Baked Sourdough Doughnuts with Cinnamon Sugar

These are fluffy cake-style baked sourdough doughnuts, generously dipped in a cinnamon sugar coating.

This recipe is for baked sourdough doughnuts, not fried sourdough doughnuts. The two are very different, but delicious in their own ways!

These sourdough discard doughnuts are super quick to mix together since there is no need for the dough to rise. There is the option to bake them right away or to leave the batter to ferment first.

Baked vs Fried Doughnuts

Baked cinnamon doughnuts and fried cinnamon doughnuts have their shape and their cinnamon coating in common, but that’s it.

A fried doughnut is usually made of yeasted bread dough, while baked doughnuts are made of cake batter. Fried doughnut dough can be cut into shapes, while for these baked doughnuts you’ll need a doughnut pan.

If you have no doughnut tin you can use a standard 12 muffin pan and use 8 of the muffin cavities.

Discard starter

These baked sourdough doughnuts use discard sourdough starter. The starter is there for two reasons.

Firstly, the acid in the starter helps to make a more tender doughnut. Secondly, the sourdough starter can be left to ferment the batter for a few hours or overnight first, which can help with digestibility.

Discard sourdough starter is any starter you no longer need. It could be a bubbly room temperature starter or an unfed starter from the fridge.

The type of discard starter used can play a part in the flavor of the doughnuts if left to ferment first. A bubbly discarded sourdough starter can give a slight yeast taste if the batter is left to ferment overnight.

An acidic and unfed starter from the fridge doesn’t have a very active yeast colony so won’t give this flavor.

Ingredients

Find the ingredient amounts in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. For these baked sourdough doughnuts you will need –

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Egg
• Granulated sugar
• Vanilla
• Nutmeg
• Milk
• Discard sourdough starter.
• Butter
• Cinnamon + granulated sugar for coating

Step-by-step instructions

The sourdough doughnut batter

In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg and set it aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, discard sourdough starter, sugar, egg, butter, and vanilla, and milk until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold until it’s combined, but don’t overmix.

You can now bake the doughnuts straight away, or ferment the batter first.

Fermenting doughnut batter

Ferment the batter in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight before baking. This gives the bacteria in the starter time to start breaking down the starches in the flour and can help with digestibility.

Leaving the batter in the fridge overnight still produces light and fluffy doughnuts with a good rise.

Baking the doughnuts

Grease a doughnut tin. Scoop the batter into the tin with a small spoon or fill a piping bag with a large nozzle and pipe the batter into the cavities.

Bake the doughnuts until puffed and just lightly golden around the edges. They don’t take long to bake. Let them cool in the tray for 5 minutes before removing so they don’t break. Use a silicone or rubber spatula to run along the edges of the doughnuts to make removal easier.

Coating

Brush the still warm doughnuts with melted butter all over, then dip them into a bowl of cinnamon sugar, generously coating all sides of the doughnut.

You can also dip them in the melted butter, but the doughnuts soak up a lot of butter that way.

Storing

The doughnuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, though they will become a bit sticky after day 1 as the cinnamon sugar melts into the doughnut.

They can be frozen too, without the coating, for up to three months. Once defrosted, they can be warmed slightly in the microwave and then coated.

If you prefer a different coating, try these chocolate glazed sourdough doughnuts.

More sourdough recipes

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