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”
I´ve made these a while ago and i loved them! Because it´s pumpkin season at the moment i am thinking about using pumpkin puree instead of a sweet potato, do you think it will work as well?
Hi Nadine, would you be using fresh pumpkin? If so I would say yes since it has a similar texture. I have found the canned pumpkin to have a very strange texture, but who knows, that might work too if you’re wanting to use it. Enjoy!
I used fresh pumpkin puree and changed the spice mix a bit, they are soo good! Thank you for the recipe, it´s really a nice one to “play” with 😀
By the way, I have done a let’s say over-night version, so the first rise of the dough over night in the fridge to save a bit time the next day.
Hi Nadine, awesome, thanks for sharing the results here!! Glad they went well. I have some fresh pumpkin puree in my fridge too so maybe I will try it as well!
Hi Joanne,
these look so wonderful and yummy. I want to try these for tomorrow. But making 2 dozen and finishing in a house of 2 is very difficult. Can you please let me know if I can halve the recipe or can I freeze the left overs or the dough? Please let me know as I really want to try these.
I understand, my house is a house of two also! Breads freeze very well, and these doughnuts definitely fall in that category. You can either freeze the dough, or you freeze the doughnuts already baked. The first one would yield freshly baked doughnuts upon thawing, but the second one is easier.
hi, this looked so yummy and so i made them, but they turned out flat and dense. they were still really really yummy, but they werent the consistency of a doughnut. i used all purpose flour, so maybe that could be it?
All purpose flour has less protein than bread flour, so the bread flour is important. The protein is what is developed into gluten, and the gluten is like a web that holds in all the gas bubbles produced by the yeast, and gives the doughnuts the rise and fluffiness that they need. Hope that helps.
What a delicious doughnuts. I have to try bake these today, but with pumpkin which needs to be take care
These look amazing! Would it be possible to sub regular flour for bread flour? Thanks!
Hi Sarah, I’ve never tried it so I’m not 100% sure, however it might not be as good. Bread flour has more protein in it, which means it can develop more gluten (which is really important for bread because gluten is basically the web that holds the gas bubbles in that the yeast produce, which give the bread its rise and fluffiness). They might be a bit more dense and hard to work with, but then again, I’ve definitely made things where I pulled off AP flour in cases where I should have used bread. If you try it let me know =)
All I have to say is OMG! VERY DELISH! I made a few minor adjustments but OH SO GOOD!
YAY! So glad to hear it Pat. I am wondering what adjustments you made. I always like to hear the variations that people do. Sometimes I debate adding more spices to these! Maybe next time I’ll try.
Hi, these look awesome but is there any chance I can do without the rum?
Hi Sonia, Definitely! You can either just leave it out entirely or you can add 1 tsp vanilla extract if you’d like.
Hi Joanne, these look delicious! I am wondering if it is possible to make this dough a day beforehand, or the night before a breakfast. Would it be possible to refrigerate the dough after the first rise?
Hi Johanna, You can definitely do the dough ahead of time. If you let the dough sit overnight in the fridge, the dough will taste even better! It just takes longer if you let the dough rise in the refrigerator, but overnight would definitely be plenty of time. I hope you enjoy the doughnuts…I just love them.
I really want to make these but i dont have any yeast, im tempted to try the recipe without yest. But would that ruin the bread?
Hi Lexy, unfortunately it is not possible to make these without yeast. The yeast is what leavens and aerates the dough so it’s fluffy and soft. Without it, it will just be a hard brick of sweet potato flour. Definitely pick some up the next time you’re at the store =)
I made these yesterday and mine turned out to be more like bagels, shading toward hockey pucks. I am an experienced yeast bread baker and I was so disappointed: the dough was light and tasted and smelled wonderful: the doughnuts were heavy and not doughnut-like.
Sharyn, that makes me sad! How disappointing. I am honestly really surprised to hear they didn’t turn out well!!! I’ve made them many times and they are one of my most popular recipes that people have made, and I’ve always been told they are a hit. They are supposed to be pretty fluffy and soft and relatively light..not hockey puck like!!! Out of curiosity, do you weigh your flour or do you measure? Also, do you have an oven thermometer?
I measure: spoon in and level off. I don’t have an oven thermometer — our oven runs a little hot, but I compensate for that. I’ll try them again next time I have extra sweet potatoes, but I’m thinking there was too much sweet potato in the dough or too much flour in the cutting out, although I tend to be careful about that. They looked good before they went into the oven and they taste okay — it’s a texture thing.
Did you think that they rose at all during either of the room temp rises? They don’t rise all that much, but there is definitely some difference. If they did rise some, my best guess is there was too much flour maybe. Or you’re right, possibly too much sweet potato. Something made them heavy! You will see in my last photo on the post that the crumb is very light and fluffy. I’m sorry they didn’t turn out well this time and I hope if you do make them again they go better! Because they really are my favorite doughnuts ever!
The dough rose fine, both before and after I rolled them, but there was no “oven spring” at all: in the oven they just sat there instead of raising further.
That’s so strange. I was going to say, they don’t seem to rise all that much while they’re out in room temperature and I’m always concerned I’ve killed the yeast or something, but then when I pop them in the oven they just puff up like crazy. I’m stumped!
We used to have a deep-fryer years ago and my Mom made yeast-risen doughnuts. Heaven. I haven’t seen a baked doughnut recipe that I wanted to try until now. Thanks! — Sharyn
These look delicious! Do you think these would work just as well, without changing ratios, with regular white potatoes? I love sweet potatoes, but the husband doesn’t. Kill joy! I’ve made potato donuts before, but they were fried.
Hey Sarah, Hm…while I can’t be sure without trying, I don’t think the white potatoes would work well, just because the sweet potatoes are sort of soft and a little sticky, but white potatoes just sort of crumble and break down. Even if your husband doesn’t like sweet potatoes, I really think he will like these doughnuts! The sweet potato flavor is very delicate, and seriously, these doughnuts are SOOOO GOOD!!!
Great pictures, I can’t wait to try this one! I buzzed you!
Wow – now that is a donut!
XP from Tastestopping:
For some reason, I can’t see the comment I left previously, but I edited this picture for color and contrast and resubmitted it to Foodgawker for you. It was accepted!
WOOHOO! Congratulations!!!
http://foodgawker.com/post/2011/06/04/106254/
Hi Lauren, that’s strange….I don’t see any previous comment. It has disappeared into the black hole! Anyway, thanks so much for doing that! What kind of editing software do you use? The photo looks great!
I should have specified- that was in reference to the post on Tastestopping.
And you’re welcome! I use Gimp for Windows. It’s a free download here: http://www.gimp.org/windows/
i love gimp! except when it freezes..
Uh oh. What is gimp? Some crazy computer thing?
GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop. It’s awesome!
Oh my goodness….now these are my kind of donut!!!