We are so excited to bring you guys this Sweet Potato Spudnuts Donuts / Potato Donuts recipe! For those of you who don’t know what Spudnuts donuts are, please read below to get educated because you’re missing out!
How to make Spudnut Donuts
- Preheat the oil to 350°F
- Combine cinnamon and sugar. Set Aside.
- Combine hot and cold milk together to create luke warm milk.
- Make the dough: Activate yeast. To activate the yeast combine yeast and water together in a small bowl. Cream together sugar and shortening. Add sweet potatoes. Continue to cream. Add eggs, milk, yeast water, and salt and continue to mix until well combined.
- Gradually add flour, 1 cup at a time and continue to mix until dough forms.
- Prep dough: Dump dough into a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but sticky dough forms, about 5 minutes. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch the dough down and dump onto a lightly floured surface once again. Roll dough into a ½ inch thick slab.
- Cut out donuts: Using a 3 inch circle cutter cut Spudnuts from the slab and poke a hole in the center of each with your fingers (handle gently to ensure you don’t deform your Spudnuts) place onto a baking sheet with lightly greased parchment.
- Let dough rise: Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm area until Spudnuts double in size.
- Fry donuts: Carefully remove Spudnuts from parchment and slide into the oil, 2 to 3 at a time. Fry each Spudnut for about 3 minutes on each side or until a light orange-golden color.
- Toss with sugar and cinnamon: Drain Spudnuts onto paper towels and while still warm, lightly brush each with melted butter on both sides, and toss in cinnamon-sugar mixture until fully coated. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to three days.
Here is some equipment we love for this recipe:
Variations:
We used mashed sweet potatoes in our recipe which we love, but traditionally you use regular mashed potatoes, but without the butter and milk. We prefer russet or yukon gold. Here are some popular variations:
- Using mashed sweet potato instead of regular mashed potatoes (Like our recipe!)
- Roll in superfine sugar instead of cinnamon sugar
- Glaze the doughnuts with a simple glaze instead of rolling them in sugar. Fine a variety of donut glazes here.
- Roll in powdered sugar instead of cinnamon sugar
- Top with a Maple Glaze, which we used for our Baked Pumpkin donuts, but would be delicious on these!
Spudnut Donuts FAQs
Spudnuts donuts are the lightest, fluffiest doughnuts made from mashed potatoes that you’ll ever experience! These are also sometimes called potato donuts. The mashed potatoes, or in our case the sweet potatoes take the place of some of the flour in a typical donut recipe. Spudnuts are must lighter than traditional donuts, and are prepared much in the same way.
These donuts are best served right away when they are warm. Store in an airtight container on your counter for up to three days.
As you will see in the comments of this post, a lot of people have made this dough ahead! Let the dough rise as per the recipe, then pat it down and carefully wrap with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. When you are ready to use, just continue with the recipe instructions and roll out your dough!
Spudnut donuts, or potato donuts are not gluten free. Although they are made with mashed potatoes, or in our case sweet potatoes, there is still flour in the recipe.
If you love these donuts – here are a couple other donut recipes you might also enjoy:
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Sweet Potato Spudnuts
EQUIPMENT
- 3 inch circle cutter or donut cutter
- oil thermometer
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup milk, cold
- ½ cup milk, scalded
- 2 package active-dry yeast
- ¼ cup luke warm water
- ½ cup superfine sugar granulated is okay, but the superfine is preferred
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes, cooled completely
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
coating
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
to fry
- peanut oil for frying vegetable oil is okay
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oil to 350°F.
- In a mixing bowl combine sugar and cinnamon until completely combined. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine both milks together and stir to create a luke warm milk. (doing this will prevent you from having to wait for your scalded milk to cool)
- In a small bowl, combine the yeast and water and allow to sit for 5 minutes. (to activate the yeast).
- Place sugar and shortening into a mixing bowl (or in a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment) and cream together. Add sweet potatoes and continue to cream until fully incorporated.
- Add eggs, milk, yeast water, and salt and continue to mix until well combined. Gradually add flour, 1 cup at a time and continue to mix until dough forms.
- Dump dough into a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but sticky dough forms, about 5 minutes. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Punch the dough down and dump onto a lightly floured surface once again. Roll dough into a ½ inch thick slab.
- Using a 3 inch circle cutter cut spudnuts from the slab and poke a hole in the center of each with your fingers (handle gently to ensure you don’t deform your spudnuts) place onto a baking sheet with lightly greased parchment.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm area until spudnuts double in size.
- Carefully remove spudnuts from parchment and slide into the oil, 2 to 3 at a time. Fry each spudnut for about 3 minutes on each side or until a light orange-golden color.
- Drain spudnuts onto paper towels and while still warm, lightly brush each with melted butter on both sides, and toss in cinnamon-sugar mixture until fully coated. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to three days.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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Hi Jenny, I have tried maybe twenty recipes in my search for the Amish crack donuts. The lady one from Almond and Orange website. This morning,I tried your recipe with modifications: instead of milk, I used 1 C of plain Kefir (I make my own from raw milk and kefir grains), this adds the tangy flavor, I think buttermilk works as well , just 1 package of active dry yeast (too much yeast causes the dough rise too fast, and you have to work very quickly), 1 tsp salt (because I wanted to use the salted caramel icing)
One bite of this donut, I don’t care how good the Amish crack donut is (never have had it) this is “extraordinary”, according to my husband and my neighbors
To save some guess work, I weigh the flour and sweet potato ingredients. 500 gr Ardent Mill organic alll purposes flour (a bit more than 4 cups) and 115 gr of riced (baked, peeled) sweet potatoes (or two cups mashed) the dough simply needs a light dusting if flour to roll out and cut. I actually programed my bread machine to knead 5 minutes and rise for 50 minutes. You can then put the dough in a ziploc bag overnight. Take out and leave at room temperature and continue with the process the next day.
Thank you for this awesome recipe. Now I can go to sleep ????
Your modifications sound awesome and i love that you swapped out the milk for (homemade) kefir! I’ve swapped buttermilk in the past and have really loved it! Thanks so much for the feedback!
Can we use sweet potatoes from the can? That way they are already cooked and ready to mashed. Which makes it so much easier.
Yep, that should be fine!
Woot! I my stomach is screaming! Want to eat this! So I try to make now!
Could I also use normal boiled potato instead of sweet potato?
Totally!
I just rummaged frantically through all of my old emails, just to find this one recipe link. Phew, found it! I was dreaming of sweet potato recipes yesterday. This post kind of makes me want to lick my screen. But I’m in an office. So I won’t. I will however give this recipe a go. Wondering whether I can substitute the all-purpose flour with something wheat-free…
I don’t have a deep fryer. Would it work to buy a $10 doughnut pan to bake them instead of frying them?
Could I use leftover russet mashed potatoes instead of sweet potato?
Absolutely!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I made the dough in advance with great results. I made the dough yesterday, let it rise once then wrapped it up tight and stuck it in the fridge for the night. This a.m. I patted the dough out, cut them out and let them rise for about 30-45 minutes and fried. They were delish. The sweet potato flavor wasn’t very strong but they are still the best donuts i have made. They were especially good with apple butter. And my short rise time this a.m. didn’t seem to affect them one bit. they cooked up nice and tall and fluffy. Thanks for a great recipe–a great MAKE AHEAD recipe!
Great, thanks for sharing! (fyi, the sweet potato flavor isn’t supposed to be predominant. The main purpose of the sweet potato is color and adding fluffiness to the doughnuts!)
I try to aviod shortening in general. Would it work to use butter in these yummy-looking doughnuts?
Unfortunately butter will not work for this.
I…. want to eat these right now. Doughnuts, they make me – how you say? – go nuts.
Do you think that butternut squash would work?? I have about a cup of each (sweet potatoes & squash) left from our feast.
I’ve never had spudnuts, but I like the look and sound of them!!
Those look absolutely delicious! I will definitely give them a taste tomorrow! ^_^ Thank you for another lovely recipe!
Heck yes! These sound awesome!
I love your lyrical snippets of writing.Cool picture!
I’ve never heard of them, but I’m totally in love!
Delish!!
Yum, these look great. Just might have to give them a try! :)
Wow, now this is a Thanksgiving leftover makover! What a creative use of ingredients!
I love that you went full on with double rise yeasted donuts AND sweet potatoes and cinn-sugar! They are gorgeous and I’d love to try one!