (In between homework, shopping, and a million other things.)  I spend much of my time in the kitchen, as I love to cook, but Josh and I just whipped up a new must-have glaze to use on cakes, cookies, or whatever else you like. I call it “sunshine glaze”. I saw somebody on the Food Network Channel making glaze by using powdered sugar and milk only. That seemed a little boring to me, so I dressed it up a bit. Regarding the doughnut holes, Josh and I tweaked the recipe. It’s a basic recipe for doughnuts, but we substituted flour with cake flour- it’s 27 times finer than actual flour, and it’s so much more delicious than basic flour. If you’re going to substitute flour with cake flour- and I highly recommend it- be sure to add an extra 1/2 cup or so extra to any recipe that calls for flour. Also, we’re positive olive oil isn’t part of the original recipe. Once again, we’ve tweaked it and made it our own. You would think pan-fried doughnut holes using olive oil would be heavy, but they’re not at all. Also, olive oil is super healthy.

Here’s the recipe for my (citrus) sunshine glaze, if anyone ever wants to use it:

Sunshine Glaze
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of milk (or enough so that it’s nice and thick)
the zest of a tangerine (a liberal amount- it makes it pretty)
a healthy squeeze of tangerine juice
a healthy squeeze of lemon juice
a fat pat of melted real butter

(Mix ingredients together and place it in a shallow bowl)

Here’s the recipe for the doughnut holes:

Sour Cream Doughnut Holes
1/2 cup of butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 tsp. salt
olive oil (2 inches in the pan)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 pkg. of fast rising dry yeast
7 1/2 cups of cake flour
1 1/3 cups of milk
3 tsps. of vanilla
dash of cinnamon

Cream the butter and sugar together. Mix the cake flour and yeast together. Mix the liquid ingredients together-except for the olive oil (that’s for frying). Incorporate the liquid ingredients into the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Finally, slowly stir in the dry ingredients (cake flour & yeast) into the already mixed ingredients. Blend everything together. Cover it and allow it to rise for 30 minutes or so. Even if it doesn’t rise, you can still go forth with the doughnut holes. (Even after immediately mixing the ingredients if you like.)

Pour two inches or so of extra virgin olive oil into the bottom of a cast iron skillet (or whatever skillet you prefer). Form the dough into round doughnut holes the size of golf balls while the pan heats up. You need the oil to be piping hot. Cook them over medium heat. These doughnut holes cook quickly- flip them over once after signs of browning. After both sides are lightly browned, remove from the oil and allow them to de-grease on paper towels.

Place them immediately into the shallow bowl of sunshine glaze, rolling them around. It’s alright to leave them in the bowl for a few minutes to soak up the yumminess. Pour a generous amount of powdered sugar on the doughnut holes (covered in glaze) and stir them up. They’ll get a thicker coating on them, as seen in the photo above. Sprinkle them with a light shake of cinnamon. Voila. They’re done. 🙂

And believe me, they are absolutely delicious, and very easy to make.
Josh and I made these for desert tonight, after making homemade spaghetti (with fresh spinach and garlic in the sauce) accompanied by an artisan salad (with fresh parmesan, feta, and gorgonzola, of course).

The total time it takes to make these sunshine glazed doughnut holes are about 20 minutes (excluding the time it takes for the yeast to rise, which could be anywhere from 20 minutes to one hour, depending on personal preference).

Be forewarned, you will have to fight others off with a very big stick. (I recommend hiding some for later.)

xo