Fatty Friday Issue #18: Time to Make the Donuts (Part 2)

Do you know what it's like when your entire house smells of donuts? It's pretty great. This recipe is totally simple and makes a soft and chewy donut that even with a glaze is not overwhelmingly sweet. Yum!



First, be careful with the oil: donuts cook really fast once the oil is hot. It is very important to use some scraps to test the oil first. Once that oil is hot, you won't want to fry those puppies for more than 5-10 seconds a side. Also, watch out for splatter - I somehow burned my elbow with the hot oil. Nice one!

I also made a few adjustments to the original recipe, I:
1) let the yeast/milk mixture sit for about 20 minutes before adding it to the flour and mashed potato;
2) boiled and mashed the potato, instead of following the authors suggestion to microwave (I think it makes a difference); and
3) added vanilla, cinnamon and ginger to the dough.

Once the donuts are just warm - not hot - feel free to dip them in the glaze. I used about 1 cup of powdered sugar, 2 tbsp of milk, 1 tbsp of lemon and some vanilla. The lemon gives it just a hint of tang, which is a great quality in a glaze. For a thinner glaze simply add more milk. A chocolate glaze would also be amazing.

All in all, I really liked this recipe for donuts. What interested me originally was the potato. Potato bread can be so light and chewy. As I'd hoped, the finished product was light and chewy. I recruited a few guinea pigs - you know who you are - last night, and they were very happy, too. Now to try the recipe with a sweet potato!