Liz Bakes for You: Orlandough Milk Bar Birthday Cake Inspired Old Fashioned Donuts
(this post contains affiliate links—which basically means I’ll link you through to the products I suggest and then if you buy them by following that link I will get a small little “thank you” commission from amazon. You can find all these at the bottom in the resources area. And, yes, Amazon is tracking how good my links do and will take back my ability to link to product and make money this way if within 180 days I’m not performing well enough. Yay!)
Old fashioned donuts are the perfect starting point for a beginner in the world of fried rings of dough.
Or at least they were the perfect entry-point for me—they acted as a pick-me-up between batches of disastrous raised (leavened with yeast) donuts. Unlike with raised donuts, I was able to make passable old fashioned donuts right off the bat. With each batch of old fashioneds my confidence was renewed just enough to attempt raised donuts for the nth time. For that reason (and the fact that they’re delicious) this donut holds a special place in my heart.
Below is one of the very first and very best donuts I made at home: peep that time stamp in March 2016. My at-home donut-making journey started in December 2015 but you won’t see many posts about the donuts that preceded these…
They're so special to me that I must start by properly defining this donut for you all. Many donut shops around the country have taken to sourcing a “just-add-water” mix to create their old fashioneds. The result? Donuts from across the country that are all effectively the same, fine and forgettable, thing. After visiting over 50 shops and counting, I can say with confidence ever some of the “fancy” donut shops are serving these just-add-water imitations.
So I ask—have you, my wonderful reader, even tried a freshly-fried, scratch-made old fashioned donut? Have you had the absolute pleasure of experiencing this dense, cakey, crunchy creation in its pinnacle form? Because this is the donut I’m talking about today: the real old fashioned donut.
I understand the above sentiment sounds suspiciously like gate keeping. Traditionally that’s not my vibe.
But we all have our gates. And we all keep them for various reasons.
Indeed, at the metaphorical entrance to “quality donut shop” in my mind, I lock the gate to any donut businesses attempting to enter that uses these short-cut mixes. I might even scoff at them from atop my extremely high horse.
Is this perhaps a manifestation of my own insecurities about how I ran my business? (It almost always is) Or could it also be that someone using a mix never went through the struggle of creating a quality recipe yet they profit in excess of someone who did struggle off the sale of a donut?
It comes down to fairness for me; while I’m a big girl now I love the pure idea of an even playing field. And part of me thinks the places that use mixes should have to disclose it so customers aren’t misled to think the donuts they’re about to eat are as good as it gets. I doubt this would ever work in the real world but in my dreamland everything is fair.
The point is this: we’re making a “real” old fashioned donut here today and I hope with everything in me that you will be able to experience how much better it is than the aforementioned water-mix donuts.
While we’re on the subject: PVDonuts (Providence, RI) and Dorite Donuts (Chicago, IL) are both bastions for quality old fashioned donuts (PVDonuts chocolate old fashioned is top five best donuts in the country). I had a really incredible raspberry glazed old fashioned from Blue Star Donuts many years too but they have I’ve had some really good old fashioneds from Blue Start Donuts too though I’m not sure of their operations since expanding to shipping across the country.
Dorite Donuts Glazed Old Fashioned
PVDonuts Filled Old Fashioned Donut
Here are a few notes about old fashioned that will help you sound more pretentious when you chat about them casually with people who didn’t ask for this:
Old Fashioned Donuts are a type of cake donut—they’re made with buttermilk or sour cream traditionally and the batter is more akin to a dough (thick enough to roll out)
Old Fashioned Donut dough is very adaptable—I’ve created vanilla, chocolate, pumpkin, lavender, strawberry, blueberry, carrot cake, ube, oatmeal, and lemon poppy seed old fashioned dough flavors. The recipe here is vanilla dough + the addition of sprinkles for b-day eFfEcT.
Old Fashioned donuts are the type of donut I’ve been able to make as a regular, gluten-free, vegan, and vegan-gluten free donut. Not so much with raised donuts…working on the GF one.
So after all that prefacing and preaching, I’m prepared to share my recipe with you.
Be sure to check out the video of me making these start to finish below! It’ll help you get your bearings before diving into the recipe below!
Milk Bar Inspired Filled Old Fashioned Donuts— from Orlandough By Liz Doerr
Yield: 10-12 Donuts
You’ll need:
To read through this entire recipe before you start. I promise it’ll help. Watching the video should be a big help too!
Stand Mixer with paddle attachment
Bowls for glazes/toppings
3.5 inch donut cutter
Spatula
Rolling Pin
Sealed container to hold dough overnight in the fridge
bench scraper (helpful but not 100% necessary)
Drying/Wire Racks (2 to 3)
Bread/serrated knife
Baking pans 13 x 9
Small pairing knife
parchment paper
Chopsticks for flipping donuts
4 inch deep pan to fry in (I use cast-iron)
Instant read thermometer
Spider to get donuts out of the oil (helpful but not 100% necessary)
Ingredients: I have preferences for most of these ingredients. They’re all linked at the end of the post
Donuts: Funfetti inspired Old Fashioneds
3 1/2 cups AP flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
4 tbls (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp imitation vanilla extract
1 egg
1 Recipe Thin Vanilla Glaze (below)
1 Recipe B-day Crumbles (below)
1 Recipe Cream Cheese Buttercream (below)
Oil safe for frying
The amount of oil you need will depend on the size of pan you’re using. I use pure corn oil . Canola is a good option too. But check your oil’s smoke point before you purchase. You want it to be about 425-450 F just to be safe
Method:
Mix the dry ingredients: in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment on low combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Mix the dough: Add to the bowl the buttermilk, vanilla extract, and egg. Turn the mixer on low and stream in the melted butter. If your wet ingredients are all at room temp you won’t need to worry about the melted butter seizing up. Usually I forget to take the egg out and stream in the melted butter to avoid it hitting the very cold ingredients and becoming a solid again.
Add in the Sprinkles: If you’re using them, add in the sprinkle and mix on low for about 10-15 seconds, just until dispersed.
Collect the dough and put it into a sealed container and into the fridge overnight. If you’d like to make these donuts the same day, place the dough in the fridge will you prep the glaze, crumbles, and buttercream, about 1 hour, and you can then roll it out. Letting the dough rest for a bit is helpful for two reasons: it makes the dough a bit easier to work with and it allows the baking agents to calm down a bit. I’ve had issue with dough sort of exploding in the frier if I immediately roll it out after mixing it.
Roll out your dough: Once the dough has chilled, get your table ready to roll out the donuts. Get your rolling pin, donut cutter, a spatula, and some flour for dusting. Using the spatula, turn the dough out onto a clean work surface—be sure not to put too much flour down yet as excess flour will get trapped in the dough and create large pockets potentially. Knead the dough into a cohesive ball with a relatively smooth surface. This dough can get a bit craggy and ideally you will smooth those sections out a bit as once they hit the frier they will take on a lot of oil (usually not ideal but this is to your taste). Cupping your hand around the dough, gently coax it into a ball by applying pressure at the base and pulling it towards you. Rotate it, repeating the cupping technique, and work to tuck the dough it under itself until it comes together into a ball. Once you believe it’s together, check the bottom and make sure the dough has sealed back together. If it hasn’t, just pinch it back together. The sprinkles will have disintegrated a bit at this point, that’s okay.
Cut out your donuts: Using the dough scraper if needed, pick up your dough and liberally flour the work surface. Place the dough back on the work surface, dust the top with some flour, and roll it out to between 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick (if you’re making mini donuts, roll it out to half that thickness). Be sure to keep it loose from the work surface as you’re rolling it out so not areas are stuck—put your hand under the dough and moving it around to check this. Using your donut cutter and starting close to the edge, begin punching out donuts, keeping each cut as close to the previous as you can without overlapping. You want each donut to have a clean cut all the way around so don’t get so close to the edge that it isn’t trimmed off—this will cause a misshapen area of the donut.
Roll out your dough again: Once you’re unable to punch out any more donuts, swipe any excess flour off the work surface and bring all the dough scraps back together into a ball using the hand-cupping method previously outlined. Once it is back together, roll it out to 1/2 ro 3/4 inch thick. Once the dough is rolled to the correct thickness, begin cutting out donuts as close to the edges and each other as you can. You will most likely have to repeat this process one to two more times to use all the dough.
Prepare your oil: turn on the vent fan above your stove top. Remember if you have any issue with the grease/fire: smother it, don’t try to put it out with water. Grab your frying pan (my favorite is linked below). You will need about 2 inches-deep of oil in whatever pan you choose. I prefer the cast iron pan I have listed above because it’s just deep enough to accommodate the amount of oil (4 inch deep pan). It’s therefore easier to get my chopsticks in to flip donuts than in a stock pot that’s deeper. Add 2 inches of oil to your pan and turn the burner on high. Set a timer for 5 minutes and check the temp once that goes off but also be mindful of how powerful your burner is—it could heat the oil faster than this. Mine usually takes 7-10 minutes. Once your oil reaches 325 F, turn the burner to just below medium heat to maintain the temp. It will continue to rise to 350-375 F as you grab your donuts but should drop immediately when you add donuts. Ideally, we fry old fashioned donuts between 325 and 335 though I’ve had success with slightly higher temps.
Prepare the pan for finished donuts: place a drying rack inside one of your baking pans. This will be where you put the donuts when they’re done so the oil drains off. You will also use it for decorating. Position this pan right near the pan your frying in.
Prepare to fry your donuts: Double-check your oil temp—make sure it’s at least 335 and not hotter than 375. If it’t too hot, turn off the burner and wait for it to cool to the temp zone. Grab your chopsticks and have your instant read thermometer handy. Grab your first pan of donuts and bring it as close to the oil as you can. Grab your pairing knife and score each donut with four cuts in a grid pattern going about halfway through the donut. This will control the direction in which the donuts expand in the fryer.
Fry your donuts: Once scored, add your donuts to the oil. They will sink down. Once they float to the top of the oil again, check that they’ve opened up at the scored areas. If they haven’t, use your chopsticks or pairing knife to coax them open at those points. Once this is done, flip them over and set a timer for 90 seconds. Using your dominant hand, get one chopstick under one side of the donut and flip the donut—push up from the underneath side and use the other chopstick to help if needed to steady the donut. If the chopsticks aren’t your cup of tea, try a silicon spatula to go under the donut and flip it like a burger patty. Again, be careful with the oil here, there can be some back splash and this can be where a taller sided pan comes in handy actually. Once they’ve cooked for 90 seconds on the first side, flip them again so the scored side it facing up again and cooking for 65-75 seconds (less time if it took you a bit in the beginning to get the scored areas open). Be sure not to overcrowd the pan—generally it will fit 3-4 donuts at a time, you want them to have room to move around a bit.
Remove your donuts from the oil: Using your spider or your chopsticks, lift your finished donuts out of the oil and place them on the drying rack. Repeat the frying process with the remaining donuts.
While your donuts cool off, make your topping and fillings (recipes below)
Glaze and top your donuts: Once your donuts are cool, dip the craggy side into the thin vanilla glaze. Keeping it in the glaze, jiggle it around a bit. Continuing the jiggling movement, gently begin to pull the donut out of the glaze until it’s free of it, then flip the donut over and place it back on the drying rack. When you pull it up out of the glaze, be sure the glaze is getting into the nooks and crannies. After it has been dipped in glaze, dip the glazed side into the slightly crunched-up birthday cake crumbles. Repeat with the rest of the donuts
Cut and Fill your donuts: once all the donuts have been glazed and topped, grab a bread knife to slice your donuts in half. The easiest way to maintain an even cut all the way through the donut it to score the outside of the donut all around until you meet back up where you starting scoring, then allow that scored line around the donut guide you through it as you cut. Be sure to keep the tops and bottom together as all the donuts are their own unique shape but ideally you have all the bottoms available to pipe the buttercream onto. Once all the donuts are cut, place your cream cheese buttercream in a piping bag—no need for a piping tip here but if you prefer using one I’d suggest a large circular tip. You can also use a Ziplock bag as a piping bag—fill it up and cut off the corner (sometimes if you squeeze to hard the Ziplock bag will break though so just keep that in mind). Squeeze a ring of cream cheese buttercream onto the bottom piece of each cut donut. Sprinkle more crumbs on the cream cheese you just piped. Place the tops of the donuts back on the bottom and get them a slight push to adhere them back together.
Eat all the donuts!!!! (not including that one your snuck right after it got done frying…)
Additional Recipes:
Thin Vanilla Glaze:
3 cups of powdered sugar
1/3 +1 tbls water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Using a whisk, mix these ingredients together. You’re making a thin glaze so it will be runny—but it should still maintain a ribbon texture when you pull the whisk up out of the mix, it should’t drip. If it drips, immediately, it is too thin. Add a tablespoon on powdered sugar at a time til it’s the not longer immediately drippy.
B-day Cake Crumbles: my variation of the Milk Bar Recipe from All About Cake
1 cup + 1 tbls granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup + 2 tbls neutral oil (I use corn oil, same as I use for frying)
2 tbls imitation vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to 300F. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper. Combine flour, sugars, baking powder, salt, and sprinkles. Stir to combine. Add oil and vanilla extract. Stir until a crumbly mixture forms. Disperse the mixture evenly on the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes. Pull it from the oven, stir it around to encourage a more even bake, and then bake for another 5-10 minutes (5 minutes if you have a convection over, 10 if you have a conventional oven). Some of the pieces may be too large for the donuts and you’ll need to crunch them up a bit. Be sure these are cool before you use them.
Cream Cheese Buttercream:
3 cups of powdered sugar
8 oz cream cheese (one package), room temp
8 oz butter (2 sticks), room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Pinch of citric acid if you have it
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine cream cheese and butter until homogenous. This is nearly impossible with both items cold from the fridge so be sure they’re room temp. Add in the sugar a cup at a time and mix until smooth. With the final cup of sugar add in the salt and citric acid and mix until smooth. Be sure the donut is completely cool before using this or it will melt.
More notes from one donut maker to the next:
I’ve been making donuts for many, many years at my house. I did my best to be sure to include as much detail about the process as possible to help you if you plan to try this out at home.
One major issue I’ve run into with frying is having the wrong oil temperature—too low and your donuts might expand out and get oil-logged. Too high and they can seize up immediately and not get the second burst of rising they need once they begin to cook and therefore be dense. The best temperature to fry at is being 325-350 F in for old-fashioned. This can be tricky to maintain at home on a stove-top but do your best. Temp your oil between batches of donuts to make sure you’re in the zone.
Mostly, I’d say be patient with yourself when it comes to all donuts. They will probably still taste really good even if you “mess them up.” It can take some time to get the timing of everything right.
Lastly, I will say don’t let my recipe hold you back as far as decorations goes. Use my Orlandough instagram account for inspiration or head to Pinterest. Mix flavor powders like nesquik milk powder or matcha into the vanilla glaze. Add toppings like crushed cookies, candy, a ring of buttercream, or nuts. Try your hand at rolling the donuts in cinnamon sugar.
A note on buttermilk:
Buttermilk is the byproduct of cream being made into butter. It is not the same as yogurt or sour cream which will have varying levels of water and fat when compared to buttermilk. However, I have had equal success with this recipe using sour cream, apple cider vinegar paired with WHOLE milk, or powdered buttermilk.
If you want to swap out the buttermilk (maybe you just don’t have it on hand and don’t want to go get it) for sour cream, just keep in mind the dough will be thicker. You can add up to 1/4 cup extra sour cream in this recipe to get a similar result as buttermilk. With ACV + whole milk it is 1:1 with buttermilk. Combine just until a cup of milk with a splash of ACV and stir. Allow to curdle. Add to the recipe. For powdered buttermilk, follow the instruction on the package and add to the recipe as instructed.
I haven’t tried any yogurts in this recipe. If you’d like to try it out, go for it! Start with a 1:1 swap with the buttermilk and see how it goes. Or try out Bon Appetit recipe for Yo-nuts which was specifically designed to work with Greek yogurt.
Resources: Links to my preferred items!
Ingredients
King Arthur All Purpose Flour (full disclosure this is DEFINITELY cheaper at Publix or Costco)
Rainbow Sprinkles This mix is affordable and tastes good. It’s my go-to for all my rainbow sprinkle needs. I also love the colors in it more than other mixes.
Pink Himalayan Salt (I know people prefer kosher but this is what I’m used to and what I’ve tested this recipe with. Keep in mind some salts are saltier than others—sounds weird, doesn’t it?)
McCormick Imitation Vanilla Extract
Resources
All About Cake This is by far one of the most fun and delicious baking cook books I’ve owned. Some of the recipes are extremely involved and, frankly, a bit annoying. But I’ve enjoyed a lot of items from this book. My tip: use all the crumble recipes to top EVERYTHING (they’re listed throughout the book). And definitely make the cake truffles whenever you get a chance. But avoid the cupcake batter recipes—they haven’t seemed to work out very well for me and there are so many other great cupcake recipes in the world. The buttercreams, fillings, and like are all winners though! (The chocolate chip passionfruit cake is one of the weirdest and most delicious combos in the book). Okay I’LL STOP. But seriously buy this book. It’s great.
Hit me up on Instagram with any questions I’m happy to help out with any questions you have about donuts and/or this recipe. Just shoot me a DM!
Kitchen Tools
Kitchen Scale (this one is well reviewed on Amazon. But similar to the one I use it requires AAA batteries and honestly I hate having to change them out, it’s a process... There are rechargeable ones as well if that’s your preference)
Thermometer (this is the one I use, but this one is also preferred by a lot of cooks)
Ateco Standard and Mini Donut Cutters (a set with both options in case you want to mix it up!)
Ateco Cutter Set (create a range of sizes with this one! Keep in mind the cutter in this set you should use from the center-hole of the donut is the second-from smallest one, not the smallest, for a regular sized donut—the smallest one will be too small for a regular sized donut)
Bench Scraper (this one has inch measurements on it which are great for donut letters (class coming soon!))
Bowl Scraper (set of two) (two seems like too many but these work so much better than spatulas for getting dough out of bowls and you might just get addicted to using them and need both…)
Lodge Cast Iron Pan with LID (love a lid, helps speed up the oil heating imo—not backed by any evidence just me thinking it—and also nice to have so once you’re done frying you can cover it up and curb the oil smell a bit)
Rising Pan Options: similar to what I use here (set of two) and exact ones I use here but not an affiliate link
Cooling Pans and Racks (set of two, perfect for this batch and other cooling and glazing needs!)