Super Soft Homemade Potato Doughnuts (Egg-Free)

Super Soft Homemade Potato Doughnuts - soft, fluffy and delicious using potatoes in the dough! You will love these!

I am so excited to share this recipe of Eggless Potato Doughnuts with all of you today!!

I know, it is a long lengthy recipe and process, but I assure you, well worth the effort to bite into these delicate, lightly crispy on the outside, soft, fluffy and moist on the inside doughnuts, glazed with your choice of sugar glaze, chocolate glaze or just a dusting of sugar, laced with cinnamon.

With some mashed potatoes in the dough, it somehow makes the doughnut super soft!!

The first time I tasted doughnuts a few years back (in the 1980s), I fell in love with this scrumptious deep fried bready fried dough, either glazed with a delicate, thin coating of sugar or my favorite, chocolate glaze.

Some of them had jelly or jam injected into them and with each bite of the doughnut; you could taste the gooey fruity jam (you needed a lot of tissues for that!!).

The first doughnuts I had were from a shop called “Winchell’s Donuts” in Denver, Colorado. I could have it for breakfast, evening snacks or just about any time!!

I remember, when I was expecting my first baby, the doctor had suspected I could be diabetic, so he suggested I get my sugar tested.  He asked me to eat a lot of sugary food before getting my blood tested and I am sure you must have guessed by now, doughnuts it was going to be!!

My husband and I had to make a trip to Winchell’s to get a dozen doughnuts which I tried to devour as many as I could!! Of course, luckily, I did not turn out to be diabetic, but I enjoyed hogging those sweet, crunchy on the outside, soft doughnuts to my heart’s content.

After my return to India (in 1990), to my dismay, no doughnut shop anywhere here, so decided to make my own at home.  Brought out my written handbook of recipes where I used to write down, yes write down recipes that came from newspapers, mangazines etc.

(Nowadays you will find dime a dozen donut recipes online but I am sticking to my original).

Ever since then, I have been making these soft, delicious homemade doughnuts, to the delight of my family, especially my two boys, and till this date, they still prefer my homemade doughnuts.

The best part is, it is eggless or egg-free and the addition of mashed potatoes gives it a soft heavenly texture!! Actually, to be honest, I do make doughnuts with egg too, but these egg-free variety turns out much softer than the ones with eggs.

If you feel like, do add eggs or sometimes I substitute buttermilk for eggs (1/4 cup buttermilk or 1/4 cup milk plus 2 teaspoons lemon juice for 1 egg)

I am sure, once you start making these at home, you will never step into a doughnut shop again!!

My kids still prefer only my homemade!

So let us get to the recipe!

Step-by-step method to make Super Soft Homemade Potato Doughnuts:

Heat the milk to lukewarm temperature (hot to touch but not too hot; if it is too hot, it will kill the yeast)

In a mixing bowl, add the yeast and 2 teaspoons of sugar to the milk, mix gently with a spoon and keep aside. If the yeast is active, it will start to foam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about 5 minutes, add the mashed potatoes, sugar, oil, salt, vanilla and a little bit of the flour and beat well to mix the potatoes well. Make sure the potatoes are well combined and there are no lumps or pieces of the potato.

Add the rest of the flour and mix (either in a stand mixer or by hand) to form a smooth and soft dough, adding water if necessary.

 

Knead the dough well for about 5 minutes till smooth and elastic and keep aside in a greased bowl, covered with a wet cloth or plastic, to rise in a warm place until double.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, divide into four pieces.  Take one piece of dough and gently roll to about ½ inch thickness.

Cut with a floured doughnut cutter ; I used the lid of a jar and for the center, I used the cap of the vanilla extract bottle.

Dust a large pan with all purpose flour or maida. Place the cut doughnuts onto this pan, to rise for another 30 to 45 minutes. Keep enough space between the doughnuts to allow the dough to rise and spread in size; if kept too close, they may touch after rising and will stick to each other.

Once they double in size again, they are ready for deep frying.

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan.  Once it turns hot, reduce the heat to  medium and deep fry the doughnuts in batches (about two to three) on medium flame till golden brown, turning them over often.

Place on paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Now they are ready to be glazed, coated in powdered sugar or coated with chocolate glaze.

To prepare the plain glaze:

In a bowl, mix the ingredients until smooth with a whisk or spoon. The consistency of the glaze must be thick enough to coat the doughnut, but not too thick or runny.

To prepare the chocolate glaze:

In a small bowl, sift and cocoa powder and icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar together, to remove all lumps.

In a small pan, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter.  Once it starts melting, add the cocoa powder-icing sugar mixture and gently stir.

Add the vanilla essence and on low heat, mix till all the sugar has melted and it forms a smooth, shiny glaze. If needed, add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk or water to get a pouring consistency for the glaze. Keep aside.

To prepare the powdered sugar coating:

In a Ziploc bag or any plastic bag, mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon powder.

To glaze or coat the doughnuts:

Once the doughnuts are fairly cool, dip them in the chocolate glaze on one side, lift with fork and place on cooling racks, with the glazed side up, for the excess glaze to drip down.

Similarly, coat the doughnuts in the sugar glaze by dipping them whole and fully coating with the glaze. Place on rack or plate to set.

For the powdered sugar coating, place each fried doughnut in the bag and shake well to coat the doughnut well with an even coating of the powdered mixture.

 

Serve warm.  They are best served the same day.

Note:

You can fry only as much of the doughnut dough as you want and store the rest in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. When you need to fry fresh doughnuts, bring the required amount of dough to room temperature, roll, cut, let rise and then deep fry and glaze.