Adam’s apple did him in. Doughnuts did the same thing for Marketman, at least for today. :) These doughnuts totally and utterly screwed my by now 7-week incredibly disciplined (with only a few transgressions) diet. Before embarking on my weight loss program (I have hit 168-169 pounds, just one darned pound shy of my ultimate goal, before rising 2 pounds on trip eating), doughnuts were definitely my waterloo, my achilles heel… The kid used to just laugh when I was thinking about a going on a diet and the next thing out of my mouth was “you want an old-fashioned doughnut?, I’ll drive…” or “let’s get some books, then pass by Krispy Kreme for an old-fashioned doughnut…”
Yesterday, I was reading the latest issue of Food & Wine magazine featuring all kinds of healthy dishes, as well as tips from fat chefs who had successfully slimmed down, and I spied a recipe for a (relatively) healthy sounding sweet potato doughnut, which was baked, not fried. Suddenly, I had this uncontrollable urge to make the doughnuts as a treat for myself after having been so good for so long… ARRRGGGHHH!!! :)
So the basic recipe is fully credited to Food & Wine, here. While the concept seems really innovative, a quick google yields several other recipes for sweet potato doughnuts, so others have thought about this before. This was the first I had heard of the mixture of a root crop with a fried snack/dessert icon. I followed the recipe as described, using our own kamote and bread flour. Early in the mixing, I realized it wasn’t going as it should. I thought I may have put in a little too much kamote or sweet potato, but a quick check suggested otherwise. I suspect the yeast or again the poor quality of bread flour was the culprit, but suffice it to say I was wondering if the dough would rise sufficiently.
Instead of the first rise lasting an hour, I let it go for 2 hours, and I still wasn’t happy with the growth in the dough. But I moved forward with the cutting and a second rise. The doughnuts seemed a bit flat, but the last chance for rapid growth was the “puff” factor in the oven or when cooked. I had doubled the recipe to begin with, and it was looking like we were going to be up to our ears in doughnuts. The second rise was roughly 1.5 hours, and again the dough seemed a little reticent to expand.
While waiting impatiently for the doughnuts to rise, I decided to FRY THE DOUGHNUT HOLES IN HOMEMADE LARD. This was the beginning of my complete diet blowout today. The little pieces of dough puffed up VERY NICELY in the hot lard and browned in just a few seconds! I followed the recipe instructions and drizzled the doughnuts with butter and sprinkled them with homemade cinnamon sugar, but for some reason, the sugar did not adhere well to the surface of the doughnuts. But I popped one into my mouth and it was absolute heaven. The kamote was just faintly discernible but a pleasant undertone of flavor to the more assertive sugar and cinnamon topping. After one, I popped another, then another, and another… Fresh out of the lard, they were AWESOME.
Thinking the problem was related to the frying and hence the butter didn’t serve as an effective adhesive, I did the same thing to a batch of BAKED doughnuts (here with the centers still in, for a filled version) and the sugar still didn’t stick. So I decided that part of the original recipe was a weak point. The baked doughnuts were likewise delicious, but honestly, the FAT was missing and definitely missed. :)
So after two pans of baked doughnuts, we ditched the “healthy intentions” and fried the rest of the doughnuts in good old pork lard. A couple of hours later, for merienda, the teen went into the kitchen and messed around and emerged with this big grin on her face… She had a beautifully sugared doughnut. She had brushed a cooled donut with some soft butter and pressed it into a plate of cinnamon sugar and there she had a near perfect and highly photogenic sugared doughnut!
I asked her to take some photos of the doughnuts and the best photos in this post are hers. While she chased some late afternoon light, her trusty brown labrador stayed close at hand, hoping for a treat. :)
Meanwhile, I buttered and sugared several more whole doughnuts as the kid had done hers and thought about filling them with some kumquat marmalade…
…but I couldn’t wait and just put a teaspoon of marmalade on each one. They were good. But even for me, a bit over the top. So today we had doughnut centers, doughnuts with holes, and with no holes, fried in lard. We had doughnuts with holes and with no holes baked. Now if only I can recover from this diet blowout in the days ahead. :)
49 Responses
Arroooooooooohhhh!!! (Greetings to the dog first ^.^)
I can try this doughnut recipe for a bit of ego boosting. It’ll also be an occasion to use the same kitchen gadget that you used to grind the potatoes. Then try if I’ll get lucky with the ensaymada (still couldn’t get that brioche-ish texture).
This is impressive….your patience and dedication to “perfect” your recipes!
I’d settle for kamote fries! hahaha…I also missed kamote lugaw, sprinkled with sugar.
So did the doggie get his treat?
Hey! Masarap nga yan! In KL/Malaysia they have this din. It’s called kuih keria and they do theirs a bit differently. They fry it up and they when it’s cooled they dunk it in boiling gula melaka so it has a crackly, smoky brown sugar glaze.
I love sweet potatoes and I love doughnuts so must this is a perfect combination! forget the diet!
the doughnuts all look good, made me hungry again!
Consider this your cheat day with the doughnuts, MM.
Much as I love love doughnuts, I have managed to duck them ( hydrogenated fats factor) as I will only have the old fashioned ones, especially the Shenandoah apple doughnuts in the Fall, good with hot cinnamon flavored apple cider.
Now I am tempted to try this recipe in favor of an older recipe I’ve kept all these years but have not had the time to make them. Yes, it is best fried , but in lard? a killer!
Thanks, MM for the idea.
Connie, you might be surprised about the qualities of good lard… :) Upcoming post…
The Teen has a very cute chocolate lab!
This looks so yummy! If this works with sweet potato, do you think this would be good with yam as well?
Your dedication to trying out these things is really admirable! And inspiring!
Ay Kamote!!!
MM: where did you buy your moulin? I had one, bought from Carrefour in Paris, but lent it to an aunt who spoiled it…hay! Been looking for a plastic one just like yours!
Mashed bletted saba or common banana is also great as raised doughnuts (and not as wind inducing). Do not be taken in by baked doughnuts. If you like doughnuts it has to be fried. If not, they are just regrettable baked dough that requires to be plastered with good butter to be any good.
Good job with the lowly kamote, I hope it goes further haute cuisine in RP since it’s really cheap and abundant and can cut malnutrition rates. In a recent issue of Men’s Magazine the lowly kamote was given the number 1 ranking of all veggies in terms of vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, etc. in a gram to gram basis. Speaking of deep frying/baking, what about frying/baking in coconut oil? There was a great article on baking with coconut oil in the NY Times just recently.
Looks good indeed. But the introduction to your post reminded me so much about me and my dad when he was still alive. :)
@Mimi, ay iyon pala ang tawag sa gadget na iyon—moulin! I inherited it from my mother-in-law and didn’t know what to do with it. My culinary vocabulary is getting better and better.
MM i hope you’ve caught the iron chef episode with the white house filipina chef comerford. turns out that mrs obama’s favorite ingredient from the white house garden is sweet potato.
Connie C, Apple Cider doughnuts!!! OMG!! Me drools. haay I want some now :(
i love doughnuts! that’s a favorite “reward treat” in our household. from krispy kremes to the little donuts drowned in sugar and butter sold in small local bakeries. now kamote doughnuts, i want to try those! what brand of yeast did you use for this recipe?
Will definitely try this !!!
hahaha…ay kamote talaga, Artisan Chocolatier and MM!
“as a treat for myself after having been so good for so long…” – – – many a good intention (mine, mostly) has gone wayward because of this line.
camote doughnuts? have never had them, never knew you could make them like that. but my hubby has been talking about a certain camote bread that paired with a pint of coffee mangosteen ice cream that he used to eat everyday for merienda when he was just starting out in his job. He’s been egging me to try to bake it but I haven’t been brave enough, so I guess this is a good start. thanks, MM!
now, back to your arugula and tomatoes and tuna!
Kamote is really a surprising ingredient no? What we usually do if we have spare kamote (besides kamote-que or frying with sugar) is to boil the kamote, grind them afterwards and then add condesnsed milk (amount based on preferred sweetness) to the mush! then it’s just simple case of covering them in lumpia wrappers and then frying them up! it’s surprisingly good! but the kamote has to be yellow-ish ones not the purple ones!
Kamote in doughnut with butter, cinammon sugar and kumquat marmalade? that is over the top! :)
Whoa! Mouth-watering! Thank you for sharing. God bless you!
Oh man, MM! You and only you can make kamote sound delicious. I don’t (and probably never will) eat kamote in its full kamote-y glory but as doughnuts FRIED in LARD, SLATHERED in BUTTER, and sprinkled with SUGAR… I just might change my mind!
@atbnorge…. in France its known as a moulin á légumes…In USA its Food Mill
MM. my downfall too – old fashioned fried doughnuts – the camote version is absolutely the top!
Artisan Chocolatier, I was going to say that, specially in Canada where there is a degree of zealousness about not using a French term when there is an English equivalent floating around. But chinoise is chinoise both in Anglo and Francophile Canada though.
Btw, what are you doing in China?
A couple of your recent posts seem to show that you have a very capable and daring understudy who isn’t afraid to show you up with an innovative technique or two. :)
louinsanfran, yes, same observation. fearless, and she’s a pretty one too!
Oh my!!! Sweet potato and fried dough (in lard!)…I love this post!
off-topic, MM – when travel life said they were going to have lechon for breakfast in cebu, i just knew it had to be zubuchon!
millet, when did they say that? You are SO ON TOP OF THINGS, travel life just filmed the lechons yesterday morning in Cebu! I wasn’t even there so you knew practically ahead of me… :) Joey, I think I know you and your lard leanings enough to confidently say you would love these doughnuts… millet and lou, you are right, and father is proud to say that when one’s offspring surpasses their parents in intelligence, opportunities, happiness, etc., then one has done their parenting job reasonably well. The Teen doesn’t fall far from the tree… she soars above it. :) footloose, Artisan is using a server or IP that uses servers based in China… I always referred to the contraption as a food mill or a ricer?… marilen, now I am thinking ube doughnuts, and with Footloose’s suggestion, definitely banana doughnuts. YUM. tonceq, kamote lumpia… that sounds pretty good too! lei, I did see parts of that episode, and yes, the “lowly” sweet potato is getting a LOT of attention lately. Pam, yam might work as well…
I have a relative who was a teacher and she taught home economics I think. She would be cooking lots of good things and one of them was donuts made from sweet potato. I was so young then but I’ll always remember her camote donut that is why I am so surprised and happy that there is really a camote donut.I don’t know where she is now or if she is still alive we called her manang Feliza. She was a very good cook that we always loved going to her parties because of the good food served. She is from Camiling Tarlac but she also lived in Bulacan.
Camote doughnuts? How interesting! I’m curious about the texture. They didn’t turn out mushy?
Peach, not mushy at all, a little more substantial than an airy commercial doughnut. Delicious.
Oh gosh I want some…
@Artisan Chocolatier, thanks, but how do you pronounce that, hahaha!!! I’ll go for the food mill :)))
Looks yummy, a healthy food for a person on a diet, kamote, less carbo
These “donuts” are similar to what we call “bicho-bicho”, round fried pastries made from camote. The vendors are found near the church in my dad’s hometown in Batangas. Thanks for sharing the recipe. If there’s some good camote available I’ll try to make some.
MM, travel life has a facebook page and they mentioned they were in cebu for a lechon breakfast, so where else could it be? and then later in the day the had a picture of the zubuchon under the now famous kapok tree, surrounded by the Crew and the zubuchon takeout boxes! galing!
“The Teen doesn’t fall far from the tree… she soars above it. :) ” –what a beautiful, beautiful compliment!
Camotes makes donuts more tender, like mashed potatoes does :) yummy. Why dont you just use powdered sugar MM? I’m sure it’ll adhere more nicely. Also, our sugar arent as fine as the ones abroad, as my mom informs me. Maybe a quick pulse in the processesor would also do nicely :)
so popular in Malaysia… I kept going back to the stall that sold them…
Am editing and blogging my Asian trips… and missing the warm weather and food while am so cold here in Europe.
Scramoodles, you are right, you can blitz coarse sugar in a food processor. Or buy caster sugar by Peotraco, which is finer than regular grocery available granulated sugar. Millet, thanks, just saw the photos now! Not sure if the visit was for their magazine or new television show or both… :)
hi marketman, have tried to cook something like this just about a week or two ago. instead of using sweet potato what i added was potato and i fried the donuts to golden brown perfection…i also tried to add in another batch although i enjoyed the taste and the texture of those with the potatoes instead…
this is great. i have been wanting to make doughnuts for so long. the thing that’s keeping me is that i don’t have kitchen aids and i don’t have baking skills. do you need those to be able to make doughnuts? i hope i will be able to try this. thanks for sharing MM.
now, if only someone can share a trusty bavarian cream recipe, i would appreciate that a lot.
Trax, you do need SOME baking skills, and knowledge of kneading if you don’t have a mixer that will knead it for you… :)
As I suspected. my hopes of making my doughnuts just when out the window. too bad. maybe i should get into those summer baking classes. thanks anyways, MM.
Thanks for the tip MM, will try incorporating yams in my donut recipe.
I have been making a lot of donuts lately using brioche dough, honey maple bacon, nutella chestnut, and chocolate walnut. I highly recommend that you try the honey maple bacon donut. I’ve also made a giant donut about 9″ in diameter.
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and just for fun, Piggy bagels in your honor.
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Oh my, that looks so good.
I’ll be making these Easter Sunday. I’ve always bought yeast in a small jar, so had to research 1 envelope…turns out that it is assumed to be 2 1/4 tsp. BUT recently internet info says it is now 2 tsp. Other info also states that 1 envelope could be 7 grams in the USA, 8 grams in Canada and 11 grams in Europe. I’ll go with 2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast, but recipe says instant, hope it turns out well.
kung ang potato ay spudnuts.. so ang tawag sa camote (sweet potato) ay sweet spudnuts? :)