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.
If you want to try a baked donut then head over to my Maple Donuts recipe to find out how!
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”
Ooh, those look good! I’m torn between making Korean cookies or going crazy and making them donut-style like these. 🙂
These look fantastic. my mother insists on calling them spudnut’s. Will be trying these on 8th may for mothers day.Can’t wait to see the look on her face.
hehehe spudnuts? That’s so funny. I hope you like these as much as I do!
wow those look great!
I made them yesterday and they were TO DIE FOR! So delicious. They came out great and were easier to make then I thought. Thanks for sharing this great recipe. I didn’t have the right cutter for the donuts, so I got one today for the next time which will be very very soon.
That is FANTASTIC! Thanks for letting us all know. And yes, I think they aren’t difficult at all, they just take several steps to make them (have to give the yeast time to work their magic). I actually cut mine with my metal measuring cups LOL. The handle made it a little awkward, but it got the job done. Sometimes I use my teacup too. I bet the cutters you got will make it super easy.
I will have to take this recipe to try. What a delicious treat. Can’t wait! Thanks.
Oh my heaven these look good! If I had any sweet potatoes I seriously think I would go make them right now. I love the smell of fresh doughnuts!
I have 10 pounds of sweet potato in my pantry because they are so cheap right now! 49 cents/lb. Woohoo! Let me know if you make these…they are so worth it.
These sound and look amazing – thanks for sharing!
I made em! well, my nephew helped me too 🙂 it was our project for the day, and man oh man, its so good!
YAY! That makes me happy Jaqie! They are a bit of work, but so worth it! Don’t you love the sweet potato flavor? I love that you twisted yours too. Such a great idea…I will try that next time.
Yummmm these look so amazing. I will be making them soon!!!
If they turn out as well as your version of the chocolate chunk muffins, they will be AMAZING. But seriously, the doughnuts are SO good. Pete and I ate them all in 2 days. Not kidding.
I was wondering for the vanilla bean part, can you replace it with extract?
Yes you can replace with extract in this case. I would add maybe a teaspoon or two.
Yum, these look amazing! And relatively guilt-free! 🙂
I also like that I don’t have to get out the deep fryer. Deep frying things can be a little bit of a pain.
Those are absolutely GORGEOUS! 😀
I love your blog! 😀
Thank you! Yes, they were so photogenic and fun to shoot =)
These are awesome! I’ve never had a sweet potato doughnut before, but now I totally want to! I just love these.
I stumbled across them in a magazine and thought they sounded so interesting. I love sweet potatoes!
Yum yum yum! Those look sooo delicious!
They are hands down the best doughnuts I’ve ever had…and the best part is they’re not fried!
Joanne, I believe that you have found the solution to the distict lack in good doughnuts around here. I am most definately going to be making these! I mouth statrted watering as soon as I saw the picture. You are awesome! Keep it up! :o)
Thanks Jen =) You should try making these…they are so good!
OMG…these are fantastic. I am so afraid to try this. I am a lousy baker. My mouth is drooling…can you send me some or a dozen or two ;}
They ARE fantastic! These disappeared in two days, not kidding. I know, it’s sort of a long recipe and I could see how that would be intimidating. But they are easy, I promise! I would be so proud if you made them! If you have an instant read thermometer, they are VERY easy because you don’t have to worry about accidentally killing the yeast, which is probably the part that would screw people up most for these.