Yeasted Potato Donuts
A cloud of fluffiness, that doesn’t take that much effort to make!
I’ve made donuts at every job I’ve worked as a pastry cook. Different recipes, all delicious, but I’ve never bothered to make them at home. I decided to try this one because we have a bunch of potatoes from our last grocery order that is starting to sprout. Unfortunately it only takes like 5 little fingerlings to make 1 recipe (1 dozen) of these fluffy little clouds, and I still have to use the rest of the box somehow.
Yeasted Potato Donuts
Prepare 6 oz potatoes:
Stab potatoes with a fork and microwave until tender. Allow to cool. Alternatively, bake, steam, or boil the potatoes to cook.
Peel, and press through a fine mesh strainer (I used a tami) to mash. Get 3 oz potato puree.
(This step can be done in advance, as long as potatoes are stored in the fridge, and brought back to room temp before using.)
Whisk together in a bowl for 1 minute:
355g (2 3/4 cups) AP flour
50g (1/4 cup) sugar
1.5 tsp instant yeast (or 2 tsp active dry)
1.5 tsp kosher salt (less if fine crystaled)
0.25 tsp baking soda
Add at the bottom of stand mixer bowl:
115g milk
60g melted butter
1 large egg
3oz potato (from step 1)
(Mixture should be slightly warm to touch, but not hot)
Add dries to the stand mixer, on top of the wet, and knead with dough hook for 15 minutes on a low speed, or until stretchy and silky smooth.
(Alternatively: Pulse dries (step 2) in food processor to mix, then add wets (step 3). Process for about 65 seconds until dough comes together.)
Transfer to a greased bowl, cover, and proof in fridge overnight (or in a warm place for 70ish minutes until fluffy, but not necessarily doubled in size).
Weigh the dough and divide into equal pieces. I did 12 @ 50g each. Round each piece into a ball. Keep everything covered while you work with each piece.
Shape the doughnuts by hand: Take a ball, flatten it into a disk. Poke your finger through the center to make a ring, and gently stretch around the outside into the shape of a doughnut.
I did a mix of hand stretching and gently rolling it with a rolling pin.
OR you could just roll the whole thing out, punch out rings and holes and scraps
OR you could do smaller pieces ~18-20g and just fry donut balls, I assume.
OR you could try shaping it into one of those mochi donut rings?
Cover with plastic and proof until donuts are soft and puffy, about doubled in volume.
Fry at 360F in about 2inches of oil, about 1 min on each side, then drain on a rack. Adjust oil temp if necessary.
She recommends refined coconut oil for flavor and fluffiness, but mine turned out well with vegetable oil, it was what I had.
Use a heavy bottomed, not overly large pot. I only used less than 3 cups of oil in a heavy 2qt stainless steel saucepan, but I had to fry 1 at a time.
To serve, dip in glaze/sprinkles/cinnamon sugar/whatever. I did a classic trio of Krispy Kreme glaze, chocolate glaze, and cinnamon sugar.
I put ABC sprinkles on them to spell out Happy Birthday for Noah’s friend’s belated birthday, and pawned the rest off on a couple of neighbors too.
Bravetart is one of my to-go sources for references and jumping off points, especially when I need a one-off recipe to please a guest or for some special request at work. She is so reliable, she doesn’t have a single dud recipe. The one downside for a casual home setting is that her recipes don’t really consider practicality. Like the refined coconut oil. I wasn’t about to go buy any just to make this recipe. There’s also recipes that call for barley malt powder, sorghum, different wheats, that unless you bake a lot, you don’t always have a use for except the 1 Tbsp you need for that recipe. I like using her recipes at work though - we have everything!