These doughnuts were the byproduct of me feeding my sourdough starter, and it overflowing from being fed and me having roughly 16oz of starter that I had to use up. A decent portion of it went towards making these air-fried sourdough doughnuts. Yes, air-fried and sourdough-based. The idea here was that I did not want to set up a deep-fryer, and simultaneously to that, I wanted to test out making sourdough doughnut dough. A term that somehow used the word “dough” thrice. I have made old-fashioned cake doughnuts in the air-fryer before, so I had a decent basis to go off of. Hilariously, how I landed on these doughnuts is because a. I had all of that starter I needed to use up, and b. I had some strawberry puree that I could use towards a naturally pink doughnut glaze. And c. I had a bowlful of sprinkles I wanted to use for something, and that is how I wound up with pink sprinkled sourdough doughnuts.A pink sprinkled doughnut invokes a lot of memories. For me, it takes me back to watching Smosh back in high school, as well as watching The Simpsons growing up as a kid. I am totally channeling my inner Ian Hecox or Homer Simpson here with the pink sprinkled doughnut from your local doughnut store aesthetic, and making these to further celebrate Pinktober!

These doughnuts are completely vegan. I used the sourdough starter to replace eggs as a binder, and for the bacterias in that to replace a cultured dairy product, such as sour cream, that one might find in a typical cake doughnut dough. Air-fried cake doughnuts(not to be confused with baked doughnuts that are made with actual cake batter, are made with a dough similar to a scone or a biscuit. It is leavened with baking powder, but the dough itself is slightly sweetened. In this case, I relied on my sourdough starter to act as both a cultured dairy product(typical cake doughnuts use sour cream) and binder(in lieu of eggs). The dough itself actually came together rather quickly, compared to a traditional yeast-leavened dough. I double-glazed the doughnuts, mostly because I was afraid that the sourdough would come off a bit too savory, and this guaranteed that the sweetness of the glaze really permeated the freshly cooked doughnuts, and locked in a dessert-y feeling and taste. All in all, we managed to have doughnuts make, air-fried, and glazed within probably an hour, give or take, so these are a very quick recipe that is perfect to make when you want doughnuts and you want to use up some sourdough starter!

Makes 8 doughnuts:
For the dough:
6oz sourdough starter
2oz plant-based milk(I prefer coconut milk for a richer flavor!)
1.5oz canola oil
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

In a bowl, mix together all of your ingredients to form a dough. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut out 3-inch rings, and cut out 1/2-inch holes from the centers. Place the doughnuts into a lined air fryer and air fry at 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then flip the doughnuts, and air fry for another 5 minutes.

For the pink strawberry glaze and garnish:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup strawberry puree
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Rainbow sprinkles

In a bowl, mix together the confectioner’s sugar, strawberry puree, salt, and vanilla to form your glaze. Dip each doughnut into the glaze, then let the doughnuts sit for 5 minutes on an icing rack. Then re-dip the doughnuts into the glaze again, After the second glaze, garnish the tops of the doughnuts with the sprinkles and let the doughnuts sit for 15 minutes, just to let the glaze harden.