Baked Sourdough Donuts Recipe with Chocolate Glaze

These baked sourdough donuts are cake-style donuts with a fluffy vanilla base and a smooth chocolate glaze.

Before getting into the recipe, it's important to establish there are two distinct types of donuts - A yeasted donut and a cake donut (or cake doughnuts depending on how you spell it.)

This recipe is for the latter and makes light and fluffy cake-style donuts. They can be coated in cinnamon sugar, or dipped in chocolate icing.

Jump to:

• Do baked donuts taste the same as fried ones?
• Discard starter in donuts
• Equipment
• Ingredients for baked sourdough donuts
• Step by step instructions
• Storing
• Related recipes
• Full Recipe

Do baked donuts taste the same as fried ones?

No. The shape is about all that these baked cake donuts and fried donuts have in common. If you're after fried doughnuts try this sourdough doughnut recipe, or these buttermilk donuts instead (which use commercial yeast).

Fried doughnuts are made with yeast and left to rise before being shaped with a donut cutter and then fried in hot oil. These homemade donuts are cake donuts made from batter, not donut dough. They are super easy to make and a lot faster.

Discard starter in donuts

The donut batter includes a sourdough starter discard, though you could also use an active sourdough starter if you want. Learn to make your own sourdough starter with this sourdough starter recipe.

The starter is there for two reasons.

Firstly, the acid in the starter can help make a lighter and more tender donut with a great texture. 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. Extra sourdough discard can be stored in a jar in the fridge until you need it. This is a perfect way to use it. 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 donuts if left to ferment. Letting it ferment is the best way to impart extra flavor. Bubbly discard starter can give a slight hint of a yeast flavor 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.

Equipment

For these sourdough discard donuts, you'll need a full-size 6 cavity donut tin. The tins give the baked donuts their shape so that the donut holes are already cut out.

Use a muffin tin if you have no donut tin. This will make around 8 small muffins.

Ingredients for baked sourdough donuts

Find the ingredient amounts in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
The donuts are made from pantry staples so they're easy to whip up! You'll need -

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder and baking soda - The leavening agent in the donuts
• Salt
• Egg
• Granulated sugar
• Vanilla extract or paste
• Whole milk
• Discard sourdough starter.
• Butter (or coconut oil)
• Powdered sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and milk for the glaze

Step by step instructions

Making the batter

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

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

Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until it's combined, but don't overmix. If using a stand mixer, use it low or medium speed.

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

Fermenting the batter

Cover the bowl with a lid, plastic wrap or, beeswax wrap and 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 sourdough donuts with a good rise.

Baking the donuts

Grease a donut pan. 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 donuts until puffed and just lightly golden brown 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 donuts to make removal easier.

Let them cool upside down (with the domed side facing up) on a wire rack and make the glaze.

The glaze

Mix together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and enough milk to make a pourable glaze. Dip the domed side into the glaze, then let them dry on a cooling rack.

Storing

The donuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

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

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The cup sizes given are for US cups. Note that these are smaller than metric cup sizes. For best results, use grams.