Sourdough Donuts

Hi Abe, here is what I did to make the donuts; I cobbled this recipe together after looking at various bread donut recipes online. It's not all in bakers' percentages or any consistent measurement format, I was experimenting but it worked for me. 

1.  I used a stand mixer to mix all these ingredients to make a thick batter

      Wet ingredients

• 200 g levain (100 g surplus starter with added equal parts water and flour)
• 1 cup warm whole milk (body temperature)
• 1/4 tsp yeast
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

      Dry ingredients

• about 500 g organic all purpose flour (more or less, was adjusting the dough consistency on the go)
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 cup sugar

2. The dough was very sticky and slack coming out of the mixer; I did a long series of slap/folds on an unfloured counter top until the dough was firm and not sticky. It took at least        20 minutes to get the dough firmed up to a point where I was happy with the "window pane" test.  I placed the dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl, turned once to coat, covered the        bowl and set it aside to proof at room temperature for about 4 hours before putting it in the fridge overnight.  

3. The next morning I turned the dough out on a lightly floured counter and gently rolled it out to about 1/2 inch thick; I used a round biscuit cutter to cut donuts, re-rolled the scrap        pieces and cut more donuts.  I placed each donut on individual square pieces of parchment paper laid out on a baking tray; the parchment paper made it much easier to transfer      each donut into the hot oil, each piece of paper released and was removed as soon as the donut was in the oil (not my idea, saw it on a video clip somewhere).  I covered the          donuts and proofed them at room temperature for about 2 hours

4.  I used my Le Creuset to deep fry with grapeseed oil at 350 F; each donut took a little less than 2 minutes per side.  They were drained on a wire rack and some were then rolled       in a cinnamon/sugar mixture, some were dipped in a cardamom honey glaze

Thanks Pal, had some surplus starter, didn't want to waste it...sourdough donuts were the first thing that came to mind!

Sorry, I don't have any experience baking donuts, only deep frying.  I would think the sourdough donut dough could be baked?

Thanks Danni, they're a nice treat but could easily get out of hand!

Thanks Kat, it's best to only bake this sort of thing when there are others around to eat them!

Yes, chocolate dipped...that works for me too!  Thanks for your kind comments Ian, I posted the recipe in a reply to Abe's post above