Buttermilk Doughnuts

homemade buttermilk donuts
Freshly made Buttermilk Donuts
After learning how to make butter, I had a by-product that could not be found in the grocery stores: the TRUE BUTTERMILK. This is the milk that is left over after churning heavy cream to make butter. In the grocery stores, what you will find is the cultured buttermilk, which is whole milk made with a starter culture. It's easy enough to make, but it tastes different from the real buttermilk. This true buttermilk can be used in a lot of recipes ranging from soups to cakes. It makes pancakes and cakes fluffy.

This recipe was one that was shared to me by my SIL after her husband showed me how to make butter. They gave the buttermilk to me and a pound of frozen butter they had made in the past. I immediately mixed the recipe as soon as I got home, then chilled it until I was ready to make the donuts. My whole family, including my picky husband, loves these. It has now become a regular snack/dessert item for us right after I make butter (which I do now about every week).



Ingredients:


3 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
3-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
oil for deep frying (I used leaf lard)
vanilla sugar for coating







Instructions:


In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in butter and vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk; beat into egg mixture. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Add to egg mixture and mix on low speed until just blended. Refrigerate mixture (it is very sticky!) for at least 30 minutes or up to several days. (The dough tastes yummy!)

In a deep pot, cast-iron pan , Dutch oven or electric fryer, heat oil to 350ºF.


On a heavily floured countertop, dust dough with flour, then roll or pat it out with floured hands to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut doughnuts in desired shapes (I like it better as disks because for one, once a side is cooked, it flips itself as long as the oil is deep enough for it to do a somersault. Another is that the typical ring doughnuts are so hard to handle,  Maybe if I try to knead some more flour into the sticky dough, it will be easier. However, it could be because I used real buttermilk instead of the commercially available cultured buttermilk that made it this hard to handle.). Fry on each side until golden brown (about 1 minute each side, depending on how big your donut is or how hot your oil is.  It is quite hard for my flat stovetop to maintain a temperature because it turns itself on and off to maintain heat, unlike gas stove where you can set the flame to maintain a certain temperature relatively constant).

An alternative is to scoop out small amounts (like about 1 tsp) of dough and drop them directly into the hot oil. Quick to brown and quick to cool, they puff up nicely into irregularly round bite-size shapes. Wonderful to nibble.

Do not overcrowd the pan, as the dough will expand as it cooks.

Cool slightly on wire racks set over a baking pan. Roll in vanilla sugar while still warm.

Enjoy with a glass of very cold (raw) milk!





Comments

  1. maám, thanks for all the recipes. im sure your donuts taste really good but did you know that oily stuff with cold drink may cause cancer, and sugar also is cancer feeder.. just read it in e-mail.

    hope you can also give us recipe how to make butter and buttermilk. thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi lea, thanks for leaving a comment. Oily stuff with cold drink causing cancer is probably most related to the trans-fat oils and sodas, not minimally processed oils from homegrown organically raised animals (no hormones nor antibiotics used) with cold unpasteurized unhomogenized raw milk with all the good probiotics in it and without hormones. Anyway, my blog is to present recipes, and I have been avoiding lecturing or imposing my own belief system when it comes to food, because food is highly controversial. The only thing I really would want to open my readers' eyes into is that most of the commercially available foods now are so unhealthy if raised in or near animal farms. And that most of the new strains of deadly bacteria are due to the unnatural feeds that these animals have been given (like corn to cows). I can go on and on about these things and why I think there are tons of chronic metabolic illnesses, but that is not the purpose of this blog. You will be able to learn more if you read such books as "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or "Nourishing Traditions" or watch such documentary movies as "King Corn", "Food Inc.","Fat Head", etc. I am most advocating eating foods that are least processed and raised in the most natural way (e.g., grass-fed beef,free-range chickens, raw milk, etc., without regard to oil/fat content. As to making butter/buttermilk, I am still trying to compile my videos and photos to come up with a comprehensive post about it. I will post as soon as I can. Thanks! :)

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  2. The donuts look wonderful.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Lorraine! They taste wonderful as well!

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  3. Hi po. I'm a fan of your blogpost. I've learned so many things thru this site. Im wondering if I can bake this doughnuts rather than fry them. Would you recommend me doing that? Thank you so much for your tips. What Im doing to have buttermilk is to put 2 tbsps of vinegar in a cup and fill in the rest of it with milk and I set it aside. It saves me space in the ref as well.. :)

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    Replies
    1. Kathy, 1 tbsp vinegar is enough for a cup of milk. However, I use real buttermilk, the kind left behind when I make my own butter using heavy cream. You can definitely bake donuts rather than fry. I just like the extra ooomph of the lard's flavor.

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    2. Thank you so much for replying. I did use 1 tbsp before, then there was this article i've read that uses 2 tbsps if vinegar. I just did that kasi im still new in baking. But since you told me 1 tbsp is enough, i would surely go by that formulation na. Thanks again. Im a big fan. My husband loved the pianono, i filled it with my special buttercream instead of the jam. :)

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  4. Lea - I understand some people are very particular with their diet and knows the difference of healthy and non-healthy foods. But Manang here is just sharing her recipes to us and it is our decision whether to make it or not, eat it or not. Anything in excess is bad for our health. Now if you will really eat anything with sugar on it everyday is really bad. That's just common sense. Manang is just trying to impart her knowledge in cooking and as you can see this Blog is being appreciated by everybody who are craving to eat the food that they've been wanting to but cannot find it in other websites but here and if there's anyone being negative on it is you. As if you don't encounter foods that can cause cancer in all groceries, fastfoods in the US. How sure are you that without sugar on it and not being oily is safe? Anything that can be bought in groceries are with preservatives, meaning foods that would last more than 3 days without spoiling. Just saying.

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    Replies
    1. HI Anonymous, thanks for jumping to my defense. I do tend to agree with you re preservative-laden foods in grocery stores...if they don't spoil quickly, I don't want them in my system...I don't want unnatural preservatives in my body. The only acceptable preservatives to me are vinegar, salt, and sugar.

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  5. Anything in moderation shouldn't be life-threatening so it's up to us to have discipline and common sense in what we stuff in our mouths. I hear you "Anonymous"! As a food blogger myself, someone made a comment about me baking and cooking everyday; that she'll get fat if she is to eat what I make. I was like "I didn't say you have to eat everything you see that I post- you have to cook it first anyhow or buy it". No one gets fat just looking at pictures. We are here just to impart whatever knowledge we have. With that said, just carry on Manang and continue to inspire us and feed us with wisdom and expert knowledge in everything you make. By the way, those donuts look fab but I want to make buttermilk first. Hugs Manang from your loyal fan :-)

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    1. Faye, salamat for the sympathy :) I myself am limiting my baking times now. I started to feel GIT-related symptoms that turned out to be attributed to wheat.

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  6. No problem Manang. Care to enlighten me (and your readers) about these symptoms? I hardly use wheat in baking- in fact I only used it once in making my no-knead dough out of curiosity.

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    1. HI Faye,
      When I said wheat, I am talking not only of whole wheat, but also wheat used to make the popular flours (all purpose, bread, and cake flour), wheat contained in crackers, breadings (like in chicken nuggets or fish sticks), pie crusts, thickeners for gravy/sauces, etc. GIT-related symptoms for me were excessive bloatedness, gassiness, diarrhea, and acid reflux. I have eliminated them successfully by now. :) And lost weight in the process, while keeping my nutrients and energy at optimum levels.

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  7. Hello Manang!
    I learned something new again, thanks to you! I realized I should pay more attention to the ingredients I'm using when I'm making something although I must say I'm blessed for not having any allergies and neither do I experience those GIT-related symptoms.

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    Replies
    1. Faye, I grew up eating breads frequently on a daily basis due to my father's bakery. I only started experiencing those GIT-related symptoms at age 38, but it also coincided with being here in the US for more than a year. I don't know if it's got to do with the kind of seeds they use here for wheat (I am not even sure if Philippines import wheat/flours from the US), or the fact that the commercial breads here have HFCS, modified corn starch, soybean oil, and other highly-processed foods. But for now, I am trying to limit our foods to real foods, with ingredients I can easily identify and as close as possible to the natural state.

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