Cinnamon Sugar Tossed Sweet Potato Doughnuts
These yeast-leavened doughnuts have a cup of mashed sweet potato in the dough, for a delicious flavor, and accented with nutmeg, vanilla, rum, and a cinnamon sugar coating!
These are baked doughnuts, and after you try these, you will never miss their fried counterparts again. Besides their soft and tender texture, the sweet potato flavor is just incredible, and we get that pure flavor by mixing in 1 cup of mashed sweet potato directly into the dough. The awesomeness of sweet potatoes apparently knows no bounds.
Microwave a sweet potato, then scoop out the flesh:
Make a dough with main players like flour, yeast, and sweet potato.
Roll out the dough, and cut little circles:
Bake until puffed and lightly brown:
Toss the doughnuts in butter, then cinnamon sugar, right when they’re hot out of the oven.
Look at the little vanilla beans seeds and that awesome fluffy texture!
***I buy these Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans on Amazon, 7 beans for $6, and free shipping. Way cheaper than anything you will find at the grocery store.
Cinnamon Sugar Tossed Sweet Potato Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 12 oz sweet potato total so we can end up with 1 cup
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup milk I used skim
- 2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 vanilla bean seeds scraped***
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp dark rum
- 1 extra large egg
- 2 extra large egg yolks
- 15 oz bread flour, by weight (3 cups, measured)
For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork and microwave for 8 minutes, until tender. Cut the potato in half and scoop the flesh out. Mash with a fork (you should have about 1 cup of sweet potato).
- Either just melt the butter, or if you wish to take your sweet potato doughnut flavor to the next level, brown the butter in a small skillet. Let it cool.
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk to 105 degrees F on an instant read thermometer). It’s important not to go over 105, or you risk killing the yeast (this happened to me the first time I made these…oops).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk, let the yeast and warm milk sit for 5 minutes. Add the sugar, brown sugar, salt, vanilla seeds, nutmeg, and rum, and whisk to combine. Add the mashed sweet potato, butter, egg and egg yolks, and beat until well combined.
- Change to the dough hook, and add the flour. Beat at medium for 2 minutes, then bump the speed up to medium high and knead until a soft dough forms and the sweet potato dough pulls away from the sides and toward the center, about 5-7 minutes.
- Dump the dough out, form it into a ball, and let it rise on the countertop for 2 hours (don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t rise all that much…it won’t).
- Gently redistribute the yeast by kneading lightly, then roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. I rolled my dough out to about 3/4 inch thick for my doughnuts.
- Cut circles out, then stamp out the centers to make little holes. Place the doughnuts on two parchment paper lined sheet pans, and let them rise for 2 hours, covered with plastic wrap.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the doughnuts in the center of the oven for about 10 minutes, until the doughnuts have risen and are golden brown (they should be 200 degrees F on an instant read thermometer).
- While the doughnuts are baking, make the cinnamon sugar topping by melting the butter in one bowl, and whisking the sugar and cinnamon in another. While the doughnuts are hot out of the oven, toss them in the butter, then immediately toss in the cinnamon sugar.
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
70 Comments on “Cinnamon Sugar Tossed Sweet Potato Doughnuts”
I tried this once before and it’s a 101% recommended! But I would like to try to use other four instead..can I use gluten free flour or rice flour or any other types besides bread flour? Thanks!
Hi Norain, glad you enjoyed the doughnuts! Unfortunately I don’t have experience working with alternative flours, but hopefully you can find a good recipe on the internet somewhere. There are so many bloggers who work with the more unusual flours. Good luck!
i feel like my dough was a bit sticky. is this how it is supposed to feel or did I not beat long enough?
Hi Cindy, yes, this is a sticky dough. I have played a lot with the flour levels and I find that if you add flour to make the dough not sticky, the doughnuts are too dense and hard.