Mom's Buttermilk Donuts are a deep fried old-fashioned cake donut recipe that are also known as fry cakes. These delicious donuts have a dense cake like texture and are can be served plain, coated in sugar, or drizzled with a glaze.
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Why You'll Love It
Old-Fashioned Donuts: these homemade doughnuts are deep fried, just like mom or grandma would make.
Fresh donuts: a warm buttermilk donut is a special treat to serve the family on weekend mornings.
🍩 Ingredients
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Pure vanilla extract
Solid shortening (Crisco is the best)
🔪 Instructions
- In a blender, on medium speed, combine the sugar, eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift 2 cups of flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.
- Using a hand mixer, blend the wet and dry ingredients together until a sticky dough forms, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go.
- Gradually add the remaining 2 cups of flour to the dough until it becomes stiff and pliable.
- Cover dough and place in refrigerator to chill up to 30 minutes.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and pat down and out with floured hands or using a rolling pin, until round and approximately 1" thick.
- Cut out doughnuts with doughnut cutter and set aside on floured board.
- Once doughnuts are cut, let rest while you prepare the vegetable shortening for frying.
- Add shortening to a large frying pot and heat until the temperature of the oil reaches 375 degrees using deep-fry thermometer.
- Gently place doughnuts in hot oil. Once they go into the oil, they will sink, then float up to the top, with the hot oil bubbling around them.
- Cook for approximately 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.
- Remove fried doughnuts from hot oil and transfer to a paper towel lined cookie sheet.
- Let any excess oil drain from doughnut and cool at least 5 minutes before handling.
🥄 Equipment
Blender: this does the best job to whisk the wet ingredients together.
Mixing bowls
Electric mixer
Doughnut cutter: (biscuit cutters will work also, but you will need a smaller cutter to cut the donut holes out)
Paper towels: for absorbing excess grease from frying
Large pot or deep fryer: the pot should be deep like a dutch oven if you are not using a deep fryer
Deep fry thermometer: to gauge the oil temperature.
Slotted spoon: for removing donuts from the hot grease
🥫Storage
Room temperature: store buttermilk donuts in an airtight container up to 5 days.
Freeze: store in a freezer safe airtight container up to 3 months.
Reheat: if desired, reheat thawed doughnut in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.
📖 Variations
- Make a sweet glaze by mixing powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk in a medium bowl. Dip warm donuts in the glaze, then place on a cooling rack lined with parchment paper to catch any excess glaze.
- Use ground cinnamon in place of the nutmeg.
💭 Top Tips
- If you do not have a donut cutter, use a biscuit cutter or cookie cutter and then to make the donut hole, use the base of a large pastry tip.
- Make your own buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a 1 cup measure, then fill the cup with milk. Set aside and allow to rest for 10 minutes to allow the milk to curdle.
FAQ's
An old fashioned doughnut is a cake like ring of fried dough that has been leavened with baking powder. It has a tender interior with a crispy exterior.
No, a yeast donut is a doughnut made with active yeast. The interior will be more like a sweet yeast bread and exterior is smooth and golden brown.
Deep fried donuts will have a crispy exterior with a soft interior. A baked donut will have more of a cake like texture all around.
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🍽 Serve with...
Enjoy warm, either shaken up with a little powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, or dipped in some pure maple syrup.
The Last Word
My mom has always been an amazing maker of all things bread-like. Three things she would make regularly besides these buttermilk donuts were baking powder biscuits, homemade bread, and yeast doughnuts. I remember as a young girl, I would watch her make her doughnuts, and anxiously wait until they would come out of the hot grease.
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Baked Chocolate Mocha Doughnuts.
The Last Word
My mom has always been an amazing maker of all things bread-like. Three things she would make regularly in the home were biscuits, bread, and doughnuts. I remember as a young girl, I would watch her make her doughnuts, and anxiously wait until they would come out of the hot grease. We loved to eat them warm, either shaken up with a little powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, or dipped in some pure maple syrup.
If you have never eaten a freshly made fry cake, then you are certainly missing out. There is nothing else like it. I felt this method of making an old-fashioned doughnut should not disappear. Because of this, I decided to document my Mom's method of making homemade buttermilk doughnuts.
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If you love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating
📖 Recipe
Homemade Buttermilk Doughnuts
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 cups unbleached
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon
- 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- In a blender, combine the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift 2 cups of flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.
- Using a hand mixer, blend the wet and dry ingredients together until a sticky dough forms.
- Gradually add the remaining 2 cups of flour to the dough until it becomes stiff and pliable.
- Cover dough and place in refrigerator to chill up to 30 minutes.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and pat down and out with floured hands until round and approximately 1" thick.
- Cut out doughnuts with cutter and set aside on floured board.
- Once doughnuts are cut, let rest while you prepare the vegetable shortening for frying.
- Add shortening to a large frying pot and heat until 375 degrees.
- Gently place doughnuts in hot grease. Once they go into the grease, they will sink, then float up to the top, with the hot oil bubbling around them.
- Cook for approximately 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.
- Be sure oil does not get too cool or too hot. Temperature should be maintained at 375 degrees.
- Remove fried doughnuts from hot grease and transfer to a paper towel lined cookie sheet.
- Let any excess oil drain from doughnut and cool at least 5 minutes before handling.
Kerry says
Do you think these doughnuts could be glazed and still work well?
Shelby Law Ruttan says
Absolutely! You could make a glaze or when they are hot, shake them in a little cinnamon sugar or confectioner sugar. Enjoy!
Darlene in Nova Scotia says
Hello Shelby, made your doughnuts today and they are absolutely delicious. I added 1 tsp of nutmeg, next time I will add 2 tsp. Mine made 24 doughnuts plus the holes. I love that there are 2 eggs and the buttermilk of course, makes for a lovely soft texture. Such an easy recipe too. My hubby is nuts for these tasty morsels. Next time I will double the recipe, I know that won't be too far in the future. Thank you for sharing your recipe Shelby.
Shelby Law Ruttan says
Hi Darlene, thanks for your review. I'm so happy these turned out well for you. I made them at Christmas when I visited my brother and I am going to make them for my family at Easter this year. I agree with everything you said above and am so happy my mom's recipe is being made and enjoyed in other homes!
Ellen says
Mom's handwritten recipes are the best! It looks well loved with all the stains and creases on the card! The doughnuts look delicious!
Shelby says
Ellen, my mom and dad used to go to the Farmer's Market with garden and baked goods, and people looked for them and her doughnuts! Believe me, every time I go home, I'm happy if she has some in her freezer too. They are great thawed and warmed in the microwave a few seconds too!