Just call me old fashioned

Plus, it's hip to be square

Hi! I’m starting out 2025 just like I did 2024 — with a donut recipe. Most years we spend the holidays with my family on the west coast, which means there are several extra people around to help consume baking experiments.

In other words, it’s the perfect time to fry up a batch of donuts.

I’ve never been much for fancy donut shops and bougie flavors. If I’m honest, the first kind to catch my eye will almost always be a good old fashioned sour cream glazed donut. One of the dangers perks of living in Canada is that you’re never too far from a Tim Hortons, where you can buy a single sour cream glazed Timbit (i.e. donut hole) for 33 cents CANADIAN. It’s the perfect road trip snack, and always the first flavor to disappear in any variety pack our family buys. (We won’t speak of the time when we ordered all sour cream glazed but got all honey dips instead. THE TRAVESTY!)

Fashioning an old fashioned

Old fashioned donuts (OFD) are a cake style donut, which means…you’re frying cake batter. This makes OFD a fairly quick project, as they get their lift from chemical leaveners (i.e. baking powder/baking soda) and not yeast. You can easily make these in an afternoon; or the dough will happily hang out in the fridge for a day if you want to break up the work.

The ingredients in an OFD are mostly standard pantry fare, with the exception of cake flour. OFD made with all-purpose flour will come out considerably denser and dryer (I tried); so it’s worth a trip to the store if you don’t normally stock cake flour. Working alongside a good dose of sour cream, cake flour’s low protein content contributes to a plush, tender crumb.

It’s hip to be square

Circles may be the norm for any kind of baked good that involves rolling out dough and cutting pieces (in addition to donuts, think scones, biscuits, even rolled cookies). HOWEVER, I am a proponent of squares and rectangles for two main reasons:

1. Minimal re-rolling and waste. Re-rolled and re-cut scraps are never quite as good as the first roll, so why not minimize scraps in the first place? With this method, you won’t have any. More squares and less dough wastage in 2025!

2. No special or specific size cutters needed. I made these donuts in my parents’ kitchen, where there wasn’t a cookie cutter in sight. No problem! I just rolled the dough to the specified size or thickness, then used a knife to cut squares (and the centers). For the cleanest look, try to keep your corners as square as possible, using a ruler or bench scraper to sharpen up the edges. Or don’t! A square(ish) donut might look a little more rough and ready than a circular one, but I’m ok with that. This isn’t fine patisserie, it’s a homemade donut. The imperfections are part of the charm.

The fry

Cake donuts are typically fried at a slightly lower temperature than yeast donuts — this helps form a crisp, fissured crust perfect for soaking up the OFD signature crackly glaze. Flipping the donut twice during frying also helps encourage cracking and even browning. As with all frying projects, I highly recommend using a digital clip-on instant-read thermometer to monitor the temperature.

The glaze

Classic crackly donut glaze is simply icing sugar + liquid. To make sure the glaze is nice and thin, dip the donuts while warm. Keeping the glaze over a double-boiler will help it stay fluid; alternatively, warm it slightly in the microwave if it starts to thicken.

One more note: when I first started thinking about an OFD recipe, I wanted to make an “Old Fashioned Old Fashioned” — i.e. an old fashioned donut with an “old fashioned” cocktail-inspired glaze. After test-driving the concept, I realized I was more into the punny name than the actual cocktail flavor (I don’t really drink), and would rather have a classic vanilla glaze. But if you’re into the cocktail, go ahead and replace the milk and vanilla in the glaze with whiskey along with several dashes of bitters and a few drops of amarena cherry syrup. A little orange zest post-glazing would be a perfect garnish!

Old fashioned old fashioned — I was going to add some orange zest but my kids ate all the oranges.

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Today’s recipe for old fashioned donuts is available below for paid subscribers. To access the recipe as well as all 60+ past recipes in the archive, consider upgrading to a paid subscription for $5/month. Thank you for supporting my work!

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Old Fashioned Sour Cream Glazed Donuts

Makes about 8 large donuts, plus some holes